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ARYAN RACE

ITS ORIGIN AND ITS ACHIEVEMENTS

BY

CHARLES MORRIS



1888
 
 PREFACE.



Itis our purpose briefly to outline the history of the
 Aryan Race, — that great and noble family of
mankind which has played so striking a part upon the
stage of the world; to seek it in its primitive home,
observe the unfoldment of its beliefs and institutions,
follow it in its migrations, consider the features of its
intellectual supremacy, and trace the steps by which it
has gained its present high position among the races of
mankind. The story of this people, despite the great
interest which surrounds it, remains unwritten in any
complete sense. There are many books, indeed, which
deal with it fragmentarily, — some devoted to its lan-
guages, others to its mythology, folk-lore, village com-
munities, or to some other single aspect of its many
sided story; yet no general treatment of the subject
lias been essayed, and the inquirer who wishes to learn
what is known of this interesting people must painfully
delve through a score of volumes to gain the desired
information.

Until within a recent period the actual existence of
such a race was not clearly recognized. A century
 iv

PREFACE.

ago there was nothing to show that nearly all the
nations of Europe and the most prominent of those
of southern Asia were first-cousins, descended from a
single ancestor, which, not very remotely in the past,
inhabited a contracted locality in some region as yet
unknown. Of late years much has been learned of the
conditions and mode of life of this people in their
original home, and of their migrations to the point
where they enter the field of written history. From
this point forward the part played by the Aryans in
the history of mankind has been a highly important
one, and there is no more interesting study than to
follow this giant from the days of its childhood to
those of its present imposing stature.

Our knowledge of the condition of the primitive
Aryans is not due only to studies in philology. The
subject has widened with the progress of research, and
now embraces questions of ethnology, archaeology,
mythology, literature, social and political antiquities,
and all the other branches of science which relate
particularly to the development of mankind. Enough
has been learned, through studies in these several
directions, to make desirable a general treatment of
the subject, and an effort to present as a whole the
story of that mighty race whose history is as yet
known to the world only in disconnected fragments.
The present work, however, pretends to be no more
than a preliminary handling of this extensive theme,
 PREFACE.

V

a brief popular exposition which may serve to fill a
gap in the realm of literature and to satisfy the curi-
osity of the reading world until some abler hand shall
grasp the subject and deal with it in a more exhaustive
manner.

Any attempt, indeed, to tell the story of the Aryan
race, even in outline, during the recent age of mankind
would be equivalent to an attempt to write the history
of civilization, — which is far from our purpose. But
in the comparison of the intellectual conditions and
products of the several races of mankind, and in the
consideration of the evolution of human institutions
and lines of thought and action, we have a field of
research which is by no means exhausted, and with
which the general world of readers is very little con-
versant. Our work will therefore be found to be
largely comparative in treatment, the characteristics
and conditions of the other leading races of mankind
being considered, and contrasted with those of the
Aryan, with the purpose not only of clearly showing
the general superiority of the latter, but also of point-
ing out the natural steps of evolution through which
it emerged from original savagery and attained to its
present intellectual supremacy and advanced stage of
enlightenment.

As regards the sources of the information con-
veyed in the following pages, we shall but say that
all the statements concerning questions of fact have
 VI

PREFACE.

been drawn from trustworthy authors, many of whom
are quoted in the text, — though it has not been
deemed necessary to crowd the pages with citations
of authorities.

In respect to the theoretical views advanced, they
are as a rule the author’s own, and must stand or fall
on their merits. Finally, it is hoped that the work
may prove of interest and value to those who simply
desire a general knowledge of the subject, and may in
some measure serve as a guide to those more ardent
students who prefer to continue the study by the
consultation of original authorities.
 CONTENTS.

Page

I.   Types op Mankind.............................. 1

II.   The Home of the Aryans........................30

III.   The Aryan Outflow.............................54

IY.   The Aryans at Home............................89

Y.   The Household and the Village................106

YI.   The Double System of Aryan Worship ....   132

VII.   The Course of Political Development ....   153

VIII.   The Development of Language..................189

IX.   The Age of Philosophy......................  215

X.   The Aryan Literature.........................243

XI.   Other Aryan Characteristics..................2/3

XII.   Historical Migrations........................290

XIII.   The Puture Status of Human Paces.............308

INDEX

335
 #
 THE ARYAN RACE.

i.

TYPES OF MANKIND.

OMEWHERE, no man can say just where ; at some

time, it is equally impossible to say when, — there
dwelt in Europe or Asia a most remarkable tribe or family
of mankind. Where or when this was we shall never
clearly know. No history mentions their name or gives
a hint of their existence; no legend or tradition has
floated down to us from that vanished realm of life. Not
a monument remains which we can distinguish as reared
by the hands of this people; not even the grave of one of
its members can be traced. Flourishing civilizations were
even then in existence; Egypt and China wrere already
the seats of busy life and active thought. Yet no prophet
of these nations saw the cloud on the sky “ of the size of
a man’s hand,” — a cloud destined to grow until its mighty
shadow should cover the whole face of the earth. As yet
the fathers of the Aryan race dwelt in unconsidered bar-
barism, living their simple lives and thinking their simple
thoughts, of no more apparent importance than hundreds
of other primeval tribes, and doubtless undreaming of the
grand part they were yet to play in the drama of human

history.

1
 2

THE ARYAN RACE.

Yet strangely enough this utterly prehistoric and ante-
legendary race, this dead scion of a dead past, has been
raised from its grave and displayed in its ancient shape
before the eyes of man, until we know its history as satis-
factorily as we know that of many peoples yet living upon
the face of the earth. We may not know its time or place
of existence, the battles it fought, the heroes it honored,
the songs it sang. But we know the words it spoke, the
gods it worshipped, the laws it made. We know the char-
acter of its industries and its possessions, its family and
political relations, its religious ideas and the conditions of
its intellectual development, its race-characteristics, and
much of the details of its grand migrations after its
growing numbers swelled beyond the boundaries of their
ancestral home, and went forth to conquer and possess
the earth.

How we have learned all this forms one of the most
interesting chapters in modern science. The reality of
our knowledge cannot be questioned. No history is half
so trustworthy. Into all written histoiy innumerable errors
creep ; but that unconscious history which survives in the
languages and institutions of mankind is, so far as it goes,
of indisputable authenticity. It is not, indeed, history in
its ordinary sense. It yields us none of the superficial and
individual details in the story of a people’s life, the deeds
of warriors and the tyrannies of rulers, the conquests,
rebellions, and class-struggles, the names and systems of
priests and law-givers, with which historians usually deal,
and which they weave into a web of inextricably-mingled
truth and falsehood. It is the rock-bed of history with
which we are here concerned, the solid foundation on
which its superficial edifice is built. We know nothing of
 TYPES OF MANKIND.

3

the deeds of this antique race. We are ignorant of the
numbers of its people, the location and extent of its terri-
tory, the period of its early development. But we know
much of its basal history, —that history which has wrought
itself deeply into the language, customs, beliefs, and insti-
tutions of its modern descendants, and which crops out
everywhere through the soil of modern European civiliza-
tion, as the granite foundations of the earth’s strata break
through the superficial layers, and reveal the conditions of
the remote past.

Such a germinal history of a people may very possibly
lack interest. It has in it nothing of the dramatic, nothing
on which the imagination can seize ; none of those per-
sonal details or stirring incidents which so strongly arrest
the attention of readers ; nothing to arouse the feelings or
awaken the passions and emotions of mankind. It has
none of the ever-alluring interest of individual human life,
— the hopes and fears, the joys and sorrows, the sajungs
and doings of men, great and small, which give to the
gossipy details of history an attractiveness only a degree
below that of the imaginative novel. Over our work we
can cast none of this glamour of individualism. We have
to do with man in the mass, and to treat history as a
philosophy instead of as a romance. We are limited to
the description of what he has done, not how^ he did it,
and to the detail of results instead of processes. And
yet history in ‘its modern era is rapidly entering this philo-
sophic stage. For many centuries it has been confined to
the romance of individual life. It is now verging toward
the philosophy of existence, the scientific study of human
development. Kings and courtiers have too long dwarfed
the people. But the stature of the people is increasing,
 4

THE ARYAN RACE.

and that of rulers and heroes diminishing, while a growing
interest in the story of humanity as a whole is succeeding
that in the lives of individuals. This gives us some war-
rant for venturing to describe the history of a race whose
ancient life we know only as a whole, and of which we
cannot give the name of one of its heroes, the scene of
one of its exploits, or even the region of the earth which
it occupied. Yet this race is so important a one, and its
later history has been so grand and exciting, that the story
of what is known of its primitive life can scarcely fail to
find an interested audience, particularly when we remember
that we are here dealing with our own ancestors, and trac-
ing the pedigree of our own customs and institutions.

In this inquiry it is necessary to begin by considering
the claim of the Aryans to the title of “ race.” What posi-
tion do they hold in the category of human races, and what
were the steps of their derivation and development from
primitive man? We must locate them first as members of
the broad family of mankind before we can fairly enter
into tire study of their record as a separate group. We
have spoken of them somewhat indefinitely as a race,
family, or tribe. Indeed, they cannot justly be honored
with the title of race until we know more fully in what the
race-characteristic consists, and what is their claim to its
possession. In this respect ethnologists have so many
varying ideas that the number and limitations of the
human races are still far from being settled. We can
therefore but briefly detail some of the latest views upon
the subject.

