I.

EUROPEAN INDO-GERMANS.

Of this class the sub-divisions are three--1. The Gothic. 2. The Sarmatian. 3. The Mediterranean Indo-Germans.

1.

GOTHS.

_Physical conformation._--_a._ Blue eyes, flaxen hair, ruddy complexion, smooth skin, fleshy limbs.

_b._ Eyes, gray, dark, or hazel; hair, brown or black; complexion, sallow or swarthy; bulk, varied.

_Area._--Preeminently encroaching.

_a._ _Original._--Western Germany, Denmark(?), southern part of Scandinavia(?).

_b._ _Present._--Germany and Scandinavia in general, Switzerland, Holland, Belgium, Great Britain and Ireland, the United States of America, Canada, Australia.

_Descent._--From the Germans of that part of the ancient _Germania_ which lay (there or thereabouts) between the rivers Rhine and Elbe.--Batavi, Chamavi, Caninifates, Frisii, Chauci, Angrivarii, Bructeri, Catti, Cherusci, Fosi, Marcomanni, &c.

_Primary Divisions._--_a._ Teutons. _b._ Scandinavians.

_a._

TEUTONS.

_Area._--Germany.

_Language._--Without a middle (or passive voice) and with the definite article separate from and preceding its noun.

_Primary divisions._--α. Mœso-Goths. β. High Germans, γ. Low Germans.

α.

MŒSO-GOTHS.

_Original area._--The water-system of the Upper Danube, probably parts of Bavaria and Thuringian Saxony.

_Area in the third and fourth centuries._--The Roman province of Mœsia.

_Language._--Partially preserved in the Translation of the Scriptures, by Ulphilas, in the reign of Valens.

_Divisions._--1. Ostrogoths (=_East_-Goths), of which the royal line was that of the Amalungs. 2. Visi-Goths (=_West_-Goths); of which the royal line was that of the Baltungs.

_Current names._--Probably not given till after the occupation of the country by the Getæ.

_Native names._--Probably Grutungs and Tervings (Thuringians).

Reasons for believing that the so-called Goths of the Lower Danube were _not_ indigenous to the country in which we find them in the reign of Valens, that they were in no wise descendants of the Getæ, and that they were not known by the name _Goth_ until they took possession of the country of the Getæ, are given in the Transactions of the British Association for 1849, and in The English Language of the present writer.

He now arrives at their probable home in Germany by the _method of exclusion_, _i.e._ by determining what portions of Germany were most certainly occupied by _non_-Mœso-Gothic populations.

These he places in the country, drained by the northern feeders of the Upper Danube, believing that from this point the migration took place by the waters of the Danube rather than by land.

The two following facts are the chief reasons for this latter view:--

1. Their subsequent maritime career on the Euxine.

2. Their _non_-occurrence at intermediate points.--The first place whereat we hear of them is Marcianopolis, as far east as the vicinity of the Euxine. From this they afterwards move westward, _i.e._ towards Rome and Spain.

β.

HIGH GERMANS.

_Area._--Hesse and parts of Thuringia and Bavaria; conterminous (though by frontiers hitherto imperfectly investigated) with the Kelts of the Upper Rhine, the Slavonians of the Upper Elbe, and the original area of the Mœso-Goths.

_Language._--Forming the plurals of nouns in _-n_ rather than in _-s_, and those of verbs in _-n_, _-m_, or _-nt_, rather than in _-th_ (_dh_).

_High Germans of the Roman period._--Alemanni, Suevi(?), Burgundians(?).

The spread of the Teutonic populations, as contrasted with the Keltic, Slavonic, and Roman, in general, combined with the numerous displacements of particular portions of the German tribes themselves, makes the question of _descent_ excessively complicated. Perhaps the best present representatives of the High-Germanic division are the modern--

HESSIANS.

_Locality._--Hesse, conterminous with the Franks, Saxons, and Thuringians.

_Descent._--The Catti.

And after these the--

THURINGIANS.

_Area._--Bounded, east and west, by the rivers Werra and Saal, the latter a Slavono-Germanic limit. In its southern extension, probably, passing into some language representing the Mœso-Gothic.

Conterminous with the Hessians on the west, either a nation, or a confederacy, and transitional between the High and Low Germans; the--

FRANKS.

_Language._--More Dutch than Saxon or Frisian, and (perhaps) more High German than Dutch.

_Area._--Indeterminate, but ethnologically bounded by those of the Batavians, Old Saxons, and High Germans. _Encroaching_; being that of the population which either displaced or incorporated the Old and the Hanoverian Saxons, as well as the greater part of the Slavonians of the Elbe.

