Primitive Man. 61 



hut was surrounded by a ring of piles, and was united to 

 the shore by a drawbridge. Such in brief was the lake dwel- 

 ling. Some two hundred villages of such dwellings have 

 been explored, and it appears that each village averaged 

 about three hundred huts. The objects to be secured by 

 this peculiar construction have not been satisfactorily deter- 

 mined, except that the tendency of scientific opinion is to 

 consider defence against attack a principal motive. 



The oldest of these structures do not antedate the neo- 

 lithic age, and it seems that they existed until a short time 

 after the arrival of the Romans, at least, that is, into the 

 iron age, in the western part of Switzerland. In the east 

 they disappear with the age of stone. Authorities differ 

 as to the period of their earliest construction ; some will 

 have 5000 to 7000 years, others date them back to the 

 earliest stage of the race. That they were considerably 

 subsequent in time to the cave dwellers is, however, gener- 

 ally conceded. What particular race inhabited and built 

 them is also in dispute. Experts like Professors Keller and 

 Virchow assign them to tribes of aborigines of Keltic 

 origin. Another argument. points to an Asiatic origin, and 

 to a sudden irruption of a new people, like similar irrup- 

 tions of authentic history. The fact that, about the begin- 

 ning of the neolithic age, several of the domestic animals 

 (all of which were domesticated in Asia) appear in Europe 

 at the same period ; that also some four species of wheat, 

 two of barley, with millet, peas, poppies, apples, pears, 

 plums and flax, all of which are found in the lake dwellings 

 and elsewhere, are each and all Asiatic importations, points 

 to the sudden appearance in the liistory of European eth- 

 nology of a race essentially in advance of the cave dwellers 

 in all matters pertaining to intelligence and civilization, 

 and the life of which has never become extinct, but has 

 subsisted and been infused into the life of present races. 



This race, which diffused itself throughout Europe, is 

 alleged to have been of a dark, olive complexion, with 

 black hair and eyes, represented in modern Europe by the 

 Basque people, who have long been recognized as in some 

 respects the most peculiar people in Europe dwelling in 

 the secluded territory lying between the Bay of Biscay and 

 the Pyrenees, and called by the Kelts, who were the van- 

 guard of the great subsequent Aryan immigration, Iberians, 

 or western people. They are supposed likewise to have been 