Prometheus:
.

Kace-divisions, indeed, have been made through two
widely different lines of research. Of these, the first and
most fundamental is that of physical characteristics ; the
 TYPES OF MANKIND.

5

second is that of linguistic conditions. The latter, based on
the radical diversities in human languages, doubtless indi-
cates a more recent separation of mankind. To a consider-
able extent it follows the lines of physical variation. It
seldom crosses these lines to any important extent, though
it separates some of the broad physical divisions into minor
races. The Aryan is one of these linguistic races. It is not
a true race in the wider sense, since, as at present consti-
tuted, it includes portions of two physical groups which
have so intimately intermingled that pure specimens of
either are somewhat exceptional, and are found in any
'considerable number only on the opposite border-lands of
these groups.

The primary separation of mankind into races very long
preceded the development of the modern families of lan-
guage, and wras due to strictly physical influences. The
mental lines of division, as indicated by language, are
much more recent. The physical races have been va-
riously classified by ethnologists, one of the latest schemes
beiug that of Professor Huxley, who distinguishes four
principal types of man, — the Mongoloid, the Negroid, the
Australioid, and the Xanthochroic ; to which lie adds a fifth
variety, the Melanochroic.1 It is only with the last two
of these that we are here directly concerned, since it is
these which enter into the composition of the Aryan race.
More recently Professor Flower has given an outline
of a system of human classification which he regards
as most in accordance with the present state of our
knowledge on the subject.2 He considers that there are
three extreme types, — those called by Blumenbach the

1   Journal of the Ethnological Society, ii. 404 (1870).

2   Address before the Anthropological Institute, Jan. 27, 1SS."*.
 6

THE ARYAN RACE.

Ethiopian, the Mongolian, and the Caucasian, around
which all existing individuals of the human species can
be ranged, but between which every possible intermediate
form can be found. Of these the Ethiopian is secondarily
divided into the African Negroes, the Hottentots and
Bushmen, the Oceanic Negroes or Melanasians, and the
Negritos as represented by the inhabitants of the Anda-
man and other Pacific islands. The Australians, whom
Huxley takes as the t3Tpe of a separate race, he considers
to be a mixed people, as they combine the Negro type of
face and skeleton, with hair of a different t37pe. His sec-
ond race is the Mongolian, represented in an exaggerated
form by the Eskimo, in its t3Tpical condition by^ most of
the natives of northern and eastern Asia, and in a modified
type by the Mala3Ts. Excluding the Eskimo, the Ameri-
cans form one group, whose closest affinity is with the
Mongolian, 3Tet which has so man3T special features that it
might be viewed as a fourth primaiy division. His third
or Caucasian race includes two sub-races, — the Xantho-
chroic and Melanochroic of IIuxle3T. The seat of this
race is Europe, northern Africa, and southwestern Asia,
its linguistic division being into Aiyans, Semites, and
Hamites.

Several recent writers are inclined to accept a conclusion
closely similar to that of Professor Flower, and to divide
man into three t3?pical races, — the Negro, the Mongolian,
and the Caucasian or Mediterranean; viewing all remain-
ing races as secondary derivatives of these : as, for in-
stance, the American and the Mala37 from the Mongolian;
or as mixtures, as the Australians from the combination of
the Oceanic Mongolians and Negroes. Topinard1 goes so

1 Anthropology, p. 510,
 TYPES OF MANKIND.

7

far as to divide man into three distinct species. The first
of these is the Mongolian, distinguished by a brachyceph-
alic, or short skull, by low stature, yellowish skin, broad,
flat countenance, oblique eyes, contracted eyelids, beard-
less face, hair scant}T, coarse, and round in section. The
second is the Caucasian, with moderately dolichocephalic,
or long skull, tall stature, fair, narrow face, projecting on
the median line, hair and beard abundant, light-colored,
soft, and somewhat elliptical in section. His third species
is the Negro, with skull strongly dolichocephalic, complex-
ion black, hair flat and rolled into spirals, face very prog-
nathous, and with several peculiarities of bodily structure
not necessary to name here.

It is not our purpose to express any opinion upon this
theory of specific differences in mankind, except to say
that if such differences exist they are probably limited to
the Negro and the Mongolian stocks. There are good
reasons for removing the Caucasian from this category.
That the Negroes and the Mongolians do differ in sufficient
particulars of structure to constitute a specific difference
in the lower animals, must be admitted.1 Their mental

1 Agassiz notes the following marked differences in physical structure
between the Negroes and the Indians of Brazil, —the latter in all proba-
bility originally of Mongolian race. His conclusions are based on the
comparison of a large number of photographs of the two races. The
Negroes are generally slender, with long.legs and arms, and a compara-
tively short body ; while the Indians have short arms and legs, and long
bodies, which are rather heavy, and square in build. He compares the
former to the slender, active Gibbons ; the latter to the slow, inactive,
stout Orangs. Another striking distinction is the short neck and great
•width of shoulder in the Indian, as compared with the narrow chest and
shoulder of the Negro. This difference exists in females as well as
males. The legs of the Indian are remarkably straight; those of the
Negro are habitually flexed, both at hip and knee. In the Indian the
 8

THE ARYAN RACE.

differences are equally marked. But these variations may
possibly have had another origin. The Negro is essen-
tially the man of the South, the developed scion of the
African or the Australasian tropics. The Mongolian is
the man of the North, his native region being the chill
tablelands of northern Asia, so far as the balance of indi-
cations goes. Whether these two races, with their specific
differences, arose as distinct species in these widely sepa-
rated localities, and spread outward from these centres of
dispersion until they met and intimately mingled at their
borders, or whether they indicate some very early division
of a single human species into two sections, and variation
under differing climatic influences, are questions which
science is not as yet prepared to answer. It is unques-
tionable that their well marked and strongly persistent
physical characteristics are the outcome of a very long
period of separate development. If there was a single
primitive type of man, its two main divisions must have
been long exposed to very diverse conditions of climate
and life-habits ; and its separation must have taken place
at a very early era in human existence,—perhaps, as sug-
gested by Professor Wallace,1 at that primitive epoch
when men were as yet too low in mind to combat against
the influences of nature, and were far more plastic to the
agency of natural selection than they have been during
the later epoch of weapons, clothing, and habitation.

If we now come to the consideration of the Caucasian

shoulder-blades are short, and separated by a wide interval ; in the Negro
they are long, with little space between them. There are other differ-
ences of structure, equally marked; but the above will suffice to show
the strong racial distinction. Vide “A Journey in Brazil,” pp.
529-32.

1 Contributions to the Theory of Natural Selection, p. 319.
 TYPES OF MANKIND.

9

race, we have to deal with a series of facts markedly dis-
tinct from those relating to the other two races named.
In the Caucasian we certainly have not a primitive and
homogeneous type of mankind, but a race of varied mix-
ture and of much more recent origin, and therefore neces-
sarily not a distinct species of man, but a derivative from
primitive man.

In support of this view an argument of some cogency
can be offered. The opening of the historical era presents
the three races above indicated in very different relations
to those which now obtain. At the earliest date to which
we can trace them, the Mongolian and the Negro, with
their sub-types and hybrid races, divided the major part
of the earth between them. Hardly a foothold was left
for the Caucasian. Great part of Africa and many of the
Pacific islands were occupied by the Negro race. Others
of these islands, all of America, and nearly all of Asia,
were occupied by peoples of the Mongoloid t}Tpe. As for
Europe, late research has given us some very interesting
information concerning its early inhabitants. There is
reason to believe that it has been successively occupied by
sections of the three principal human races, and that its
general occupancy by Caucasians reaches not very remotely
beyond the historical era.

The skull is the truest index of human races, and the
ancient skulls found by modern man in Europe tell us
much concerning its early ethnological conditions. The
most ancient of these skulls belong to a long-headed,
strongly prognathous race, with characteristics of a lower
type than are to be found in existing man. This, called by
Quatrefages the Canstadt race, includes the famous Nean-
derthal skull, with its brute-like characters. Other skulls,
 10

THE ARYAN RACE.

of apparently later date, constitute the so-called Cro-
Magnon race. These are also dolichocephalic and progna-
thous, and approach nearer to the Negro than to any other
of the existing types. It is not impossible that a modi-
fied branch of the Negro race had spread itself over west-
ern Europe at this early period.

Still later appear the skulls of men of quite different
race-characteristics. These range from medium to short
heads, while the accompanying skeletons are of short stat-
ure, and present certain traces of affinity to the modern
Lapps. It is probable that the long-headed and possibly
Negroid earlier race had been driven back by a Mongoloid
migration, which in the Neolithic age became widely dis-
tributed. There are apparently two types, of which the
medium-skulled one may be to some extent a cross be-
tween the long-headed aborigines and the intruding short-
headed race. This “Neolithic” type has probably left a
remnant of its language in the Basrpie dialect, as spoken
by half a million of persons crowded into the Biscayan re-
gion of France and Spain, the relics of a people who once
may have occupied the greater part of Europe. Though
the language of Neolithic man has nearly vanished, his
race-characters still persist; for the skulls and bodies
of the ancient tombs seem reproduced in the physical
characters of many of the present inhabitants of the same
regions. The ancient race has held its own persistently
against the later infusion of Aiyan blood.