_Descent._--Usipetes, Ripuarii, Sicambri.

γ.

LOW GERMANS.

_Languages._--With the plural forms generally ending in _-a_, or _-s_ rather than _-n_.

_Area._--The Lower Rhine, Ems, Weser; the Elbe near its mouth.

_Divisions._--1. Batavians. 2. Saxons, 3. Frisians.

BATAVIANS.

_Locality._--Holland _minus_ Friesland.

_Language._--Low German, with the plurals ending in _-n_, rather than _-s_, _-a_, or _-r_.

_Descent._--From the Batavi, Chamavi, Tubantes, Salii(?), Caninifates.

SAXONS.

_Language._--Forming the infinitive mood in _-an_ (not in _-a_), certain plurals in _-as_ (not in _-n_), and the plural of the present tense in _-þ_ (not in _-n_, or _-a_).

_Divisions._--1. _Nordalbingians_ (=north of the Elbe) of Holstein. Most probably Saxons. Extinct, or incorporated.

2. _Saxons of Hanover._--Extinct, or incorporated in Germany. The Anglo-Saxons of England.

3. _Saxons of Osnaburg and Westphalia._--Extinct or incorporated. Descendants of the Cherusci.

FRISIANS.

_Language._--Low German, with the infinitives ending in _-a_.

_Physical appearance._--Preeminently of the first type.

_Divisions and localities._--1. West Frisians, of Friesland and Groningen; the latter speaking the Dutch of Holland. Descendants of the Frisii.

2. East Frisians of East Friesland, Oldenburg, and Hanover.

_Language._--Except in Saterland, replaced by the German. Descent from the Chauci.

3. North Frisians of Heligoland, and the parts about Husum and Bredsted, in Sleswick.

The date of the occupancy of the North Frisians is uncertain. Probably, they are emigrants from Hanoverian Friesland rather than aborigines.

The Frisian is the most unmixed, and typical portion of the Gothic population. It is also transitional between the Teutons and the--

_b._

SCANDINAVIANS.

_Area._--Denmark and Scandinavia.

_Languages._--With a middle voice, and with the definite article incorporated with, and appended to, its noun. (Thus, whilst _sol_=_sun_ and _bord_=_table_, _hin_=_the_ for the masculine, and _hitt_=_the_ for the neuter gender, _sol-en_=_the sun_, and _bord-et_=_the table_.)

_Divisions more or less artificial._--1. Icelander. 2. Feroe Islanders. 3. Norwegians. 4. Swedes. 5. Danes.

What is the import of the differences just indicated between the Scandinavian tongues and the Teutonic; are they of such slow growth as to denote a very early separation of the Dane and Swede from the Northern German, or might they be evolved in a comparatively short space of time? The answer to this involves the question as to date of the Scandinavian migration into the parts north of the Eyder.

My own opinion is that a common mother-tongue might, _within the space of a few centuries_, develop itself into the languages represented by the present Frisian on the South, and the Scandinavian dialects on the North respectively. If so, the Gothic occupation of the Scandinavian area need not amount to any very remote antiquity. Probably, I am singular in this opinion. It will be noticed again within a few pages.[188]

2.

SARMATIANS.

As this class comprises the Lithuanic as well as Slavonic members of the so-called Indo-European class, the term _Sarmatian_ has been preferred to either of the more sectional denominations.

_Physical conformation._--According to Retzius, brakhykephalic rather than dolikhokephalic, Indo-Germans. In many cases approaching the Turanian type.

_Intermixture._--Turanian, arising from the so-called Tartar invasions. How far the Tartar intermixture coincides with the brakhykephalic formation of the cranium requires investigation.

_Extent of area._--West and east from (about) 10° to (about) 40° west latitude. From (about) 40° north latitude to (about) 60° north latitude.

_Primary divisions._--1. Lithuanians. 2. Slavonians (Slaves).

The point most open to objection in the present section is extent, to which the _original_ area of the Sarmatians is brought westwards.

_a._

LITHUANIANS.

_Philological Divisions._--1. _Prussian_ (or _Old_ Prussian).--Dialects of Samland, Nattangen, Tolkemir--Extinct, and known only through a pater-noster and a vocabulary of A.D. 1521, a catechism of A.D. 1545, and a pater-noster of A.D. 1561. Spoken in West and East Prussia from (there or thereabouts) the Vistula to the Pregel.

2. _Lithuanic._--Spoken from the Pregel to the frontier of Courland.--Dialects of Insterburg and Nadrau in Prussia, and the Shamaitic dialect in Polish Lithuania.

