THE RACIAL GEOGRAPHY OF EUROPE. 67 



village area. The whole economic character of the country changes 

 within a few miles. It is of great historic importance. Our map 

 shows the transition to occur strictly along the course of the Weser 

 Eiver. A large district is here occupied by the Celtic house, so 

 called. The small circles denote that there are no closely built 

 villages at all in the region so marked. Each house stands entirely 

 by itself, in the middle of its farm, generally in no definite relation 

 to the highroads. These latter connect market places and churches 

 perhaps, about which are sometimes dwellings for the schoolmaster, 

 the minister, or storekeeper; but the peasantry, the agricultural 

 population, is scattered entirely broadcast. This resembles the dis- 

 tribution of our American farmers' dwellings in the Western States. 

 We have no time to discuss the origin of these peculiarities. The 

 opinion prevails that they stand in some relation to the clan organiza- 

 tion of the Kelts, who are said to have once occupied this territory. 

 The nearest prototype is, as our map shows, in the high Alps. 



It is high time to take up once more the main thread of our 

 argument how far did the Slavic invasion, which so profoundly 

 influenced the agrarian institutions, affect the physical type of 

 the people of Germany? We may subdivide the Slavic-speak- 

 ing nations of eastern Europe into two groups, which, however, 

 differ from one another and from the pure Alpine race only in de- 

 gree.* The northern Slavs include the Russians, Poles, Slovaks, 

 Czechs, and Wends; the southern is composed of the Serbs, Croa- 

 tians, Slovenes, and Albanians. Both of these are broad- 

 headed, the southern group being rather taller and considerably 

 darker than the one which surrounds Germany. All the modern 

 Slavic peoples of northern Europe approximate to the Alpine type; 

 from which it follows that intermixture of them with the Teutons 

 ought normally to produce shorter stature, darker hair and eyes, 

 and, most persistently of all, an increased breadth of head. The 

 district where these changes have been most clearly induced is in 

 the region of Saxony, especially about Halle. A noticeable con- 

 trast is apparent between this district and the protected hills of 

 Thuringia. The peasants in the plain of the Saale are appre- 

 ciably shorter in stature and broader-headed than their neighbors. 

 This Slavic invasion penetrated Bavaria from the northeast, the 

 intruders apparently taking possession of the upland districts, which 

 had been thinly peopled before. So well marked was this that the 

 region south of Baireuth was long known as Slavonia. In places-, 

 as at Regensburg and Berlin, we may trace the Slavic intrusion 



* The great authority upon this part of Europe is Dr. A. Weisbach, a full list of whose 

 papers is given in our Bibliography of the Ethnology of Europe. 