Thus in the outgrowth of what we incline to view as
the two original races, the Mongoloid and the Negroid,
the former seems to have been far the more energetic.
It not only occupied the continents of Asia, Europe, and
America, but pushed its way into northern Africa and the
 TYPES OF MANKIND.

11

islands of the Pacific, yielding in the line of demarcation
of the primitive races a type of man of intermediate
characteristics. Though Mongolian man is less prolific
than the Negro, his greater restlessness and spirit of enter-
prise seem to have placed him in possession, at a remote
period, of most of the earth outside of Africa and the
Asiatic islands.

In this glance at prehistoric man no clearly defined trace
appears of the Caucasian race, whose area at that era was
certainly very contracted as compared with that of the
Mongolian and the Negro. And yet at the earliest date
to which we can trace them the Caucasians exhibited the
qualities they still possess, — those of superior intellectu-
ality, enterprise, and migratory vigor. When we first gaze
upon the race,— or rather upon its Xanthochroic section,—
it is everywhere spreading and swelling, forcing its way to
the East and the West with resistless energy. Before its
energetic outflow the aborigines vanish or are absorbed.
In the continent of Europe no trace of them is left, with
the exception of the Basques, pushed back into a moun-
tain corner of Spain, and the Finns and Lapps, driven into
the arctic regions of the North. A similar fate has be-
fallen them in southern Asia. During the whole historical
era this migratory spirit has continued active. The sepa-
rate branches of, and the Aryans as a wiiole, have been
persistently seeking to extend their borders. They are
still doing so with all the old energy, driving the w^edge
of invasion deep into the domain of Mongoloid and Ne-
groid life, until the Caucasians of to-day number one
third of all mankind,1 and bid fair, ere many centuries, to

1 About 420,000,000. Two centuries ago their number was not more
than one tenth of the earth’s population.
 12

THE ARYAN RACE.

reduce the other races to mere fragments, like the Basques
or the North American Indians of the present day.

From these facts we certainly have some warrant to con-
clude that the Caucasian is not a primitive human race,
but a peculiar and highly endowed derivative of the pre-
ceding races. Otherwise we should not have found it at
the beginning of authentic history almost lost in the sea of
ruder life, but its superior qualities would have told at a far
more remote epoch, the Negro and the Mongolian expan-
sion have been checked long ages ago, and history opened
with the Caucasian as the dominant race of mankind. It
is generally acknowledged that from the primitive types
many sub-races have branched off, differing in mental and
physical characters; as, for instance, the American from
the Mongolian. The Caucasian may possibly be a very
divergent example of these sub-types, or rather, if we
may judge from certain highly significant indications, a
compound of two sub-types derived from the two pre-
ceding races.

Of the two sub-races which make up the Caucasian
stock of mankind, the Xanthochroi, or fair whites, are
now found most typically displayed in the north of
Europe, mainly in Denmark, Scandinavia, and Iceland.
The Melanochroi, or dark whites, have their t}Tpical region
in northern Africa and southwestern Asia. Between
these regions an intimate mixture of the two types exists,
endless intermediate grades being found; though as a
rule the Xanthochroic becomes more declared as we go
north, and the Melanochroic as we go south.

The combined race is described by Feschel1 in the
following terms: The shape of the Caucasian skull is
1 The Races of Man, p. 4S1.
 TYPES OF MANKIND.

13

intermediate between the short skull of the Mongolian
and the long skull of the Negro race. Prominence of the
cheek-bones and prognathism, or projection of the lower
jaw, common characters in the other races, are very rare
in the Caucasian, or the Mediterranean race, as he names
it. The skin varies in hue. Fair hair and blue eyes with
a florid complexion are very frequent among the Northern
Europeans. Such was also the case with the Gallic Celts,
as described in ancient history, though it is not so with
the modern French, with whom the darker hue prevails.
The skin is generally darker with the Southern Europeans,
and becomes yellow, reddish, or brown in Africa and
Arabia, while the hair and eyes become dark or black.
The hair of the Mediterraneans is not so long nor so
cylindrical in section as in the Mongolians; it is not so
short nor so elliptical as in the Negroes. It is generally
curly, being intermediate between the other two races in
this respect. The hair is more abundant than in the other
races, and the beard much more so, the Mongolians and
Americans being nearly beardless. The nose is a well-
marked feature, its high bridge and narrow form distin-
guishing it from the broad and flat nose of the Negroes
and Mongolians. The lips are usually thin, and never
present the swollen aspect of the Negro lips. As a whole,
the features of this race are more refined than those of the
other races, and the form is more symmetrically developed.

The Caucasian, indeed, seems as a rule intermediate
between the other two races. The Negro face, seen in
profile, recedes from the chin to the forehead; that of
the Caucasian is vertical. The Mongolian face is vertical
or projecting in profile, but in front view is of a triangular
outline, being broad at base and contracted at the fore-
 14

THE ARYAN RACE.

head ; the Caucasian outline is oval. The flat median line
of the Negro and the Mongolian is replaced by a pro-
jecting outline in the Caucasian, mainly due to the eleva-
tion and narrowness of the nose and the lack of expansion
in the cheek-bones.

In these particulars the two sub-races of the Caucasian
somewhat closely agree, their main distinction being in
color, though there is also a marked difference in form.
The Xanthochroic, or blond type, is distinguished by blue
or gray eyes, hair from straw-color to chestnut, and a
rosy or florid complexion, which burns to a brick-red or
becomes freckled under exposure. In form this race is
tall and stout, of square build though sometimes slim, with
rather ponderous limbs, and a squarer skull and coarser ^
features than in the Melanochroic.

The latter race is marked by a skin of brownish or olive
hue, which quickly blackens upon exposure, sometimes
enormously so ; it perhaps inherits a tendency to revert
to the typical Negro complexion. The color of the hair
and eyes is black, and the stature lower than in the
Xanthochroi. The form is very symmetrical in its pro-
portions, the skull round-domed, and the features are more
delicate than those of the blond type. These two types,
as we have said, have become intimately mingled, so that
every shade of gradation exists between them. Yet nu-
merous instances of the typical structure appear, and the
race-characteristics seem very persistent.

The blond race has its purest expression in Iceland,
Scandinavia, and Denmark, and next in Holland, north-
ern Germany, Saxony, Belgium, and the British Islands.
But it crops out throughout the whole range of the Cauca-
sian domain. In the far East, though the brown type is
 TYPES OF MAK KIND.

15

generally prevalent, the blond type frequently appears.
It is common among the Persians and Afghans, while the
Siah Posh of Kaffiristan are particularly marked by their
fair complexions, blue eyes, and chestnut hair. It exists
also in northern Africa, and on an Egyptian monument of
the twelfth dynasty there appears the representation of a
man with white skin, blond hair, and blue eyes. Yet in
this southern region the dark type is the prevalent one,
while it in its turn has forced its way far to the north,
though in diminishing frequency as it approaches the
colder regions.

Prometheus:


The natural inference from these facts is that the blond
type has its native locality in the North and East, in con-
tiguity with the Mongolian, and the dark type in the South,
in contiguity with the Negro race. The expanding ten-
dency which these types of man have displayed during the
whole historical epoch must have existed since their first
origin, if we may judge from their very intimate com-
mingling, which has been so great that comparatively few
pure representatives of either type remain. No such com-
plete mixture is shown in the Mongolian and Negro races,
except in a narrow border region. This indicates a much
less energetic constitutional migratory spirit in the latter
than in the Caucasian, and is a further argument in proof
of the recent origin of this race ; since if of remote origin,
it could not possibly have been confined to the narrow
region in which we find it at the opening of the historic
period.