3. _Lettish._--Courland, Southern Livonia, parts of Wilna, and Witepsk.--_Dialects_--numerous, _i.e._ for the parts about Liebau (corrupt), Mittau (pure), Riga (pure), Dunaburg (corrupt).

_Descent._--A. From nations of tribes of the Middle Ages--

_a._ The Galanditæ, Sudowitæ, Pomerani, Pogesani, Warmienses (Hermini, Jarmenses), Nattangi, Barthi, Nadrovitæ, Sambitæ, Scalovitæ.

_b._ Jaswingi, Pollexiani.

_c._ Lettones, Samogitæ, Semgalli, Carsowitæ.

_d._ Curi (Curanii), Lami (Lamonii), Lettgalli (Letti), Ydumei, Selones,--_Zeuss_, pp. 674--683.

B. From the nations or tribes of classical antiquity.--The Ὠστίωνες of Stephanus Byzantinus=the Ὠστίαιοι of Artemidorus= the Κόσσινοι of Pytheas=the Gothones (Guttones) of Tacitus; the Lemovii.

_Pantheon._--Perkunos, Potrimpos, Picollos.

_Native name of a certain section._--Guddon (=Guttones).

The main points connected with the Lithuanian branch of the Sarmatian stock are the following:--

1. Of all the Iapetidæ they preserved their original paganism the longest.

2. Of all the Iapetidæ they have had the least influence on the history of mankind.

3. Of all the Iapetidæ they speak a language nearest in structure to the Sanskrit. It is the latter fact which has given prominence to the _Philological Divisions_ of so important a tongue.

Prominence, too, has been given to their relations in the way of descent, since the denial of the existence of any nations, other than Sarmatian, as occupants of the water-systems of either the Vistula or the Oder, anterior to the tenth century, notwithstanding the numerous statements as to the occurrence of Gothic tribes in the present countries of Mecklenburg, Pomerania, Prussia, Courland, and even Esthonia, is a point to which I have no hesitation in committing myself; a series of papers upon the subject being in the course of delivery and publication, for the Philological Society.

Furthermore, whoever will so far divest himself of his prepossessions as to admit the possibility of the _Jute_ of _Jut_land, and the _Goth_ of _Goth_land being something other than _Gothic_ in the usual sense of the term, will find that no provisional hypothesis will explain so many of the difficulties created by the conflicting evidence involved in the terms _Jute_, _Eote_, _Goth_, _Reid-Goth_, _Gaut_, &c., as that of an _extension of the Lithuanian Vitæ, or Guttones, to the southern parts of Sweden and to Jutland_.

I say, Lithuanian _Vitæ_ and _Guttones_, because whatever may be the value of other supposed applications of the roots _Goth-_, _Jut-_, and _Vit-_, the only families to which any of them have undeniably been brought home as a native name are the Lithuanic.

Besides this, I am so far from attributing either an over-high antiquity, or a preeminent independence of origin to the Scandinavian mythology, that I see in the God _Ymer_, the Finnic _Yumala_, and in the _Fiorgyn_, the Lithuanic _Perkunos_.

Lastly, the combination _k-l-m_ (as in Kalmar) is not the only geographical root common to the two sides of the Baltic, Lithuanic and Swedish.

Still, the hypothesis is, at present, little beyond a mere suggestion.

_b._

SLAVONIANS.

_Divisions._--A. _Extent._--Chiefly philological. α. Russians. β. Servians, γ. Illyrians. δ. Tsheks. ε. Poles. ϛ. Serbs. ζ. Polabi.

B. _Extinct or incorporate, but undoubtedly Slavonic._--The Slavonians of Mecklenburg, Brandenburg, Uckermark, Altmark, Luneburg, Holstein, &c.

C.--_Extinct or incorporate, but not undoubted Slavonic._--The following nations of antiquity.--1. Scoloti (Σκόλοτοι), Getæ, Daci, Thracians, Pannonians, original inhabitants of Noricum and Dalmatia, Crobyzi (whence _Chrobati_ and _Croatian_), &c.

_Descent._--_a._ From nations _and tribes mentioned by the authors of Classical Antiquity._--Thracians (?), Getæ(?), Daci(?), Pannonii(?), Iazyges, Limigantes, Quadi, Ligii (Lekhs=Poles), Silingæ, Bastarnæ, Suardones, Rugii, Buri, Sciri, Turcilingi, Venedæ, &c.

_b._ _From nations and tribes mentioned by Slavonic authors._--Morawa (Moravians), Czeczi (Bohemians), Chorwati bjelii (= White Croatians), Serb', Chorutane (Carantanians), Ljachowe (Lekhs=Poles), Luticzi, Masowszane (Masovians), Pomoranje (Pomeranians), Derewljane, Poloczane (probably Lithuanians), Sjewera, Radimeczi, Wjaticzi.--_Zeuss._

_Earliest introduction of Christianity._--The eighth century.

