RACES OF MEN. 117 



the greater part of our continent, which was, however, even 

 before the beginning of history, wrested from them by the 

 Celts and the Teutons. 



Worsaae declares without hesitation " that the inhabitants 

 of Denmark during the Stone period cannot have been the 

 Fins, whose descendants are the present inhabitants of 

 Lapland;"* grounding his opinion principally on the fact 

 that the megalithic tumuli of the Stone age are never found 

 either in the north of Sweden or in Norway. Moreover, we 

 must remember that the reindeer is intimately associated 

 with the Fins, whereas no remains of this animal have yet 

 been found in our tumuli or in the Danish shell-mounds. 



It seems to me, however, that we must wait for more evi- 

 dence before we can hope to solve this question in a satis- 

 factory manner; but even if the Turanian races did once 

 spread over Europe, we ought not to conclude that they were 

 the aboriginal inhabitants of our continent. It is, on the 

 contrary, very possible that they were preceded by others, 

 and we may be sure that in the long period which elapsed 

 between the commencement of the Drift period and that of 

 the Polished Stone age, there were many wars and rumours 

 of wars, and very possibly several changes in the popu- 

 lation. What these were, however, we have at present 

 absolutely no evidence to show, and we can therefore only 

 confess our ignorance, and wait, in confident expectation, for 

 "more light." 



To return for a moment to the tumuli, we may fairly hope 

 that when properly questioned they will not only answer 

 many of these interesting questions, but that they will also 

 tell us many things which it would never occur to us to 

 ask. It is evident, at least, that when a sufficient number 

 shall have been examined we shall know many important 

 facts respecting life in those early ages ; we shall know 

 * Primeval Antiquities of Denmark, p. 131. 