What, then, was the origin of the two Caucasian sub-races ?
In response to this question we may propound the viewrs
offered by Mr. J. W. Jackson,1 who advances the theory
1 Aryan and Semite, Anthropological Review, vii. 333.
 16

THE ARYAN RACE.

that the Semite (or, as we prefer to consider, all the
Melanochroi) is really a derivative from the Negro race;
and the Aryan (or rather the Xanthochroi) is a derivative
from the Mongolian. He bases this theory on mental
characteristics; but he should have considered also the
physical characters of the races. If we observe the
Melanochroi, or dark whites, it is to find their purest
specimens in the far South, on the immediate northern
limits of the Negro race. And here they present signifi-
cant points of affinity to the Negro type. Many of the
Berbers of the Sahara region approximate to the Negro
in feature, though some tribes are light olive in complex-
ion, with straight noses and thin lips. Of the ancient
Egyptian type we are told that they had “ thick lips, full
and prominent; mouths large, but cheerful and smiling;
complexions dark, ruddy, and coppery; and the whole as-
pect displaying — as one of the most graphic delineators
among modern travellers has observed — the genuine
African character, of which the Negro is the exaggerated
and extreme representation.”1 The Arabs present similar
affinities. Some of the Arab tribes of the Middle Desert
have crisp hair, approaching that of the Negroes in texture.
In bodily and mental character the Southern Arabs of pure
blood approximate to the Negro type,1 2 and in color they
may become of a jet black, as is the case with the Sliegya
Arabs of Africa. On the other hand, in northern and
more elevated regions the complexion of the Arabs is as
fair as that of Europeans.3 Quatrefages looks upon this

1   Denon, Voyage en Egypte.

2   Palgrave, article “Arabia,” Encyclopaedia Britannica (ninth
edition).

3   Prichard, Natural History of Man, p. 150.
 TYPES OF MANKIND.

17

race as one which has evolved a single step beyond the
“ arrested ” Negro phase.1

Tribes of mankind closely affiliated with the Melanochroi,
though with a stronger infusion of the Negro element, ex-
tend much farther south in Africa. In addition to the
Melanochroic Abyssinians and Gallas, may be mentioned
the more Negroid Nubas, with black skins, but features
of a type intermediate between the white and the black
races. But the most significant of the mid-African peoples
are the Foulahs, — an energetic and warlike tribe, distinc-
tively different from the Negroes, into whose domains
they are steadily intruding. This people has become much
modified by intercrossing with Negroes and Arabs, but
seems to have been originally of the Melanochroic type.
Dr. Lenz, in his recent work on Timbuktu, says of them
that they are of a distinctly non-Negro type. Pure speci-
mens of the Foulahs differ from the Negroes in almost
every racial characteristic,—in cranial conformation, com-
plexion, texture of hair, figure, proportion of limbs, and in
mental qualities. He was amazed at their striking resem-
blance to Europeans, and describes the pure-blooded
Foulahs as of light complexion, slightly arched nose,
straight forehead, fiery glance, long black hair, shapely
limbs, tall, slim figures, and of great intelligence.

In fact, the Melanochroi present indications, to judge
from their early wide extension, of being a much more
primitive race than the Xanthochroi. They are found
throughout northern Africa, extending to a line drawn con-
siderably south of the Sahara ; widely distributed through-
out southern Asia, from the Semitic regions to India, where
they give the main physical character to the Hindu Aryans ;

1 The Human Species, p. 351.
 18

THE ARY AX RACE.

everywhere in southern Europe, where their type greatly
predominates over that of the blonds; and in less pre-
ponderance in central Europe, where they have essentially
modified the original type of the Celtic and Teutonic
Aryans.

If we accept the indications here presented, in connection
with the apparently very limited extension of the blond
type of man in the recent pre-historic period, we are led to
the theory that the Eastern Hemisphere was divided at a
more remote period between three races of mankind, — the
Mongolian in the temperate and frigid zones, the Negro in
the tropics, and the Melanochroi occupying a broad inter-
mediate belt stretching across the whole continent from
the Atlantic to the borders of Farther India.

It is interesting to perceive that this zone occupied by
Melanochroic man is that of demarcation of the primitive
Mongoloid and Negroid races. Here they must have met
and mingled, and here a hybrid derivative of the two races
very probably arose, — an intermediate type of mankind,
with a preponderance of the Negro element, if we may judge
from existing indications. It is particularly in Europe
that we find evidence of this mingling of the long-headed
and short-headed aboriginal races, their resultant being a
type with skulls of medium length,—the Neolithic man of
western Europe. More extended investigation may yield
similar evidence all along the zone of demarcation. IVe
can picture to ourselves an original Negroid population in
this zone, a southward migratory movement of the more
enterprising Mongolians, and a long-continued mingling of
the two races, with a somewhat profound modification of
their physical characteristics, yielding a new type of man,
the Melanochroic, with considerably more of Negro than of
 TYPES OF MANKIND.

19

Mongolian blood, yet essentially diverse in character from
both the parental types.

If now we come to consider the origin of the blond type
of man, we find ourselves brought down to nearly historic
times. The widespread extension of this type at the open-
ing of the historic era can be traced back, almost step by
step, to an original central region, probably of small dimen-
sions, though of unknown location. We have evidence from
the Egyptian monuments of what may have been the first
appearance of blond man in that region. Of the type as
found in the north of Africa, in Tunis and Morocco,
among the Berbers of the Sahara, and in the Canary
Islands, Topinard remarks : “ It is derived from a Tama-
hou people who about the year 1500 before our era made
their appearance upon the frontier of Egypt, coming from
the North. . . . The blonds which we meet with in the
Basque territory and near the Straits of Gibraltar in Spain
are probably descendants of theirs.”1 In Europe and
Asia the movements of the blond race took place immedi-
ately before the opening of the historic epoch ; and though
the centre of dispersion is not clearly known, }Tet nearly
every step of migration has been traced. In every region
to which they migrated, with the exception of Scandinavia,
they seem to have mingled freely with the preceding Mela-
nochroic inhabitants, yielding that intimately mixed race
which constitutes the Aryan of to-day. To this fusion we
owe the modern man of southern Asia and Europe, from
the bronzed Brahman of the East to the round-headed and
dark-featured class among the Celts of the West. Only in
the extreme North did the Xanthochroic type sustain itself
in any purity, and only in Arabia and Africa did the
1 Anthropology, p. 4H2.
 20

THE ARYAN RACE.

Melanochroic type remain preponderant. In all the region
between, every possible intermediate gradation of the two
t}Tpes exists, though the dark type gradually decreases
as we move northward, and the blond type as we move
southward.

If we endeavor to seek the derivation of the blond type
of man the indications are very obscure. This type-differs
markedly from the Mongolian ; and yet we are not without
intermediate links of connection, or traces of a tendency in
the Mongolian to assume the Xanthochroic characters. We
are told by Chinese historians of certain mysterious tribes
in central Asia who were tall of stature and had green eyes
and red hair. Matuanlin, the historian, described one such
people as inhabiting western Mongolia at the opening of the
Christian era. A similar tribe existed beyond the Altai'
Mountains. Other tribes are mentioned, down to the twelfth
century, as tall, with red hair and green eyes, and of fair
complexion.

Some writers are inclined to consider these as members
of the Turkish Mongolians, who are known to have inhab-
ited the region mentioned. The physical appearance of the
modern Turks, indeed, strongly resembles the Aryan type
of man. The Turks of the Ottoman and Persian empires
are completely Europeanized in feature and structure.
This is by some ascribed to persistent intermarriage with
Circassian slaves ; yet such a theory applies only to the rich
and powerful, while the peasantry are equally European-
ized. The great mass of the lower population have
always strictly intermarried, difference of religion and
manners keeping them separate from the Greeks and Per-
sians. The Tadjiks of Persia, the true Aryans, are of a
sect of Mohammedanism hostile to that professed by the
 TYPES OF MANKIND.

21

Turks, and these two classes have kept rigidly separate.
The Aryan characteristics of the civilized Turks is there-
fore not so readily explainable.

Of the Turcomans Vambéry says that they alone of all
Mongolians do not possess high cheek-bones, while the
blond color is predominant among them. Yet the Turkish
hordes of the northern steppes are strongly Mongolian in
physical character, though occasionally blue and gray eyes
are observed among the Kirghiz. Still farther eastward
similar indications appear. Topinard quotes as follows:
“We saw Mantschu Tartars,” says Barrow, “ who accom-
panied Macartney’s embassy to Pekin, men as well as
women, who were extremely fair and of florid complexion;
some of the men had light blue eyes, a straight, aquiline
nose, brown hair, and a large and bushy beard.”1 All
this, however, might be due to mixture with the blond
race, even though we have no evidence of conditions
favorable to such a mixture. Yet such could not well be
the case in America, where similar variations are common.
King tells us that “ the oval face associated with the Ro-
man nose” is by no means rare among the Eskimos,
while the complexion is sometimes fair, sometimes dark.
Among the American tribes the nose is occasionally of the
Mongolian type, but is often large, prominent, bridged, and
even aquiline, while the stature is tall, and the skull lias a
tendency to the elongated shape. Several tribes, both of
North and South America, present a close approximation
to the European type. This is strikingly the case with
the Mandans, the so-called White Indians of the West, as
described by Catlin. The above facts seem to indicate a
ready variability in the Mongolian race, under the influence
1 Anthropology, p. 452.
 22

THE ARYAN RACE.

of diversity of climate and condition, since these widespread
modifications towards the European type can scarcely be
ascribed to mixture with a race as limited in numbers as
the Xanthochroi appear to have been at the opening of
the historic era.

There is yet, however, one branch of the linguistic
Mongolians to be considered, — the Finnish. And here
we find a strongly marked approximation towards the
Xanthochroic race, far too general to be ascribed to in-
termarriage. The Finns are to some degree intermediate
between the blond and the Mongolian types, though much
nearer the former. They are marked by long hair, usually
reddish or yellowish, or of a flaxen hue, and more rarely
chestnut. The European Finlanders have red hair, with a
moderately full beard, generally red. The eyebrows are
thick, the eyes sunken, and of a blue, greenish gray, or
chestnut hue. The complexion is fair, and usually freckled.
The nose is straight, with small nostrils ; the cheek-bones
are prominent, owing to the thinness of the face ; the lips
small. These characteristics clearly separate the Finns
from all the surrounding types, and bring them much closer
to the European than to the Mongolian race. The north-
ern Russians in particular are of very similar physical char-
acter. Very probably the green-eyed and red-haired race
spoken of by the Chinese Tvere Finnish tribes, though blue
is more common than green in the eyes of modern Finns.
We may also say here that the Finns approach the Aiyans
in the possession of a mythology and of a highly developed
poetry, — an evidence of mental power which is not found
in pure Mongolians of a similar state of civilization.

