Soane, in _To Mesopotamia and Kurdistan in Disguise_, gives a very full description of them, confirming the above. There are so many tribes differing from one another, that only the briefest summary may be given. It is found on pp. 398 _seq._ “Judged as specimens of the human form, there is probably no higher standard extant that that of the Kurds. The northerner is a tall, thin man (obesity is absolutely unknown among the Kurds). The nose is long, thin and often a little hooked, the mouth small, the face oval and long. The men usually grow a long moustache, and invariably shave the beard. The eyes are piercing and fierce. Among them are many of yellow hair and bright blue eyes; and the Kurdish infant of this type, were he placed among a crowd of English children, would be indistinguishable from them, for he has a white skin. In the south the face is a little broader sometimes, and the frame heavier. Of forty men of the southern tribes taken at random, there were nine under six feet, though among some tribes the average height is five feet nine. The stride is long and slow, and the endurance of hardship great. They hold themselves as only mountain men can do, proudly and erect.... Many and many a man have I seen among them who might have stood for the picture of a Norseman. Yellow, flowing hair, a long drooping moustache, blue eyes, and a fair skin—one of the most convincing proofs, if physiognomy be a criterion (were their language not a further proof), that the Anglo-Saxon and Kurd are one and the same stock.” For a list of Kurdish tribes and their numbers and affiliations see Mark Sykes, vol. XXXVIII of the _Jour. of the Roy. Anth. Soc. of Great Britain and Ireland_, and Von Luschan, _op. cit._ From all this evidence by men who have travelled among them it would appear that the Kurds are descendants of some ancient Nordic invaders who have found refuge in the mountain regions north of Mesopotamia. _Cf._ the note to p. 239 : 16. CHAPTER XI. RACIAL APTITUDES 226 : 7. Conklin, in _Heredity and Environment_, p. 207, says: “Psychological characters appear to be inherited in the same way that anatomical and physiological traits are; indeed, all that has been said regarding the correlation of morphological and physiological characters applies also to psychological ones. No one doubts that particular instincts, aptitudes and capacities are inherited among both animals and men, nor that different races and species differ hereditarily in psychological characteristics. The general tendency of recent work on heredity is unmistakable, whether it concerns man or lower animals. The entire organism, consisting of structures and functions, body and mind, develops out of the germ, and the organization of the germ determines all the possibilities of development of the mind no less than of the body, though the actual realization of any possibility is dependent also upon environmental stimuli.”