From what region did the Basques invade Europe? M. Broca, from their identity with the Kabyles and Berbers, holds that they entered Europe from northern Africa, spreading over Spain, and passing over the Pyrenees into southern France. It seems, however, to me, from their range as far north as Scotland, and at least as far to the east as Belgium, that they travelled by the same route that the Celtic, Belgic, and Germanic tribes travelled long ages afterwards, coming from the east and pushing their way to the west: and that while one section chose this route, another mastered northern Africa, following the same westward direction as the Saracens. On this hypothesis this great pre-Aryan migration would start from the central plateau of Asia, from which all the successive invaders of Europe have swarmed off.
This view of the eastern derivation of the Basque peoples is confirmed by the examination of the breeds of domestic animals which they possessed. The Bos longifrons, the sheep, and the goat are derived from wild stocks that are now to be found only in central Asia; and the dog and breed of swine with small canines were also probably imported after they had become the servants of man in the east.[151]
The Celtic and Belgic Brachy-cephali.
The occurrence of broad-skulls in the tumuli in this country, and in caves and tumuli in France, proves that the Basque peoples were invaded during the neolithic age. And since Dr. Thurnam has shown that they are identical in form with Celtic and Belgic skulls,[152] it follows that one or the other of these, probably the Celtic or the older, was in possession of portions of Britain, Ireland, and Gaul at that remote time. It is of course conceivable that non-Celtic races, physically allied to the Celts or Belgæ, are represented by the human remains in question; but in that case they have left no mark behind by which they can be identified. And the supposition is rendered improbable to the last degree by the fact, that the older or conquered race—the Basque—still survives, in the area under consideration, the invasions and vicissitudes which it has undergone. A fortiori, would their conquerors have had a still greater chance of survival, in the fastnesses which are offered by these countries. It is therefore reasonable to presume that the broad-headed peoples in the neolithic caves and tombs are represented by the Celts, and possibly, though not probably, in part by the Belgæ, rather than by the equally broad-headed Wends, Sclavonians, and Fins, which are not known by the historian to have settled in Gaul or in Britain. The successive invasions of Europe have been invariably from the east to the west, so far as we have any certain knowledge; and it is most improbable that Wends, Fins, or Sclaves should have occupied these countries and subsequently have retreated eastwards against the current of the Celtic, Belgic, and Germanic invasions.
The Celtæ may, therefore, be inferred to have occupied Gaul and Britain in the ages of polished stone, bronze, and of iron, their encroachment on the non-Aryan peoples being regulated by their strength, and the amount of pressure on their rear. The Belgæ probably were not known in Gaul until the later portion of the iron age, and were of small importance as compared with the Celts, whose arms were felt alike in Greece, Italy, Spain, and Asia Minor.
The Celts were a tall, fair-haired, blue-eyed race (Xanthochroi), contrasting strongly with the Basque “Melanochroi”, and in those particulars agreeing with the Germans.[153]
The Ancient German Race.
The Germans, in the days of Cæsar, were advancing on the Belgæ in the Rhine provinces, and on the Helvetii in Switzerland, and are recognized by Tacitus,[154] in Britain as the red-haired, tall inhabitants of Caledonia. Subsequently they spread over the west and south of Europe, as Goths, Franks, Scandinavians, English and Normans; in this country sweeping the Brit-Welsh into the hilly fastnesses of Wales, making settlements on many points of the coasts of Ireland, and leaving behind them, to this day, a considerable infusion of German blood in the Celtic and Basque populations. They were, unlike the present inhabitants of North Prussia and southern and middle Germany, a dolicho-cephalic people, their length of head being due, according to Gratiolet, to a frontal instead of an occipital development, which causes the long-headedness of the Basques. The Anglo-Saxon skull is defined by Dr. Thurnam as prognathous, with large facial bones, and with a cephalic index averaging ·75. And these characters are equally to be found in the Gothic, Frankish, and Scandinavian crania.
General Conclusions.
In this outline of the ethnology of Gaul and Britain, it will be seen that two out of the three ethnical elements (if the Belgic be classed with the Celtic), of which the present population is composed, can be recognized in the neolithic users of caves and builders of chambered tombs. A non-Aryan race either identical or cognate with the Basque is the earliest traceable in these areas in the neolithic age, and it probably arrived in Europe by the same route as the Celtic and Germanic, passing westwards from the plains of central Asia.