EXCURSIONS OF AN EVOLUTIONIST 



bones were not very prominent, the nose was 

 aquiline, and the general outline of the face 

 oval and probably handsome. In all these 

 points the men of the Neolithic age agree ex- 

 actly with the Basks of northern Spain, the rem- 

 nant of a population which at the dawn of his- 

 tory still maintained an independent existence 

 in many parts of Europe. By their conquerors, 

 the Kelts, who led the van of the great Aryan 

 invasion of Europe, these small-statured Basks 

 were known as " Iberians " or " westerners " 

 (Gael, iver, Sanskr. avara, " western "), and 

 " Iberian " is now generally adopted as the 

 name of the race which possessed the whole of 

 Europe in the Neolithic age and until the 

 Aryan invasions, and which still preserves its 

 integrity in the little territory between the Pyre- 

 nees and the Bay of Biscay. The Iberian com- 

 plexion is a dark olive, with black eyes and 

 black hair ; so that we may figure to ourselves 

 with some completeness how the prehistoric in- 

 habitants of Europe looked. 



It is probable that in Neolithic times this 

 Iberian population was spread not only all over 

 Europe, but also over Africa north of the De- 

 sert of Sahara ; so that the Moorish and Ber- 

 ber peoples are simply Iberians, with more or 

 less infusion of blood from the Arabs, who 

 conquered them at the end of the seventh cen- 

 tury after Christ. And it is also probable that 

 44 