_Pagan Pantheon._--_a._ _Of the Middle Age writers._--Veli-bog=White God, Czerne-bog (Tshernibog)=Black God, Perown, Sviatowit (Swantevit), Radegast, Vitislav, Krasopani, Pogwist, Jessa, Laicon, Nia, Marzana, Zievonia, Lelus, Potetus, Liadu, Djedijielia, Pogoda.

_b._ _Of the Classical writers._--Zamolxis, Gebeleixis(?).

α.

RUSSIANS.

_Original area._---Roughly speaking, the eastern part of the water-system of the Dnieper.

_Conterminous with_--_a._ Lithuanians on the Middle Pripet, and Upper Duna (_i.e._ in Mensk and Viteskp). _b._ Ugrians along the Valdai range, and on the Oka. _c._ Ugrians, Turks, or Caucasian, south-east.

_Dialects._--_a._ Russian Proper, _b._ Susdalian, spoken in the government of Moscow. _c._ Olonetz. _d._ Malo-Russian (Little Russian) of the Ukraine, probably passing into the _e._ Russniak of Bukowina, Lodomir, and Gallicia and _f._ the White Russian of Volhynia.

_Alphabets._--Derived directly from the Old Slavonic, indirectly from the Greek.

_Christianity._--Greek Church. Introduced between A.D. 980, and A.D. 1015.

β.

SERVIANS.

_Divisions._--1. Servians of Servia, Slavonia, Transylvania, and New Servia (a Russian colony on the Dnieper, settled A.D. 1754).[189] 2. Bosniaks of Bosnia and Herzegovina (Mahometans). 3. Dalmatians, Ragusans, and Montenegriners of Monte Negro, conterminous with the Albanians.

_Alphabet._--Old Slavonic, of Cyrillus and Methodius for Servia. Glagolitic for Dalmatia. Both of Greek origin.

_Christianity._--Greek Church. Introduced anterior to 800 A.D. Old Slavonic, the church language.

γ.

ILLYRIANS.

_Divisions._--_a._ Croatian. _b._ Slovenzi of Carinthia, Carniola, Steyermark, South-western Hungary.

_Alphabet._--Originally of Greek origin, or Glagolitic. Replaced by the Roman.

_Christianity._--Originally of the Greek Church; replaced by Romanism.

δ.

TSHEKS.

_Native name._--Tshekh (Czech)=_foremost_(?).

_Descent._--The Western _Daci_ (=_Czech_?).

_Divisions._--_a._ The Czesky Gazyk=Tshekh language of Bohemia. _b._ The Morawsky Gazyk=Moravian language of Moravia. _c._ Slovac, Upper Hungary, _i.e._ the water-systems of the rivers Waag and Gran.

_Alphabet._--Roman.

_Christianity._--Roman Catholic, introduced in the ninth century.

ε.

POLES.

_Philological divisions._--1. Of Poland, Posen, and parts of Lithuania and Gallicia.

2. _Kassubic._--_a._ Of West Prussia. _b._ Pomerania.

_Descent._--From the Lygii of Tacitus.

_Alphabets._--Roman.

_Christianity._--Roman Catholic and Protestant.

Native name of at least one tribe--_Lekh_, the term Pole, being the geographical rather than ethnological, and=_level plains_.

ϛ.

SERBS.

_Localities and divisions._--_a._ The Sserske (a native name) of Lower, _b._ The Srbie (do) of Upper, Lusatia.

_Partial descent._--The Silingi.

ζ

POLABIC SLAVONIANS.

The word _po_=_on_, and _Labe_=_Elbe_, so that the Polabic Slavonians means the Slavonians on the Elbe. The importance of this section arises from the fact that at the time of Charlemagne they were, with the exception of the tract occupied by the Saxons of Holstein, and the north-west part of Hanover, not only the occupants of Mecklenburg, and the parts _east_ of that river, but of Lauenburg, Luneburg, Altmark, and a vast section of Germany to the _west_ of it.

To suppose that the Slavonic frontier was not equally extended westwards, in the eighth, seventh, sixth, fifth, fourth, third, second, or first centuries, is, in the first instance, to admit the accuracy of an author like Tacitus.