Thus though no direct clew to the origin of the Xantho-
chroic type of man exists, there are strong indications
 TYPES OF MANKIND.

23

that it was a derivative from the Mongolian, and that
it arose at a comparatively recent date. We have shown
that a tendency exists among the Mongolians of northern
Asia and America to deviate towards the Xanthochroic
character. In the case of the Finns this deviation has
yielded a strongly marked race, nearly approaching the
Xanthochroi both physically and mentally. It is of in-
terest, in this connection, to remark that the Finnish
race is native to a locality bordering upon that which the
latest archaeologists consider the original home of the Ary-
ans, and that it differs from the neighboring Russians
mainly in language, and veiy little in ph}rsical character. It
may be offered as a conjectural hypothesis that the prim-
itive Xantho.chroi were a derivative from the Finns at an
era before the languages of either had attained much de-
velopment, the further physical variation which took place
being probably due to climatic influences, and possibly to
residence of the Xanthochroi in a mountainous region.1

The mental characteristics of the several human races
lead us to similar conclusions. In the first place it may be
remarked that all the savage tribes of the earth belong to
the Negro or the Mongolian race. No Negro civilization
has ever appeared. No Mongolian one has ever greatly
developed. On the other hand, the Caucasian is pre-emi-

1 Tt seems probable that, the Lapps, the remaining European Mon-
golians, have close race-affinities with the Finns. Professor A. H. Keene
has recently examined a company of seven Lapps, in London, and de-
cides that in several respects they have deviated from their fundamental
Mongolian type, and have assimilated, especially in the color of the hair
and eyes, in the complexion, and in the shape of the nose, to the sur-
rounding Norse population. He attributes this assimilation to like cli-
matic influences rather than to intermixture, of which there is no direct
evidence. The family belonged to the mountain nomadic tribes, of purest
descent and of least intercourse with Europeans.
 24

THE ARYAN RACE.

nently the man of civilization. No traveller or historian
records a savage tribe of Caucasian stock. This race
everywhere enters history in a state of advanced bar-
barism or of rapidly advancing civilization.

But the Caucasian development is not the work of either
of the sub-races, but of their combined resultant. Men-
tally, each of the pure types too closely approaches its
assumed ancestral race to display vigorous intellectual
powers. The pure Melanochroi tend towards the Negro
type of intellectuality; the pure Xauthochroi approximate
to the Mongolian. The Negro race, as described by De
Gobiueau,1 is marked b}^ a low grade of intellectuality,
combined with a strongly emotional tendency. It is quick
in acquisition at first, but soon stops, and grows dull in-
tellectually. Emotionally the Negro is capable of violent
passions and strong attachments. He has a childish in-
stability of humor, intense but not enduring feelings,
poignant but transitory grief. lie is seldom vindictive,
his anger being violent but quickly appeased, his sensi-
bilities ardent but speedily subsiding. His amatory feel-
ings are strong, and his sensuality highly developed. In
these particulars he is akin to the Melanochroi of Arabia
and the West, in whom we find a sensual temperament, fierce
passions, intense emotions, and a mentality that requires
excitement more than reason for its exercise, and tends to
the fanciful far more strongly than to the logical.

If now we compare the yTellow race with the black, we
find them strongly opposite in mental characteristics. In
muscular vigor and intensity of feelings the t}rpical Mon-
golians are greatly inferior to the blacks. They are supple
and agile, but not strong. Their sensuality is less violent

1 Moral and Intellectual Diversity of Races, p. 445.
 TYPES OF MANKIND.

25

than that of the blacks, but less quickly appeased. They
are much less impulsive, aud rather obstinate than violent
in will-power. Their anger is vindictive, but not clamorous.
They are seldom prone to extremes, and while easily under-
standing what is not very profound and sublime, their lack
of emotional and imaginative energy prevents their attain-
ing an ardent faith or an exalted religious philosophy.
They love quiet and order, and keenly appreciate the useful
and practical. They are, indeed, a practical people in the
narrowest sense of the word. Their lack of imagination
renders them uninventive, but they easily understand and
adopt whatever is of practical utility.1 This description
applies mainly to the Asiatic Mongolians, and is shown
in the whole conditions of the Chinese civilization. It
cannot be extended to include the Americans, who have
a very marked development of the faculty of imagination.
It applies in some measure, however, to the blond race of
northern Europe, in whom we find a strong mental an-
tithesis to the ardent nations of the South. The pure
blonds replace the nervous temperament of the Melano-
chroi with a lymphatic temperament. They lack vivacity,
but are more reflective. They are controlled by reason
rather than by desire. Conclusions are not reached im-
pulsively, but are thought out, and are strongly held
when once arrived at. They are not of quick passion, are
slowly roused, but earnest and persevering, and are brave
without requiring the stimulus of enthusiasm. They are
sincere and simple-minded, but addicted to gluttony and
drunkenness, — faults to which the Melanochroi are much
less addicted. In these respects the blond white presents
the same affinity to the Mongolians as the dark white does
1 Moral and Intellectual Diversity of Races, A. de Gobineau, p. 445.
 26

Prometheus:

THE ARYAN RACE.

to the Negroes, and they seem respectively the highest
expression of these two races.

But in the mentality of the two primary races we have
the germinal conditions of the highest phases of intellectual
development. The emotional characteristics of the Negro
are the germinal stage of the imaginative faculty; the
practical mentality of the Mongolian is the germinal con-
dition of the reasoning powers. In Scandinavia we find
a practical people, yet one not given to abstract thought.
In Arabia and northern Africa we find a highly emotional
people, }Tet one not noted for valuable imaginative produc-
tions. For the higher unfoldment of these mental faculties
a further step was needed, — that close fusion of the two
sub-races which has so widely taken place. The mixed race
of Europe presents us with the highest type of man. The
wild flights of Southern fancy have been tamed by the cool
decisions of practical sense, until we find, as the lineal
successor of the Oriental extravagance, the artistically
imaginative productions of the people of Greece. The
practical tendency of the Northern mind has been inspired
by imagination until it has yielded the exalted products of
Teutonic reason.

Despite the long and close intermingling of these sub-
races, the mental character of each crops out frequently in
strong isolation, now reason, now imagination, becoming
markedly predominant in an individual or a people. The
highest display of the reasoning faculty in modern Europe
is in the region of the Teutonic race, in which the infusion of
Xanthochroic blood is in excess. The imaginative faculty
has reached its highest development in the South, where
Melanochroic blood is in excess. This is markedly dis-
played in the literature of Greece, and yet more so in
 TYPES OF MANKIND.

27

India, where the flights of imagination have left reason
far in the rear. In mid-Europe of to-day these two facul-
ties exist in some degree of balance : though in France and
the South the preponderance of imagination is shown in the
artistic and picturesque tendency of thought, wrhile in Ger-
many a like preponderance of the logical faculty appears;
and iu England, the central meeting-place of the two races,
these two faculties seem more evenly combined than else-
where upon the earth. It is to this mingling of South and
North, of fair and dark, of judgment and emotion, of im-
agination and reason, that we owe the Aryan race, the
apex of human development, and the culminating point
in the long-continued evolution of man.

The comparative mental characteristics of the three typi-
cal human races are briefly enumerated by De Gobineau in
the following terms: The white race has great physical
vigor, capacity, and endurance. It has an intensity of will
and desire which is controlled by intellectuality. Great
things are undertaken readily, but not blindly. It mani-
fests a strong utilitarianism, united with a powerful imagi-
nation, which elevates, ennobles, and idealizes its practical
ideas. The Negro can only imitate, the Chinese only util-
ize, the work of the white; but the latter is abundantly
capable of producing new works. He has as keen a sense
of order as the yellow man, not from a love of repose,
however, but from the desire to protect and preserve his
acquisitions. He has a love of liberty far more intense
than exists in the black and yellow races, and clings
to life more earnestly. His high sense of honor is a
faculty unknown to the other races, and springs from
an exalted sentiment of which they show no indications.
His sensations are less intense than in either black
 28

THE ARYAN RACE.

or yellow, but bis mentality is far more developed and
energetic.

Our hypothetical line of human physical development
may be combined with one of mental development in a
brief synopsis of the progress of human mentality. Very
far back in time it is possible that a single race of man
occupied the earth, brute-like both in body and mind, if
we may judge from the most ancient traces of mankind
yet discovered. At a later epoch two strongly marked
races made their appearance, perhaps as derivatives from
the single primeval race. Or, in the opinion of some,
these two races were primitive, and constituted two origi-
nal species of man. They differed essentially both physi-
cally and mentally. The Negro race was marked by a
strong emotional tendency, in consonance with its tropical
climate ; the Mongolian by an equally strong phlegmatic
and practical mentality, in consonance with its frigid cli-
mate. At a much later date these races gave rise to two
more highly developed types of man,—the Melanochroi,
in which the Negro emotion had unfolded into imagination,
and the Xanthochroi, in which the Mongolian practicality
had developed into logic. Finally, an intonate mixture of
these two sub-races yielded the modern dominant t}Tpe of
man, the Aryan, ill whom logic and imagination have be-
come combined into reason and art, and the special, one-
sided mental development of earlier man has become a
generalized, intermediate condition of mentality which can
be most fairly characterized by the title of intellectuality.
Thus the Aryan stands as the type of intellectual man, the
central outcome of the races, in which the special condi-
tions of dark and light, North and South, emotional and
practical, have mingled and combined into the highest and
noblest states of mind and body.
 TYPES OF MANKIND.

