Page:Popular Science Monthly Volume 53.djvu/751

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THE RACIAL GEOGRAPHY OF EUROPE.
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Tchoids, and Vods, are still more distinct. Our map at once brings the peculiar head-form of these groups into strong relief. All along the frontier of Germany, and away up to Finland, a strong tendency to long-headedness is manifested. This contrast, as it appears to the ordinary traveler, is exemplified in our portraits. A narrow head generally is accompanied by a rather long and narrow face; our Mongol types, with their very round bullet heads, are characteristically broad and squarish-faced. This is partially due to the prominence of the cheek bones. It is this latter characteristic of our American aborigines which gives them their peculiar Mongol aspect. I have observed the very broad face to be one of the most persistent traits in the cross-breeds. Dr. Boas has proved it statistically. Even a trace of Indian blood will often cause this peculiarity. Now, the Russians express their relative broad-headedness, as compared with the Letto-Lithuanians and Baltic Finns, in the relatively squarish form of their faces.[1] The Volga Finns, on the other hand, with more admixture of Mongol blood, are perceptibly broader faced. Our portraits make this difference apparent at once.

South and west of the Carpathian Mountains a second great division of the Slavs exists. This includes the Poles, Czechs, Slovaks, Moravians; and—divided from them by the intrusive Magyars, who speak a Finnic language—the Slovenes, Serbo-Croatians, and Bosnians in the south. This congeries of scattered Slavic nationalities seems to be, for some reason, politically adrift in Europe. The Bulgars and Roumanians belong to a still different class. For the former, while Slavic in speech, is quite distinct in physical derivation; and the Roumanians, in origin probably allied to the Slavs, speak a corrupted Romance language. Matters are indeed becoming mixed as we approach the Balkan Peninsula. This entire group of southwestern Slavs is characterized by a very prevalent broad-headedness, much more marked than among the Russians, as Weisbach has been proving for twenty-five years. Their brachycephaly is directly conjoined to that of the Alpine highlands in the Tyrol, where we pass beyond the limits of Slavdom, and enter the territory once occupied by the Celts. Our map points to a once universal broad-headedness over all the present Austro-Hungarian Empire, from which a spur seems to extend over into Little Russia, becoming lost in an expanse of longer-headedness in the plains beyond. All the mountainous regions are still characterized by brachycephaly; it is a repetition of the law which holds good throughout western Europe. This brachy-


  1. Talko-Hryncewicz, 1893, p. 169, and Majer and Kopernicky, 188.5, p. 59, show the round broad face of the Poles in Galicia, as compared with the Ruthenians. The Carpathian mountaineers seem to be anomalously long-faced. (Kopernicky, 1889, p. 49.)