LECTURE V.
THE EURAFRICAN RACE: NORTH MEDITERRANEAN BRANCH.
Contents.—B.—The North Mediterranean Branch.
I. The Euskaric Stock. Basques and their congeners. Physical type. Language.
II. The Aryac Stock. Synonyms. Origin of the Aryans. Supposed Asiatic origin now doubted. The Aryac physical type. The proto-Aryac language. Culture of proto-Aryans. The “proto-Aryo-Semitic” tongue. Development of inflections. Proto-Aryac migrations. Southern and northern streams. Approximate dates. Scheme of Aryac migrations. Divisions. 1. The Celtic Peoples. Members and location. Physical and mental traits. 2. The Italic Peoples. Ancient and modern members. Physical traits. The modern Romance nations. Mental traits. 3. The Illyric Peoples. Members and physical traits. 4. The Hellenic Peoples. Ancient and modern Greeks. Physical type. Influence of Greek culture. 5. Lettic Peoples. Position and language. 6. The Teutonic Peoples. Ancient and modern members. Mental character. Recent progress. 7. The Slavonic Peoples. Ancient and modern Members. Physical traits. Recent expansion. Character. Relations to Asiatic Aryans. 8. The Indo-Eranic Peoples. Arrival in Asia. Location. Members. Indian Aryans. Appearance. Mental aptitude.
III. The Caucasic Stock. Its languages. Various groups and members. Physical types. Error of supposing that the white race came from the Caucasus.
In my previous lectures I have shown with as much detail as my time permits, that the original home of the white race was in that portion of the Atlantic seaboard which I have called Eurafrica, and which includes the present areas of northwestern Africa and southwestern Europe. From this region, I have pointed out, the race divided into two branches, the one moving eastward, south of the Mediterranean sea, the other in the same direction, north of this separating stream. To-day we shall consider the ethnic history of the latter.
B. The North Mediterranean Branch.
Unlike the South Mediterranean Branch, whose languages present everywhere some degree of resemblance, sufficient to predicate for them a remote common origin, the North Mediterranean Branch includes several stocks fundamentally diverse. They are the Euskaric, the Aryac, and the Caucasic stocks. The second of these is by far the most extended and important; but, as I have previously observed, it does not bear the impress of the highest antiquity, nor yet is its location that where we should look for the most ancient members of this branch. Both these conditions are fulfilled by
1. The Euskaric Stock.
At present this contains but one group, the Basques, residing in the valleys of the Pyrenees, on both the Spanish and French frontiers. There is little doubt from the linguistic studies of Humboldt and from the researches of archæologists that the Basques once extended widely throughout the present area of Spain and Portugal; but I am not inclined to identify them with the Iberians of the classical geographers, for reasons given in my last lecture. There is a great deal of evidence that in proto-historic times they occupied central and southern France, portions of Italy, Corsica, Sardinia, perhaps Sicily, and some southern tracts of England. Many believe that the ancient Aquitanians and Ligurians, the Picts and Cantabrians, were of this stock, as well as the pre-Aryac tribes of Greece.[85]
I described in my last lecture the Basques as representatives of one of the dark types of the white race, with a peculiarly shaped skull, elongated posteriorly.[86] The face is oval, the chin pointed and weak. The general aspect indeed of a Basque cranium conveys the impression of a feeble character, and such the history of the people shows them to have been. They never contributed anything to the advance of the race, and from their earliest appearance in history have been retiring before the pressure of sturdier nationalities. At present they do not number over three hundred thousand, and in a few generations will be merged in the neighboring Spaniards and French.
The Basque language belongs to one of those primitive forms of human speech such as we find among the Negroes of Central Africa, or the savage tribes of Siberia. It is of that type called agglutinative and polysynthetic, and in some points has the incorporative tendency of American tongues. It is the speech of a people whose ideas remained confined to objective material relations. According to the latest students, it is absolutely without connection with any of the so-called Turanian (Ural-Altaic) languages, and is equally remote from the Hamitic group.[87]