THE RACIAL GEOGRAPHY OF EUROPE. 4.53 



It has merely expanded along the line of least resistance. The 

 Alpine type in Auvergne, increasing in numbers faster than the 

 meager means of support offered by Nature, has by force of num- 

 bers pushed its way irresistibly out across Aquitaine, crowding its 

 former possessors to one side. Certainly this is true in the Pyre- 

 nees, for here at the base of the mountains the population changes 

 suddenly, as we shall see in our next paper on the Basques. On 

 the other side at the north lies, as we have just seen, a second 

 primitive population, less changed from the prehistoric type than 

 any other in Europe. This Cro-Magnon race has been preserved 

 apparently by the dike of the Limousin hills with their miserable 

 population; for these hills have cut across the Paris-Bordeaux 

 axis of fertility and have stopped the Teutonic race at the city of 

 Limoges from expanding farther in this direction that is to say, 

 economic attraction having come to an end, immigration ceased 

 with it. The intrusive Teutonic race has therefore been debarred 

 from this main avenue of approach by land into Aquitaine. The 

 competition has been narrowed down to the Alpine and Cro- 

 Magnon types alone. Hence the former, overflowing its source in 

 Auvergne, has spread in a generally southwestern direction with 

 slight opposition. It could not extend itself to the southeast, for 

 the Mediterranean type was strongly intrenched along the sea 

 coast, and was in fact pushing its way over the low pass into 

 Aquitaine from that direction. The case is not dissimilar to that 

 of Burgundy, for in both instances a bridge of Alpine broad- 

 headedness cuts straight across a river valley open to a narrow- 

 headed invasion at both ends. It is not improbable that in both 

 this bridge is a last remnant of broad-headedness which would 

 have covered the whole valley had it not been invaded from both 

 sides by other competitors. 



Enough has been said to show the complexity of the racial 

 relations hereabouts. We have identified the oldest living race 

 in this part of the world. The most primitive language in 

 Europe the Basque is spoken near by. It will form the sub- 

 ject of the next paper. 



IN his journeyings in the Zambesi country, Africa, Captain A. St. H. 

 Gibbons found an ancient and interesting custom prevailing at Nalolo of 

 investing the eldest surviving sister of the ruling king with the prerogatives 

 of a queen, without whose advice and sanction her brother can not give 

 effect to any important measure in the government of the state. In minor 

 local matters she in her own district reigns supreme, holds the power of life 

 and death over her subjects, and is at liberty to wed or depose a husband 

 at will. The present Makwai, or queen, from whom six husbands have 

 been removed in ways not natural, is described by the author as having a 

 mixed character, being unscrupulous and very polite. 