29

If now we come to consider the lines of race as indicated
by language, they will be found to follow to some extent
those above given, though they separate mankind into
several minor racial divisions. The considerable diversity
in physical character between the Americans and the Asi-
atics, for instance, indicating, as it does, an early separa-
tion, is in conformity with the indications of language,
since each continent has its strongly marked linguistic
type. Linguistically the Caucasians are divided into three
sub-types,—the Aryans, the Semites, and the Hamites.
Between the first two of these the distinction in language
is very decided. Between the Semites and the Ilamites it
is much less declared, and their, types of language seem
to have grown up in close contiguity. Significantly, these
latter types of language are spoken by peoples of Melano-
chroic blood. But no Xanthochroic people has ever been
found speaking any but an Aryan tongue.
 II.

THE HOME OF THE ARYANS.

IN seeking to trace the original home of the Aryans we
are concerned mainly with the Xanthochroic, or blond,
type of the race. The Melanochroic, or dark, type was
widely spread, in the later prehistoric era, throughout the
Mediterranean and the southern Asiatic region. But the
blonds were in all probability far more limited in local-
ity, and their place of residence remains one of the unsolved
problems of science, despite the persistent efforts which
have been made to discover it. Yet these blonds or
“fair whites” were the true Aryans, the people with
whom the type of language known as Aryan originated.
The languages of the “ dark whites ” belong to a very dis-
tinct family of speech, which is still spoken by most of the
typical representatives of the race, though Aryan tongues
are generally spoken by the tribes and peoples arising
from a mingling of the two races. It is therefore the
original home of the Xanthochroi — the blue-eyed and
fair-haired ancestors of the modern Aryans — that we
shall here endeavor to trace.

The effort to solve this problem has mainly been based
upon considerations of comparative philology. It has
been a fascinating pursuit to its devotees. The speech
of the original Aryans was wholly unknown ; yet frag-
ments of it lay buried in the depths of modern language,
 THE HOME OF THE ARYANS.

31

and these have been assiduously wrought out and pieced
together, until, like an edifice built of disjointed materials,
they yield a complete and coherent image to our minds.
Word by word the language of the ancient Aryans has
been exhumed. But a word represents a thing, a relation,
or an action, and points to some possession or activity of
the people who used it; and the words of a language
embody the whole industrial, social, and political life of
a nation, down to its minutest detail. Unfortunately we
do not know the language of the ancient Aryans in any
such complete sense as this, nor are we quite sure what
meanings they attached to their words. Y"et their study
has given us some very interesting glimpses into the lives
of a vanished people, and enabled us, to some extent, to
bring them back again to the surface of the earth.

The discovery that a close affinity exists among the lan-
guages of Europe is a result of very recent research. The
resemblance between Greek and Latin, indeed, has long
been known, and the common descent of the Romanic lan-
guages,— the French, Spanish, and Italian, — was too evi-
dent to be lost sight of. But that the remaining languages
of Europe were first-cousins of these, was not perceptible
until philology had become a science. The divergences,
though of the same character, were much wider than those
between the Romanic languages, and needed a critical
study before the resemblance could be made apparent.

Ere this work had made any important progress another
and very distant language was brought into the same fam-
ily. The English in India had become acquainted with the
Sanscrit, — the noble and venerable language of the Vedic
literature of the Hindus. To their surprise and delight, they
discovered that this interesting language possessed close
 32

THE ARYAN RACE.

links of affinity, both in words and in structure, with the
European family of speech. This was first pointed out by
Sir William Jones about 1790, who declared that the three
languages, the Latin, Greek, and Sanscrit, had sprung
from “ some common source, which perhaps no longer
exists.” He was also inclined to attribute the Persian to
a similar source, and hinted at the possibility of the Celtic
and the Gothic being members of the same group.

This earliest conception of an Indo-European family of
languages was taken up and extended some twenty years
afterwards by Frederick Schlegel, who in 1808 main-
tained the theory that the languages of India, Persia,
Greece, Italy, and Germany were connected by common
descent from an extinct language, just as the modern
Romanic tongues were descended from the Latin. For
this vanished dialect he proposed the name Indo-Germanic.
The truth of this theory was first demonstrated by Bopp,
in his “ Comparative Grammar,” published from 1833 to
1852. He not only proved clearly the close affinity in
grammatical structure between the languages above named,
but also added the Zend, Armenian, Slavonic, and Lithu-
anian to the group. The Celtic dialects were included
about the same time ; and the relationship of all the mem-
bers of the great family of Aryan speech was thus made
evident. For this group the name “ Indo-European” was
proposed, — a name which is still used by many philolo-
gists. The term “ Aryan ” has more recentty come into
favor, mainly through the influence of Max Müller. This
title really applies only to the Persians and the Hindus,
being that by which they knew themselves before their sepa-
ration ; yet its shortness and ease of handling is giving it
ascendency over the complex compound titles as a name for
 THE HOME OF THE ARYANS.

33

the whole widely extended family. Systematic philologists
have entered into long arguments to prove that the word
“Aryan” has no right to be applied to all Indo-European
peoples. No one disputes the validity of these arguments,
and yet the proscribed word has come generally into use.
It is short and convenient; and this is of tenfold more im-
portance to ordinary speakers than its etymology. To make
a close research into the origin of words is one of the tasks
of philology ; but this does not carry with it the necessity
of replacing accepted and convenient terms by more correct
but cumbrous synonyms. In all languages there are thou-
sands of words whose origin is quite lost in their applica-
tion ; philologists are aware of their original signification,
and nothing further is required.

The community of origin of the peoples above named
had been suspected from other lines of study long before
this linguistic demonstration was completed. Ethnologists
and mythologists had lent aid to the demonstration. A
connection between their religious ideas had become evi-
dent, and the similarity of their race-characteristics had
been observed. Dr. Pritchard suggested their affinity,
from a study of their skulls, years before it was proved
from a study of their languages. But the results of these
earlier investigations were only partially accepted, and the
work of the philologists was needed to round out the circle
of proof. This evidence from philology was no light task.
The separation of the Aryans into distinct branches had
taken place so long ago, aud the language of each branch
had so diverged from those of the others, that it was not
easy clearly to prove their relationship. But science is
patient and persistent; it has long sight and clear vision.
One by one the difficulties vanished, and the truth was made

3
 34

THE ARYAN RACE.

apparent. One of the most- striking forms of linguistic
divergence was that pointed out by Jacob Grimm and met
by the celebrated “ Grimm’s law.” He showed clearly
that each branch of the Aryan family had peculiar tenden-
cies of speech, resulting in certain variations of vowels
and consonants, which were constant for the same people.
Whether from some change in the vocal organs that ren-
dered one letter more easily pronounced than another, or
from some unknown cause, each nation developed its own
peculiar variations from the original Aiyan sounds, so that
a single primitive word often assumed forms quite unlike
in sound, and seemingly incompatible in form. Thus the
consonant sound that became v in one branch of the
Aryans became b in another. S with this people became
th with that. Here the vowel was aspirated, and there the
initial h was suppressed. Several such methods of change
might be named, each dialect branching off in its own
special direction, the German following one line, the Latin
another, etc. It is the discovery of the system of vocal
change prevailing with each people that constitutes Grimm’s
law, and that enables us to prove the identity of words
which at first sight seem to have nothing in common. As
one illustration of this we may quote Max Miiller’s identifi-
cation of the English word Nelly with the Saramd of the
Vedas. The s in Sanscrit often becomes h in Greek, and
the liquid r as often becomes l. Thus Sanscrit Saramd
became Greek Hcilama. This, by an ordinary Greek
modification, became contracted to Halan. But the San-
scrit a is often changed to e in Greek, and .by such a
change Halan became Helen. The further steps of change
were easy. Helen in English has become Ellen by the loss
of the aspirate, and Ellen has become transformed into
 THE HOME OF THE ARYANS.

