VI THE ARYAN QUESTION 817 



which has been identified (rightly or wrongly) 

 with the Belgoe by Thurnam and which seems to 

 have subsequently lost itself among the predomi- 

 nant brunet and blond long-heads. 



I do not think there is anything to warrant the 

 conclusion that the palseo-metallic culture of 

 Europe took its origin among the blond long-head 

 (or supposed Aryan) race ; or that the people of 

 the Swiss pile-dwellings belonged to that race. 

 The long-heads among them may just as likely 

 have been brunets. In north-eastern Italy there 

 is clear evidence of the superposition of at least 

 four stages of culture, in which that of the copper 

 and bronze using terramare people comes second ; 

 a stage marked by Etruscan domination occupies 

 the third place ; and that is followed by the stage 

 which appertains to the Gauls, with their long 

 swords and other characteristic iron work. In west- 

 ern Switzerland, on the other hand, at La Tene, and 

 elsewhere, similar relics show that the Gauls fol- 

 lowed upon the latest population of the pile- 

 dwellings among whom traces of Etruscan influ- 

 ence (though not of dominion) are to be found. 

 Helbig supposes the terramare people to have been 

 Greco-Latin-speaking Pelasgi, and consequently 

 Aryan. But we cannot suppose the people of the 

 pile-dwellings of Switzerland to have been 

 speakers of primitive Greco-Latin (if ever there 

 was such a language). And if the Gauls were the 

 first speakers of Celtic who got into Switzerland, 



