The Ethnology of Europe

by R. G. Latham

The Gothic conquest of Spain was succeeded, in the eighth century, by one of equal, perhaps, greater, importance. The line it took was from south to north; so that its direction was different from that of the Goths. It was also made by a southern population. The Arabs who effected the first invasion under Musa, were the Arabs of an army; i.e., almost wholly males; probably, too, they were pretty pure in blood. Afterwards, however, larger swarms came over from Africa; and it cannot be doubted that, along with these there were females and families of mixed African as well as of pure Arab descent. The areas which were successively appropriated by these invaders are not exactly those that we expect, à priori. Murcia, or the March, was less modified by the conquest than Valencia and other countries northwards. It was held in a sort of imperfect independence by Theodemir, and under the name of Tadmor, into which that of the Gothic king was metamorphosed by the Arabs, long continued to be the most Gothic part of south-eastern Spain.

In contrast to Grenada, and in consonance with what we expect from their geographical position, were the northern provinces of Asturias, Biscay, Navarre, and Galicia—Galicia, in respect to its ethnology, belonging almost as much to Portugal as to Spain. Into Asturias the arms of the Arab conqueror never penetrated: so that the original nationality was preserved in the kingdom of Oviedo, under the successors of Pelagius or Pelayo. Were these brave and independent mountaineers Goths or Romans? or were they original Iberians? And if of mixed blood, in what proportion were the different elements? They seem to have been second in purity of blood to the true and Proper Basques only. They were somewhat more Romanized than the latter, as is shown by their language; but both were equally free of Gothic admixture. This view rests partly on the previous details of their history, and partly on the names of the kings who succeeded Pelayo. They are not Gothic, like Euric, Wallia, or Roderic, nor yet Latin, like Pedro; but truly and properly Spanish (with the exception, perhaps, of Frivila), as Alonzo, Ordonio, Sancho, &c.; Spanish in the same way that Edward and Richard are German, or Arthur and Owen, Keltic. Pacheco, perhaps, is the truest Iberian designation. It occurs in Cæsar, as Paciecus. When the Arabs conquered Spain, their peculiar civilization was but partially developed. It grew up, to a great degree, within Spain itself.

The Arab elements belonged to the same class with the Phœnician, though to a different section of it. So did the Jewish, which were introduced earlier, and, if not of equal amount, were, at least, of longer duration. The Jews brought with them the oldest civilization in the world. But they were important physical influences as well. They came with their families, and, consequently, were less thrown upon the necessities of intermixture than the majority of the Arabs. The intermixture, however, was in both cases considerable. As long as the Arian kings of the Gothic stock held their sway, the Israelite was tolerated and something more. His industry was protected, and his earlier familiarity with letters and the civilizing influences of commerce respected. The prejudices against intermixture were chiefly on his side. Orthodoxy, however, introduced persecution. Some of its earliest enactments forbid Christian wives and Christian mistresses to Jews, a sure proof of the previous prevalence of an opposite custom. In the Mahometan parts of the Peninsula, the toleration was considerable throughout. Lastly must be noticed the great extent to which the pride in his real or supposed purity of blood characterizes the Hidalgo. This would not have been the case if purity of blood were the rule, and an Arab or Jewish cross the exception. The reign of Ferdinand and Isabella was signalized by the double ejection of the Jews from the Peninsula in general, and the Arabs from their last possession, the kingdom of Grenada. Such ejectments are never complete. Each, however, of these was one of remarkable magnitude.

The Normans, who settled on so many of the coasts of southern Europe, made a smaller impression on the Iberian peninsula than elsewhere. Still they must be recognised as an element.

Such is the basis of the Spanish stock, and such the chief superadded elements—Iberic in the first instance: then Phœnician, Greek, Roman, Gothic, Vandal, Alan (?), Jewish, Arab, and Norman, to say nothing about the cases of French and other settlers from the modern kingdoms of Europe. These elements are differently distributed over the several provinces; and at the present moment each has some peculiar characteristics.

The most regular features, and the most purely brunette complexions are found in Andalusia, conjoined with a gay, pleasure-loving disposition; not given to the sterner virtues, but with considerable intellectual capacity, as shown both in art and literature; and, in Andalusia, the foreign elements are at their maximum—chiefly oriental, but partly (in the belief, at least, of the present writer) Slavonic. Yet it is not safe to refer the one to the other. The soil and climate of Andalusia—the favoured valley of the most southern river in Spain—have also their peculiarities.

In Grenada the habits are ruder, and Grenada is chiefly a mountain range.

Murcia[3] has the credit of being the Bœotia of Spain. It has less than its share of Arab, and, perhaps, a considerable amount of Gothic, blood.

Valencia has been unfavourably described; the physiognomy of its population being the most Moorish in Spain, and the temper dangerous. It was from Valencia that the last branch of Arabs was expelled in the reign of Philip III.—the Little Moors or Moriscoes. Orientals as they were, the nobles to whom they were serfs, and whose land they cultivated, could ill afford to lose them. Contrary to what we expect from their stock, they were signalized by steady industry and perseverance in agriculture. The present language of Valencia is only Spanish so far as it is spoken in the Spanish peninsula. It is a distinct tongue from the Castilian; yet not French. It belongs to the Provençal class—called also Limousin.

It is the same with Catalonia; the least Iberic, the least Arab, but, perhaps, the most Roman, and the most Gothic of all the Spanish provinces—Cat-alonia or Goth-land—commercial, manufacturing, and radical, with a political history of its own, and, for a time, an independent line of sovereigns—the Berengarii.