The purity of the Albanian blood is considerable; and I believe that, as the Skipetar were once spread far wider in every direction than they are to be found at present,[2] and as their frontier has receded, the amount of Albanian blood beyond Albania is very great, whereas the foreign blood within Albania itself is but slight. The dark complexions of the Gheghides may, or may not, be referable to Slavonic intermixture. The lighter skins of the Toskides may, or may not, indicate purity. It is worth remarking, however, that the fair complexion is found in the parts most removed from the frontier, as well as in the parts where the intermixture (such as it is) has been the least. The Taulantii and Parthini are the populations of antiquity, whose localities coincide with that of the Toskides. The colonies of Epidamnus and Apollonia suggest the notion of Greek, the Via Egnatia of Roman intermixture. The Liapides are in the country of the Orestæ and Atintanes, the Gheghs in that of the Encheleæ, the Mirdites in that of the Pirustæ. In the northern part of their area was the colony of Epidaurus, and the Dalmatian frontier. Hitherto the opportunities of intermixture have been but slight. With that part, however, of Albania which coincides with the ancient Epirus, rather than with Southern Illyria the case is different. In the time of Pyrrhus it was Hellenized, and at the very earliest dawn of history its population was modified still more considerably. By whom? By the inhabitants of the opposite coast of Italy, whoever they were. This is as much as is necessary to say about the Skipetar of Albania at present. They are the descendants of the Southern Illyrians and the ancient Epirots--Chaonians, Thesprotians, Molossians, &c. They are pure in blood, as compared with nine-tenths of the rest of Europe; but still more or less mixed, the chief foreign elements being ancient Italian, Greek, and Roman. CHAPTER II. SPAIN AND PORTUGAL.--THE EUSKALDUNAC, OR BASQUES.--THE IBERIAN STOCK.--THE TURDETANIAN CIVILIZATION.--PHŒNICIAN--ROMAN--VANDAL--GOTHIC ELEMENTS.--KELTIBERIANS.--THE ORIGINAL KELTÆ IBERIANS.--THE WORD KELTIC OF IBERIAN ORIGIN.--THE ARAB CONQUEST.--EXPULSION OF THE ARABS.--THE JEWS OF SPAIN.--GIPSIES.--PHYSICAL AND MORAL CHARACTERISTICS OF THE MODERN SPANIARDS.--PORTUGAL.