PHYSICAL CHARACTEKISTICS OP PEE-HISTORIC MEN. 185 



powerful frame, the other comparatively small and , 

 feeble. Nilsson well argues that all the northern 

 tales of giants, dwarfs, and elves, arise from this 

 source, and he refers, as parallel cases, to the terror 

 of the Israelites at the gigantic size of the Anakim, 

 and of the Romans when informed of the bulk and 

 strength of the Germans. In the oldest historic 

 time.s of Scandinavia and of Britain of which we 

 have any certain information, there seem to have 

 been contemporary races of small and large men, 

 and the latter seem to have been encroaching on the 

 former. In the various mixtures and movements which 

 have taken place, races of these different types some- 

 times remain distinct and sometimes have been blended. 

 In Scandinavia, the Laps are still a very distinct people 

 from the Swedes, just as the Esquimaux are distinct 

 from the eastern American Indians; but in Scotland 

 the little men of the north and the gigantic men of the 

 west speak one language, and are regarded as equally 

 Celts, and in western America the Esquimaux and 

 Indians graduate into each other. 



There is nothing to prevent our believing that races 

 thus distinct in stature, and to some extent in form of 

 head, may be of common origin. Unfavourable cir- 

 cumstances and deficient food may depauperate races 

 of men, and there is no reason to think that the stunted 

 Fuegian is of different race from the gigantic Pata- 

 gonian, or the feeble Hare Indian of the north from 

 his better-developed brethren who feed not on hares 

 but on deer. Still, such differences mark at least long 



