THE RACIAL GEOGRAPHY OF EUROPE. 617 



called principle of agglutination. The different meanings are 

 expressed by the compounding of several words into one, a device 

 not unknown, to be sure, in Aryan tongues ; but in the Basque this 

 is carried much further. The verb habitually includes all pro- 

 nouns, adverbs, and other allied parts of speech. The noun com- 

 prehends the prepositions and adjectives in a like manner. As an 

 example of the terrific complexity possible as a result, Blade* gives 

 fifty forms in the third person singular of the present indicative 

 of the regular verb to give alone. Another classical example of 

 the effect of such agglutination occurs in the Basque word mean- 

 ing " the lower field of the high hill of Azpicuelta," which runs 



Azpilcuelagaraycosaroyarenberecolarrea. 



This simple phrase is an even match for the Cherokee word 

 instanced by Whitney : 



"Winitawtigeginaliskawlungtanawneletisesti," 



meaning " they will by this time have come to the end of their 

 (favorable) declaration to you and me." It justifies also the 

 proverb among the French peasants that the devil studied the 

 Basque language seven years and only learned two words. The 

 problem is not rendered easier by the fact that very little Basque 

 literature exists in the written form ; that the pronunciation is 

 peculiar; and that the language, being a spoken one, thereby 

 varies from village to village. There are in the neighborhood of 

 twenty-five distinct dialects in all. No wonder a certain traveler 

 is said to have given up the study of it in despair, claiming that 

 its words were all " written Solomon and pronounced Nebuchad 

 nezzar." 



Several features of this curious language psychologically de- 

 note a crudeness of intellectual power. The principle of abstrac- 

 tion or generalization is but slightly developed. The words have 

 not become movable " type " or symbols, as the late Mr. Romanes 

 expressed it. They are sounds for the expression of concrete 

 ideas. Each word is intended for one specific object or concept. 

 Thus there is said to be a lack of such simple generalized words 

 as " tree " or " animal." There are complete vocabularies for each 

 species of either, but none for the concept of tree or animal in 

 the abstract. They can not express " sister " in general ; it must 

 be " sister of the man " or " sister of the woman." This is an un- 

 failing characteristic of all undeveloped languages. It is paral- 

 leled by Spencer's instance of the Cherokee Indians, who have 

 thirteen distinct words to signify the washing of as many differ- 

 ent parts of the body, but none for the simple idea of " washing " 

 by itself. The primitive mind finds it difficult to conceive of 

 the act or attribute absolved from all connection with the ma- 

 terial objects concerned. Perhaps this is why the verb in the 



VOL. LI. 47 



