58 NATIONALITY AND RACE 



quaintest element in the situation is that the Flemings 

 are racially Nordic or Teutonic, that is to say they 

 belong to the race which the Germans claim to be 

 but are not ; and the Walloons, who like to think 

 themselves Latins, are characteristically Alpine, that 

 is to say they belong to the race which prepon- 

 derates in the German Empire. 



Italy. This country is divided geographically into 

 two well-marked areas, the basin of the Po between 

 the Apennines and the Alps (its southern boundary 

 on the east is a little river north of Pesaro, the 

 Rubicon of the ancients), and the long peninsula 

 from the narrow strip of Liguria in the north down 

 to Sicily. The basin of the Po is dominated by the 

 Alpine race, and the Peninsula by the Mediterranean 

 race. In the north the heads are round with a high 

 cranial index running up to 96 and this drops gradu- 

 ally to the extreme long-headedness of the south. 

 Similarly, the stature falls gradually from the rela- 

 tively tall Alpines in the north to the very short 

 Mediterraneans in the south, and the frequency of 

 brunet traits increases notably from north to south. 

 Italy shows an almost complete absence of the Nordic 

 or Teutonic peoples, the few invaders who have 

 found their way south having been absorbed. The 

 Mediterranean race is dominant in the south and 

 especially in the relatively inaccessible islands of 

 Corsica and Sardinia. The Alpine invasion has 

 reached a considerable way down the mainland but 

 its headquarters remain in the north. 



Spain and Portugal. The Spanish Peninsula shows 

 a marked uniformity of racial type both in ancient 

 and modern times. The heads are extremely dolicho- 