35

Nelly as a familiar name. Yet between these two words
of the same origin there is not a single letter in common.
Philologists do not often have to handle such intricate
tasks as this ; yet their labors have been by no means tri-
fling, and the above will serve as an extreme instance of
the changes with which they have had to deal.1

It will suffice here to say that this line of inquiry
has been carried to the point of absolute demonstration.
There is no more doubt entertained to-day by scientists
of the original community of the languages of the peoples
named than there is of the existence of the earth. The
proof does not rest upon a possibly chance resemblance of
?words, but deals with the very nerves and sinews of speech,
— that rigidly persistent grammatical structure which sur-
vives the most radical changes in the forms of words.
These separate peoples, as Whitney remarks, all count
with the same numerals, call individuals by the same pro-
nouns, address parents and relatives by the same titles,
decline nouns by the same system, compare adjectives
alike, conjugate verbs alike, and form derivatives in the
same method. The words in most ordinary use are similar
in them all. The terms for God, house, father, mother,
son, and daughter, for dog, cow, heart, tears, and tree, are
of the kind that would naturally persist. No chance
could produce abundant conformities of this close cliarac-

1 We may give, as an illustration of the verbal community of the Aryan
languages, the forms taken by one or two words in the several tongues.
Thus the word “house” is in Sanscrit, dama or dam.; in Zend, demand ;
in Greek, domos; in Latin, domus; in Irish, dahvi; in Slavonic, domu;
English derivative, domestic. In like manner, “boat” in Sanscrit is
naic or nauka ; in Persian, naiv or nawah ; in Greek, naus; in Latin,
navis; in old Irish, not or nai; in old German, nnica or nawi; in
Polish, nawa: English derivative, nautical.
 36

THE ARYAN RACE.

ter between a whole series of languages ; and the general
existence of such conformities absolutely demonstrates the
common origin of the Aryan tongues.

But a demonstration of the common origin of languages
leads to that of the common origin of the peoples who
speak them. If there was one original Aiyan language,
there was one original Aryan people. It does not follow,
however, that the modern speakers of Aryan tongues are
all descendants of this people. Oppert, Ilovelacque, and
other able philologists claim that the correspondence of
Aryan languages does not prove a common descent, but
is the result of the propagation of a language from a
single centre through heterogeneous populations, as the
Romans and Arabs spread Latin and Arabic over regions
inhabited by other races. This theory, as originally
advanced by M. Oppert, is vigorously contested by
Professor Whitney. lie cannot imagine that any cir-
cumstances existed in the early barbaric period similar
to those of the Roman and Arabian empires. In his
view, no aboriginal language has ever been entirely dis-
pelled without a complete incorporation of the people;
and this has never taken place except in the Roman
empire. Nothing of the kind appears in the conquests
of the Persians, Germans, Mongols, or even of the
Greeks, and certainly could not arise in a much less de-
veloped people. The complete political and social fusion
of the conquered with the conquering people of the Roman
empire has never been paralleled in history, and existed
only in those regions that were bound to Rome for many
centuries. The Arabic parallel is a very imperfect one ; it
represents an infusion of the Arabic rather than an aboli-
tion of the native languages. Barbarians do not conquer
 THE HOME OF THE ARYANS.

Prometheus:

in this complete way; they destroy or enslave, or their
conquests end, after a limited period, in a revolt of the
conquered tribe. Race-mingling may take place, but
hardly an acceptance of the language of a conquering
tribe by unamalgamated peoples. This argument of Pro-
fessor Whitney is not, however, in very strict agreement
with what race-indications tell us concerning the Aryan
peoples. There can scarcely be a doubt that, in some
instances, the vigor of the Aryans sufficed to impose
their language on more numerous aboriginal peoples, with
whom they became thoroughly mingled. Such, for in-
stance, is the case with the Celts, the Slavonians, and
the Hindus. There is much reason to believe that in all
these the original Aryan conquerors mingled their blood
with that of a considerably more numerous conquered
people. Yet the Aryan language has held its own with
very little modification, while the aboriginal speech has
vanished. Certainly the vigor, enterprise, and persistent
spirit of the Aryan migrants must have exerted a strong
influence upon the more yielding aborigines, and we cannot
be surprised if the latter often lost their language with
their nationality.

We have sufficiently considered in the preceding section
the question of the mingling of the “fair whites” and
“dark whites” of Europe, and endeavored to show the
probability that the development of this type of mankind,
with its distinctive family of language, took place in a
region distinct from that of the typical Melanochroic
people. Where was this region? On what area of the
earth’s surface was it that the Aryan-speaking people grew
into social, political, and linguistic coherence, and devel-
oped that budding civilization and migratory energy which
 38

THE ARYAN RACE.

were, at a later period, to send them forth to conquer the
world ? This is a question which has caused deep heart-
burnings among philologists, which is yet far from settle-
ment, and which may perhaps never be fully solved. Yet
the early and hasty conclusions have been succeeded by
better based and more consistent theories; and it is possi-
ble that the “home of the Aryans” may yet be deter-
mined with some satisfactory degree of approximation.
The present state of this much-vexed question we shall
briefly endeavor to set forth.

In the study of Aryan antiquity the languages of Europe
present us only with words. No historical details or tradi-
tions exist to show an early migration from some remote
locality. But in the eastern branch of the Aryan family
there is abundant evidence of a migration to India and
Persia. Literatures, reaching back beyond the date of
this migration, exist, comprising the Yedic hymns of the
Hindus, and the religious works of the Zoroastrian sect, in
which some historical and geographical details are pre-
served. These indicate the region of ancient Arya, the
common home of the Hindus and Persians while they yet
formed a single people, or of all the Aryans, as was long
maintained.

The theory of an eastern home of the Aryans was first
advanced by J. G. Rhodes in 1820. Thirty years ago
this home of the common Aryan tongue was supposed to
be, in the words of Pictet,1 the u vast plateau of Iran, that
immense quadrilateral stretching from the Indus to the
Tigris and Euphrates, from the Oxus and Jaxartes to the
Persian Gulf.” But this area was soon found to be too
extensive, and attempts were made to reduce it within
1 Les Origines Indo-Européennes, oil les Aiyas Primitifs, p. 35.
 THE HOME OF THE ARYANS.

39

more probable limits. The traditions of the A vesta
seemed to point to the region of Bactria as the place of
common residence of Hindus and Persians while they still
formed one people. At that period, too, much was said
about the plateau of Pamir, the 44 roof of the world,” as
the birthplace of the civilized races, though it is now
clearly perceived that this inaccessible and inhospitable
highland is utterly uusuited for human residence. In fact,
the Avestan traditions were plainly stretched too far.
They indeed contained reminiscences of an older Iranian
land, but gave no warrant for the view that this land was
the cradle of the whole Aryan race. Philology was next
appealed to, and the claim made that the language which
had most faithfully preserved the ancient Aryan type must
have been the one that had migrated the least. This prim-
itive condition was found in the Sanscrit and the Zend,
while the Celtic, which had made its way farthest West,
had apparently suffered the greatest transformation.

To the above conclusions, however, several objections
may be made. In the first place, the fact that the early
Persian and Hindu literatures indicate a migration, while
no distinct tradition of the kind exists in the literatures of
early Europe, proves, if it proves anything, that the east-
ern Aryans were the only migrating members of the race.
And their comparatively small numbers and limited area in
their early daj^s is an evidence in the same direction. It
is far more probable that the migration of a tribe from the
West to the far East took place, than that the bulk of the
race moved from the East to the far West, leaving a single
tribe behind. And that these eastern Aryans were immi-
grants who forced- themselves among hostile strangers, is
abundantly indicated in their literature. It is a literature
 40

THE ARYAN RACE.

of battle, of deadly fray, of unyielding hostility. The
Vedas are the stirring hymns of a people surrounded by
strangers alien in race and religion, with whom there can
be no peace, and wdiose destruction is a duty to God and
man. They breathe the tone of an invading race full of
vigor and bent on conquest. The Hindus seem to have
been then, as they are to-day, plunged into the heart of
an alien population. The Eastern Aryans have expanded
much since those early days, but they are still everywhere
surrounded by Mongolian tribes. India is still largely in-
habited by members of the Mongolian race and by tribes
of other race-affinity, while its pure Aryans are compara-
tively few. This relation obtains also to some degree in
Persia and the other Asiatic Aryan districts. The vital
Aryan stock has held its own, but it has had to contend
with an alien multitude, and a great degree of mixture of
races has necessarily taken place.

The argument from philology seems no more cogent.
In the Vedas and the Avestas we have preserved to us
relics of an early stage of Aryan speech which no longer
exists as a living language in Asia, and has no counterpart
in the languages of Europe. Had we remains of the latter
from a period of equal antiquity, they might prove equally
primitive. And that the Celtic has undergone the extreme
transformation assumed, is questioned by recent philolo-
gists. In fact, the great probability is that the Aryans
before their dispersion occupied a somewhat wide locality,
into which they had gradually spread from their original
contracted domain. As a consequence, their common speech
must have undergone many changes and corruptions among
the various tribes during the ante-migration period. Bopp
found signs of many such derangements and disturbances
 THE HOME OF THE ARYANS.

41

in the organism of the original Aryan speech, seeming to
show that they had dwelt in their early home for a long
period after the primary development of their linguistic
method. As they spread, dialectical changes necessarily
increased, and quite likely the peculiar dialect of each
branch of the race had become partly formed before the
era of dispersion. Thus the argument from special primi-
tiveness of any of the surviving modes of speech can
scarcely be maintained. We know far too little of the
diversities of speech in ancient Arya and of the early
form of the languages of modern Europe to be able to
come to any definite decision on this controverted point.

