1.
THE PELASGI.
Æra.—In the time of Herodotus, known only in two—
Localities.—Chreston and Plakiæ.
Area.—As then known, discontinuous.
Language.—Unintelligible to an Hellenic Greek.
I follow Mr. Grote, in his masterly separation of the wheat of contemporary evidence from the chaff of tradition in respect to the Pelasgi; but do not follow him in the inference from the dissimilarity between their language and that of the Hellenes. The two sections might still be as closely allied as the Greek and Roman. On the other hand, the difference might be as great as that of the Hebrew and English.
The point of most importance is the nature of their two unconnected points of occupancy at the time of Herodotus.
1. If these represented parts of the original area, the intermediate portions whereof had been overlaid by a permanent invasion, the evidence would be in favour of the Pelasgi having been in the same category with the Thracians; and, as such, perhaps Slavonic.
2. On the other hand—if they represented two separate colonizations such a distribution would indicate an origin in a. Asia Minor; b. the Ægean Islands; or c. Continental Greece.
A sanguine scholar may, perhaps, hope that an investigation of the present dialects of the two Herodotean localities may reward the minute analyst with some Pelasgic glosses.—Optandum magis quam sperandum.