EXCURSIONS OF AN EVOLUTIONIST 



where, a remnant of the aboriginal population 

 might preserve its purity of race and its primi- 

 tive speech. As a result of these proceedings, 

 the Aryan-speaking peoples of Greece, Italy, 

 Spain, Gaul, and Britain would show a mixture 

 of light and dark complexions, and wherever the 

 invaders had been much less numerous than the 

 aborigines the brunettes would predominate. 

 But now, where the later swarms of Teutons 

 and Slavs came pouring in, the case would have 

 been somewhat altered for them. Their con- 

 querings and interminglings would take place 

 not with a pure-blooded race of dark aborigines, 

 but with the mixed race which had resulted from 

 the foregoing events. One consequence would 

 be an increased percentage of fair complexions 

 in western countries overrun by Teutons, espe- 

 cially in England, northern France, and north- 

 ern Italy. Another consequence would be the 

 partial darkening of Teutons and Slavs by in- 

 termixture with Kelto-Iberian predecessors in 

 southern Germany and Austria. Wherever, on 

 the other hand, the newcomers were left pretty 

 much to themselves, as in northern Germany, 

 central Russia, and Scandinavia, we should find 

 the auburn hair and blue eyes of the old Aryan 

 still in the ascendant. 



This very ingenious hypothesis, which is de- 

 fended by such a cautious ethnologist as Pro- 



94 