On the other hand, however, it involves the assumption of so vast an amount of migration, displacement, and other unlikely ethnological processes, that a writer who weighs conflicting probabilities is led to the conclusion that a great historian is more likely to be wrong in the ethnology of countries like Prussia and Poland--countries which could be known to Tacitus only as the interior of Africa can be known to Mr. Hallam or Macaulay--than that, between A.D. 100, and 900, a whole Gothic population, extending from the Niemen to the Elbe, should have been replaced by a Slavonic one, without leaving a single trace of its existence in any intermediate locality; the same encroaching Slavonians, when we first find them mentioned by cotemporary historians, being themselves in a state of displacement by the same previously-displaced Germans.

This, however, is but a very general and superficial view of the difficulties that attend the belief that the Oder and Vistula were originally German. Nevertheless, it is all that room can be found for here.

As to the tribes themselves the chief were--

_The Wagrians._--Occupants of the country between the Trave and the upper portion of the southern branch of the Eyder.

_The Polabi._--Conterminal with the Wagrians and the Saxons of Sturmar, from whom they were separated by the river Bille.

_The Obodriti._--This is a generic rather than a specific term. It means, however, the tribes between the Trave and the Warnow; chiefly along the coast. Zeuss makes Schwerin their most inland locality.

_Varnahi._--This is the form which the name takes in Adam of Bremen. It is also that of the Varni, Varini and Veruni of the classical writers; as well as the Werini of the Introduction to the _Leges Anglorum et Werinorum, hoc est Thuringorum_.

_Linones._--Luneburg. Language spoken during the last century. Known through a pater-noster. Slavonic, modified by German.

Such are the chief western Slavonians of the time of Charlemagne. If they were not also the western Slavonians of the first and second centuries, they must have emigrated between the two periods;[190] "must have done so, not in parts but for the whole frontier; must have, for the first and last time, displaced a population which has ever been the conqueror rather than the conquered; must have displaced it during one of the strongest periods of its history; must have displaced it everywhere, and wholly; and (what is stranger still) that not permanently--since, from the time in question, these same Germans, who, between A.D. 200 and A.D. 800, always retreated before the Slavonians, have from A.D. 800 to A.D. 1800, always reversed the process, and encroached upon their former dispossessors."

3.

MEDITERRANEAN INDO-GERMANS.

_Physical conformation._--Dolikhokephalic, high facial angle; hair, eyes, and complexion, dark; frame, more slender than bulky.

When we consider that the aborigines of Spain were Iberic, that they probably extended as far as the Rhone, and that the ancient Ligurians of the Gulf of Genoa are not absolutely known in respect to their ethnological relations, the apparent impropriety of restricting the term _Mediterranean_ to the classical nations of Greece and Italy becomes diminished; to which it may be added that the undoubted civilizational influence of the land-and-water conditions of these two peninsulas requires some term to suggest it. The term, nevertheless, is open to amendment.

So much of what belongs to Greece and Italy is historical, that the brevity of the preceding and following notices may be excused.

MEDITERRANEAN FAMILIES AND NATIONS.

_Localities._--Greece and Italy.

_Area._--Discontinuous.

_Divisions._--1. The Hellenic branch. 2. The Italian (Ausonian) branch.

_Historical Influence._--Preeminently moral. Material as well.

The discontinuity of the Greek and Italian areas is a difficulty which requires more investigation than it has met with, and is a purely ethnological question.

So is the archæological part of both the Greek and Roman ethnology, _i.e._ the relations of the Hellenes and Latins to the early inhabitants of their respective peninsulas.

So is the analysis of their present representatives, _e. g._ the question as to the amount of Slavonic, Italian, or Albanian blood in the modern Greek, or the determination of the Keltic, Roman, and Gothic elements amongst the French.

Of the sub-divisions of the--

ITALIAN BRANCH

the following classification is, perhaps, the most convenient; to which the previous arrangement of the ethnological elements into _a_, the Original; _b_, the Roman; and _c_, the Superadded, gives precision.

1. _Italians._--_Original Elements_--_a_, Samnite, Etruscan, Keltic(?), Ligurian, &c.; _b_, Roman of Rome; _c_, German.

2. _Hesperians. (Spanish and Portuguese)._--_a_, Iberian, Celtic(?); _b_, Roman of the time of the second Punic war; _c_, Gothic, Arabian.

3. _French._--_a_, Celtic for the North, Iberian for the South; _b_, Roman, chiefly from the time of Cæsar; _c_, German.

4. _Swiss of Graubündten._--_a_, Undetermined; _b_, Roman of an uncertain, though probably late, period; _c_, German.

5. _Wallachians._--_a_, Undetermined; probably Slavonic; _b_, Roman of the time of Trajan; _c_, Turk (Hun, Comanian, and Bulgarian), Slavonic, German, Ottoman, Turk.