[Illustration: EUROPEAN.]
The BASKS appear to have been the original inhabitants of
Spain and Portugal, which have abandoned their former habitation and
now dwell in the mountains of Navarre and Gascony, just as the American
Indians may be supposed to dwell at some future time in the Rocky
Mountains.
The SKIPTAR are the inhabitants of Albania, much resembling in
personal appearance the Turks and Sclavonians, but having a language
derived from a different source. The following is a description of the
Albanian, from the "Penny Cyclopædia:"--
"The Albanians are about five feet and a half high, muscular and
straight in their persons. Their activity, and the tight girdles which
they wear, render them small round the loins; they have full broad
chests, long necks, long oval faces with prominent cheek bones, and
flat raised foreheads, arched eyebrows, blue or hazel (rarely quite
black) lively eyes, thin straight noses, thin but open nostrils, and
small mouths furnished with good teeth. Their complexions are white in
youth, but become tinged a dusky hue in old age."
The KELTS (or Celts) were the former inhabitants of both
France and England, they are now to be found chiefly in Ireland and the
Highlands of Scotland, and are called Gaelic Celts; the English are a
mixture of these with Saxon and German, but still retain a good deal of
the blood of the Celts; in Wales the Celts are derived from the ancient
British branch. The English retain more of the Germanic language, while
the Welsh retain most of the original British; the French are Celtic
mixed with Roman, and have therefore a great admixture of Latin in
their language. The Kelts appear to have been a race above the usual
height, with red or light hair, ruddy complexion, and of a fierce and
impetuous disposition.
The GREEKS and LATINS.--Of this stock, the
inhabitants of Italy and Greece are the purest descendants, but it is
extended with more or less contamination to Spain and the Danubian
Principalities. Italy was probably the original seat of both races.
The SARMATIANS.--This stock inhabits Russia, Poland, Bohemia,
Hungary, and Servia, all speaking the Sclavonic languages.
The GERMANS.--This race inhabits Germany, Holland, Denmark,
Sweden, and Norway, and its immediate branch the English, forming the
Anglo-Saxon family, are extended to America, Canada, Australia, and
other parts of the world by colonisation.
Dr. Pickering calls the European race Arabian, and makes it extend
through the whole of Europe, India, Arabia, and the northern parts of
Africa, believing all these to have been derived from the same stock,
and forming variations of the same family. The language spoken by the
Europeans of all classes has been called Indo-European, hence Pickering
classes with them the Hebrews, Armenians, Parsees, and many more, all
derived from a stock supposed to have migrated from Asia into Europe
and Africa.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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