The Ethnology of EuropeLatham, R. G. (Robert Gordon)
History
The Ethnology of Europe
Latham, R. G. (Robert Gordon)
Ethnology -- Europe
The next elements were Frisian; since traces of the Frisian occupancy
are found as far north as the Liimfjord--and beyond it.
The present language is Danish.
Originally the area of the non-Germanic _Jutæ_, Jutland, took its first
Germanic population from the Frisian area, its second from that of the
early Scandinavians. Where this was, and what the Jutæ were, however,
are complex questions which will be noticed towards the end of the
chapter.
_Iceland._--The Icelanders are one of the purest populations in the
world. Foreign elements arising out of the admixture of any population
antecedent to the present there are none. Foreign elements in the
original stock are but few; since it was from Norway and not from
Denmark that, in the ninth century, the island was peopled; and the
Norwegians are the purest portion of the Scandinavian stock. As a
general rule, the islanders are somewhat taller than the Norsemen of the
continent. In the other external points of appearance they are similar.
But an observation of Dr. Schleisner’s respecting their animal heat is
important. “The internal warmth of the human body is between 36.50° and
37° centigrade, and this passes for being the general temperature in all
latitudes, and in all climates, for all human beings, except new-born
children. But with a very delicate thermometer, well-fitted for the
purpose and which had previously been tried by other excellent
instruments, I have found from experiments on twelve healthy individuals
that the temperature within the cavity of the mouth was as follows:--
AGE. DEGREES.
23 37.3°
18 37.5°
17 37.2°
19 37.5°
24 37.°
20 36.5°
18 37.8°
17 37.6°
19 36.8°
37 37.4°
23 37.5°
20 37.2°
Average 37.27° centigrade.”[19]
As far as this differs from that of the Norwegians--a point upon which
our information is so incomplete as to make the previous table
suggestive rather than conclusive--the difference must be put down to
climate and similar external influences, rather than to that of what is
called _race_.
The Icelandic language has altered so little within the last one
thousand years that it is nearly the same as that of the old Sagas and
poems; Sagas and poems which every Icelander can read. On the other
hand, the change on the continent has been so great that no modern
dialect of Norway, Sweden, or Denmark, is intelligible to an Icelander.
Neither is any dialect that of the old Scandinavian literature.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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