In fact the theory that the original Aryan home was in
Bactria is no longer held except by the older philologists.
The arguments upon which it was based have proved
insufficient to sustain it, and no new ones have been ad-
vanced. Another line of argument, to which little attention
was formerly paid, has led several recent writers to place
in Europe the ancient Aryan home. It was suggested,
early in the century, that the Slavonic was a primitive
European population. More recently it has been claimed
that Europe was the original seat of all the Aryans. This
theory is maintained by II. Schulz, D’Halloy, Latham,
Benfey, and others of the more recent writers, and is
rapidly becoming the prevailing view. It trusts for its
proof mainly to linguistic arguments.

Every word which is now used by all the Aryan peoples
is considered to be a direct descendant from the antique
speech of the race, and to indicate some ancient knowledge
or possession of the Aryans. A study of these words
• gives us much interesting information as to the con-
ditions of the original Aryan home. For instance, there
 42

THE ARYAN RACE.

is no common word for camel. The word in use has been
borrowed from the Semitic languages. This seems decisive
against Bactria, where the camel is an ordinary animal, and
must have received a name of Ar}Tan origin had the Ar}Tan
languages been formed in that region. In like manner no
name for the lion or the tiger is common to the Aryan lan-
guages, and the inference is that the ancient Aiyans
were ignorant of these animals. To this it is objected that
very many words must have been lost, and that these may
have dropped out and been replaced by other terms. Yet
such a conclusion is not based on probability. Many words
far less likely to persist have been retained, and it cannot
be reasonably maintained that the names of these terrible
and destructive wild beasts would have been utterly for-
gotten, if once known. Yet if there were no lions or tigers
in the primitive Aryan home we must seek this home in
Europe, since these animals are found throughout southern
Asia.

In this connection we may quote Peschel’s views as to
the original home of the Aryans, which are based on some-
what narrow grounds, it is true, yet have strong arguments
in their favor in addition to those which he gives. “ It
lay eastward of Nestus, now Karasu, in Macedonia, which
in the time of Xerxes was the limit of range of the Euro-
pean lion. It was still farther north than Chuzistan, Irak
Arabi, and even than Assyria, where lions are still to be
met with. It cannot have included the highlands of west
Iran and the southern shores of the Caspian Sea, for tigers
still wander in search of prey as far as these districts.
Hence, from all the facts here cited, every geographer will
agree that the Indo-Europeans occupied both slopes of the *
Caucasus, as well as the remarkable gorge of Dariel, and
 THE HOME OF THE ARYANS.

43

were in the habit of visiting either the Euxine or the Cas-
pian Sea, or perhaps both. ... It is usually objected to this
argument that in the course of their migrations the Aryan
families abandoned the territory of the lion and the tiger,
and with the animals forgot their names also. But this
requires stronger evidence, for the Maori have preserved
the names for the domestic pig and the cocoanut, although
neither existed in New Zealand. Had the ancient Aryans
seen or fought against such magnificent animals in their
own country, their names would certainly have been re-
tained, even though with an altered significance.” 1

Other writers are inclined to place the Aryan home in
the plains of southern Russia, and still others on the
shores of the Baltic or in Scandinavia. In evidence of
these hypotheses they present the following facts: The
Aryans occupied a cold region. Of the seasons they have
names only for winter, spring, and summer. Autumn was
not recognized as a separate season. But the best series
of common names for climatic phenomena are those belong-
ing to winter. Cold and snow were well known. It was
a freezing and shivering home in which our ancestors
dwelt. Their dress consisted of tunic, coat, collar, and
sandals. These were formed of wool or leather. Abun-
dant provision was needed against the wintry chill. Among
their wild animals were the bear and the wolf, among their
common trees the lurch, — all natives of the European
temperate zone. They seem to have been unacquainted
with the ass and the cat, — ancient domesticated animals
of Africa. This indicates that they were too far removed
from Egypt to have any intercourse with this very ancient
civilization.

1 The Races of Mail, by Oscar Peschel, p. 507.
 44

THE ARYAN RACE.

That they were acquainted with some large inland body of
water, is admitted. They had boats, which they moved by
oars. They had names for salt, and for crabs and mussels ;
but the oyster was unknown to their language, and they
knew nothing of the ocean. The salt lake on which they
made their maritime excursions is supposed by the Asiatic
advocates to have been the Caspian. Those who advocate
the Caucasian region, or the plains of southern Russia,
suppose it to have been the Caspian or the Black Sea, or
both. Those who place them in northern Europe point
to the Baltic as their sea.1

Other evidences that Europe was the original Aryan
home may be drawn from their historical distribution. At
the earliest dawn of history they were found in possession
of all Europe, except the frozen regions of Finland and
Lapland in the extreme north. All Europe is named with
their names, except where the geographical titles of the
Basques persist. There is nothing to indicate that they
are intruders, as in the case of the eastern Aryans. All
tradition makes them natives of the regions where found.
When first seen in history they are moving to the east
and the south, not to the west.

As to the extreme migratory theory of Aryan dispersion,
it can hardly be sustained. There is no evidence in its
favor in the history of human migrations. The only tribes
in the history of mankind which have completely released
their hold of their earl}T homes, and poured out en masse
in search of a new home, have been pastoral peoples, with

1 Late advocates of this theory are Professor Penka, who finds the
ancient Aryan home in Scandinavia, and Professor Schrader, who locates
them in northeastern Europe. Professor Savce, noticing the works of
these writers, considers the neighborhood of the Baltic the most probable
region.
 THE HOME OF THE ARYANS.

45

the possible exception of the legendary American migratory
movements of hunting tribes. In Europe and Asia such
complete migrations can be traced only to the pastoral
tribes of Arabia and Mongolia; there is no record of any
such movement of an agricultural people, such as the
Aryans had become in considerable measure at the period
of their supposed dispersion. That such a people could
have flowed out in several great successive waves of com-
plete migration to remote distances, is hardly credible,
and is utterly without warrant in the history of human
movements.

The Arabian outbreak of the Mohammedans was not a
migration in the complete sense. It was a swelling beyond
the national borders, incited by hope of plunder and desire
for religious propagandism. Arabia continued the centre
of the movement, and the only settlement made in a region
remote and disjoined from this central home was that
formed in Spain. This instance presents a suggestive par-
allel to that of the eastern Aryan branch, with its pious
horror of the impious tenets of its foes, and its wide sepa-
ration from its kindred race.

Yet the primitive Aryans, while advanced in great part
beyond that nomadic pastoral stage of industrial life which
has been the condition of all migrating peoples known to
history, had not yet reached that degree of political consol-
idation and religious culture requisite for definite invading
movements en masse for the purpose of propagandism. It
seems far more probable, therefore, that the movements of
the Aryans were expansions rather than migrations, — the
incessant bite of restless and enterprising tribes into the
domains of surrounding peoples. As their numbers in-
creased, and their primitive home became too small to hold
 46

THE ARYAN RACE.

them, they may have pushed out in this manner in all di-
rections with the restless energy which has always charac-
terized them, driving back the original populations before
their resistless expansion. This idea would seem to indi-
cate an original home in some such central region as that
suggested by Peschel, midway between the eastern and
western extremities of the Aryan outflow, and offering easy
roads for expansion alike to the East and the AVest.

The majority of the recent authors, however, seem inclined
to accept the Baltic or the Scandinavian region as the pri-
meval Aryan home. Of the several arguments offered in
support of the latter hypothesis the most potent one is the
fact that Scandinavia is the only region of the earth now
occupied by pure Xanthochroi, who lose their typical char-
acters more and more as we advance southward, until they
are quite lost in the strong preponderance of Melanochroic
blood. But this is by no means a convincing argument. The
degree of mingling with the aboriginal inhabitants depended
very much on the numbers of these inhabitants and on the
character of their treatment by their conquerors. Either
strong resistance or strong race prejudice might have re-
sulted in their annihilation or their complete disposses-
sion. The only Scandinavian aborigines of whom we have
any knowledge are the Lapps, — a Mongolian people with
whom the Aryans have shown no inclination to mingle, and
who may originally have been driven back to the frozen
plains which they at present inhabit. The Xanthochroic
purity of the Scandinavians can be accounted for quite as
well on this as on the other theory. The Germans and
the Celts of Gaul were of equally pure Xanthochroic blood
as recently as the times of Caesar and Tacitus. Their loss
of purity of type is due to a mixture since that period with
 THE HOME OF THE ARYANS.

47

the Melanochroic aboriginal element. No such mixture
appears to have taken place between the Scandinavians
and the Lapps.

A potent argument against the Scandinavian theory is
that the Aryans were a pastoral people in the early era of
the formation of their language, and partly pastoral at the
period of their migrations, their domesticated animals,
with the exception of the camel, being the same as those
possessed by the nomads of the Asiatic steppes. No pas-
toral people has ever originated except on broad, open
levels, with abundant pasturage, — a condition which the
Scandinavian peninsula does not present. Hunting and
fishing habits were the only ones likely to originate in that
wooded and seagirt land, except in the far North, where
the snowy levels gave an opportunity for the use of the
reindeer as a domesticated animal. But this native Scan-
dinavian beast of burden does not seem to have been known
to the primitive Aryans, — which would certainly not have
been the case had it been used by them or their immediate
neighbors. As the lack of a common word for the camel
has been used as an argument against Asia, so the similar
lack of a common word for the reindeer tells against Scandi-
navia as the primitive home of the Aiyans.

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