VI THE ARYAN QUESTION 307 



During this period, there is evidence that men 

 existed in all those regions of Europe which have 

 yet been properly examined; and such of their 

 bony remains as have been discovered exhibit no 

 less diversity of stature and cranial conformation 

 than at present. There are tall and short men ; 

 long-skulled and broad-skulled men ; and it is 

 probably safe to conclude that the present contrast 

 of blonds and brunets existed among them when 

 they were in the flesh. Moreover it has become 

 clear that, everywhere, the oldest of these people 

 were in the so-called neolithic stage of civilisation. 

 That is to say, they not merely used stone imple- 

 ments which were chipped into shape, but they 

 also employed tools and weapons brought to an 

 edge by grinding. At first they know little or 

 nothing of the use of metals ; they possess 

 domestic animals and cultivated plants and live 

 in houses of simple construction. 



In some parts of Europe little advance seems 

 to have been made, even down to historical times. 

 But in Britain, France, Scandinavia, Germany, 

 Western Russia, Switzerland, Austria, the plain 

 of the Po, very probably also in the Balkan penin- 

 sula, culture gradually advanced until a relatively 

 high degree of civilisation was attained. The 

 initial impulse in this course of progress appears 

 to have been given by the discovery that metal 

 is a better material for tools and weapons than 

 stone. In the early days of pre-historic archae- 



