388 NATURAL HISTORY OF 



THE PTLASUIAN, DORIAN, AND HELLENIC TRIBES. 



Although Ionia or Asia Minor wai visited from the most 

 early period by nations coming from the east, some by a north- 

 ern, and others by a southern route, we may regard the popu- 

 lation in general as emanating from the foregoing, and in 

 particular tlie Pelasgian and the Dorian tribes, which, how- 

 ever, may have been mixed with a proportion of Getic clans, 

 such as the Phrygian undoubtedly were. 



It is likely that the Carians were similarly of a mixed origin 

 of the same source, as they were remarkable for the hoarse 

 guttural language they spoke, and the resolute determination 

 they evinced in the defence of their country. As colonists 

 they had brought with them elements of civilization more 

 advanced than the Grecian of the same era, and science in 

 the art of war that made them more than respected by the 

 Egyptian power, which, indeed, had warred with them, but 

 appears to have preferred to have them as allies. They seem 

 to have possessed the whole valley of the Meander long after 

 the adjoining tribes had been driven onwards, probably because 

 the volcanic territory at the sources of the river afforded sites 

 for strongholds which guarded the passes. They and the 

 Lycians had connections with the Leuco Syri, as well as with 

 the Greek Pelasgians ; and some such remote affinity may 

 have been the basis of the claim to consanguinity, which, ages 

 after, appears to have been allowed between the Hebrews and 

 the Spartans, as is attested by Joseph us. 



Among the expelled nations, the Hellenes may have been 

 the foremost who crossed the Bosphorus, and made conquests 

 of the possessions then held by a Finnic, or Illyrian race, 

 which, as myrmidons and helots, we have already noticed ; for 

 that these were in anterior possession of the soil is attested by 

 their subjugation, and by the name of the river Alpheus, evi- 

 dently derived from the Finnic Alf, a mountain torrent. 



