VARIETIES OF MANKIND. 



1349 



affinity with every other, each has been mo- 

 dified by the introduction of extraneous 

 elements. Thus, in those of Western Eu- 

 rope, there is a considerable admixture of 

 Celtic ; whilst in others there are traces of 

 more barbaric tongues. In fact, there can be 

 little doubt, that Europe had an indigenous 

 population before the immigration of the Indo- 

 German or even of the Celtic tribes ; and of 

 this population it seems most probable that 

 the Lapps and Finns of Scandinavia, and the 

 Euskarians of the Biscayan provinces, are the 

 remnant. There is evidence that the former 

 of these tribes once extended much further 

 south than at present ; and, on the other 

 hand, there is ample proof that the latter had 

 formerly a very extensive distribution through 

 Southern Europe. It has been clearly shown 

 by William Von Humboldt, that the Eusk- 

 arian language, so far from having been de- 

 rived (as some writers have supposed) from 

 the Celtic, must have been in existence long 

 anterior to the immigration of the Celtic 

 nations into Western Europe ; and since that 

 time, it has been shown to have affinities with 

 the Finnish tongue, and through this with 

 the languages of High Asia. It may be sur- 

 mised, then, that the advance of the Indo- 

 European tribes, from the south-east corner 

 into central Europe, separated that portion of 

 the aboriginal population, which they did not 

 destroy or absorb, into two great divisions ; 

 ot which one was gradually pressed north- 

 ward and eastward, so as to be restricted to 

 Finland and Lapland ; and the other south- 

 ward and westward, so as to be confined at 

 the earliest historic period to a part of the 

 peninsula of Spain and the South of France, 

 gradually to be driven before the successive 

 irruptions of the Celts, Romans, Arabians, 

 and other nations, until their scanty remnant 

 found an enduring refuge in the fastnesses of 

 the Pyrenees.* It is curious that the Eusk- 

 arian language should carry out the principle 

 of agglutination to an extent which has no 

 parallel among the languages of the Old 

 World, and which is only surpassed by those 

 of America. 



The Indo-Germanic race are unquestionably 

 those which are destined to acquire the greatest 

 predominance, not only in the Old World, 

 but in all those newly-found lands which have 

 been discovered by their enterprise. With 

 scarcely any exception, as Dr. Latham has 

 justly remarked, they present an encroaching 

 frontier ; there being no instance of their per- 

 manent displacement by any other race, save 

 in the case of the Arab dominion in Spain, 



* This view, which was suggested by the Author 

 (British and Foreign Medical Review, Oct. 1847) 

 without the knowledge that it had been elsewhere 

 propounded, has been put forth with considerable 

 confidence by Dr. Latham (Varieties of Man, 

 p. 551.) as originating with Arndt, and adopted by 

 liask, distinguished Scandinavian ethnologists. The 

 great antiquity of the Albanian tongue having been 

 fully proved, and the circumstances of the tribe 

 having been nearly the same, it is suggested by Dr. 

 Latham that this, too, may be a remnant of the abo- 

 riginal Turanian population. 



which has long since ceased ; in that of the 

 Turkish dominion in Turkey and Asia Minor, 

 which is evidently destined to expire at no 

 distant period, being now upheld only by ex- 

 traneous influence ; and in that of the Magyars 

 in Hungary, who only maintain their ground 

 by their complete assimilation to the Indo- 

 Germanic character. It has been already 

 pointed out, however, that the rapid exten- 

 sion of this race is due, not merely to its 

 superior skill in the arts of war and diplomacy, 

 but to a physical cause which tends to ex- 

 tinguish the aboriginal population of many of 

 the inferior races, wherever sexual inter- 

 course takes place between them (p. 1341.). 



II. ASIATIC NATIONS. Whilst in Eu- 

 rope the presence of the Arian family is the 

 rule, and that of the Mongolian is the excep- 

 tion, we find in the vast continent of Asia, 

 that the reverse is the case; the presence of 

 the Arian family being the exception, and 

 that of the Mongolian the rule. In fact, 

 although the Celtic and Indo-Germanic races 

 undoubtedly had their origin in Central or 

 Western Asia, yet the tribes which can, with 

 greatest probability, be regarded as the de- 

 scendants of the ancient stock, are extremely 

 few, and scarcely able to maintain their 

 ground. They are, according to Dr. Latham, 

 the Persians of Northern and Western Persia; 

 the Kurds, the Beludri, the Afghans, the 

 Tajiks of Bokhara, and the Sia-posh. All 

 these speak languages which contain a large 

 proportion of Sanscrit words ; but whether 

 they are so far akin to the Sanscrit in gram- 

 matical structure, as to hold to it the same 

 relation as that which the European lan- 

 guages possess, is as yet uncertain. Whether 

 or not the Armenians belong to this group, 

 has not yet been ascertained.* It has been 

 generally considered, until recently, that the 

 nations of the great Indian peninsula for the 

 most part belonged to the same stock ; but 

 philological investigation has shown that such 

 a doctrine is certainly untrue with regard to 

 some, and is probably or possibly erroneous 

 with regard to others. The Tamulian, which 

 is the dominant language of Southern India, 

 is undoubtedly not Sanscritic in its origin, 

 although containing an infusion of Sanscritic 

 words, but more closely approximates to the 

 Seriform type. Many of the hill tribes, in 

 different parts of India, speak peculiar dia- 

 lects, which appear referable to the same 

 stock. And in Dr. Latham's opinion, the 

 dialects spoken throughout Northern India 

 are to be regarded in a similar light, notwith- 

 standing the large infusion of Sanscritic 

 words which they contain. Viewed under this 

 aspect, the mass of the population of India is 



* It is somewhat remarkable that greater atten 

 tion should not have been paid to the study of the 

 Armenian language ; as the facilities presented by 

 commercial intercourse are not small ; and the iso- 

 lated position of this nation is one which might 

 lead to the anticipation, that its language might 

 retain the Sanscritic type, with less alteration than 

 that of other nations, which have been more affected 

 by conquest and intermixture of races. 

 4E 3 



