Man, Past and Present Part 54

[1082] "We recognize in the Pelasgi an ancient and honourable race, ante-h.e.l.lenic, it is true, but distinguished from the h.e.l.lenes only in the political and social development of their age.... Herodotus and others take a prejudiced view when, reasoning back from the subsequent Tyrrhenian Pelasgi, they call the ancient Pelasgians a rude and worthless race, their language barbarous, and their deities nameless.

Numerous traditionary accounts, of undoubted authenticity, describe them as a brave, moral, and honourable people, which was less a distinct stock and tribe, than a race united by a resemblance in manners and the forms of life" (W. Wachs.m.u.th, _The Historical Antiquities of the Greeks_, etc., Engl. ed. 1837, I. p. 39). Remarkable words to have been written before the recent revelations of archaeology in h.e.l.las.

[1083] That the two cultures went on for a long time side by side is evident from the different social inst.i.tutions and religious ideas prevailing in different parts of h.e.l.las during the strictly historic period.

[1084] [Greek: kata ten h.e.l.lada pasan epepolase] (Strabo, V. 220). This might almost be translated, "they flooded the whole of Greece."

[1085] _Early Age of Greece_, 1901, Chaps. I. and II.

[1086] _Od._ XIX.

[1087] Thuc. I. 3.

[1088] This idea of an independent evolution of western (European) culture is steadily gaining ground, and is strenuously advocated, amongst others, by M. Salomon Reinach, who has made a vigorous attack on what he calls the "oriental mirage," _i.e._ the delusion which sees nothing but Asiatic or Egyptian influences everywhere. Sergi of course goes further, regarding the Mediterranean (Iberian, Ligurian, Pelasgian) cultures not only as local growths, but as independent both of Asiatics and of the rude Aryan hordes, who came rather as destroyers than civilisers. This is one of the fundamental ideas pervading the whole of his _Arii e Italici_, and some earlier writings.

[1089] Pausanias, III. 20. 5.

[1090] G. Sergi, _The Mediterranean Race_, 1901. In the main he is supported by philologists. "The languages of the indigenous peoples throughout Asia Minor and the Aegean area are commonly believed to have been non-Indo-European." H. M. Chadwick, _The Heroic Age_, 1912, p. 179 n.

[1091] W. Ridgeway, _The Early Age of Greece_, 1901, p. 681 ff.

[1092] _The Dawn of History_, 1911, p. 40. For his views on Pelasgians, see _Journ. h.e.l.l. St._ 1907, p. 170, and the Art. "Pelasgians" in _Ency.

Brit._ 1911.

[1093] E. Petersen and F. von Luschan, _Reisen in Lykien_, 1889.

[1094] W. Z. Ripley, _The Races of Europe_, p. 404 ff. The map (facing p. 402) does not include Greece, and the grouping is based on language, not race.

[1095] The Mykenaean skull found by Bent at Antiparos is described as "abnormally dolichocephalic." W. Ridgeway, _Early Age of Greece_, I.

1901, p. 78.

[1096] But in Ridgeway's view the "cla.s.sical h.e.l.lenes" were descendants of tall fair-haired invaders from the North, and in this he has the concurrence of J. L. Myres, _The Dawn of History_, 1911, p. 209.

[1097] _Mitt. d. K. d. Inst. Athen._ x.x.x. See H. R. Hall, _Ancient History of the Near East_, 1913, pp. 61-4.

[1098] _Geschichte des Altertums_, I. 2, 1909, -- 507.

[1099] For a discussion of the meaning of "Pelasgic Argos" see H. M.

Chadwick, _The Heroic Age_, 1912, pp. 274 ff. and 278-9, and for his criticism of Meyer, p. 285.

[1100] But see W. Ridgeway, _Early Age of Greece_, I. 1901, p. 138 ff.

[1101] Art. "Indo-European Languages," _Ency. Brit._ 1911.

[1102] R. S. Conway, Art. "Aegean Civilisation," in _Ency. Brit._ 1911, whence this summary is derived, including the chronology, which is not in all respects universally adopted (see p. 27). For a full discussion of the chronology see J. Dechelette, _Manuel d'Archeologie prehistorique_, Vol. II. 1910, _Archeologie celtique ou protohistorique_, Ch. II. -- V. Chronologie egeenne, p. 54 ff.

[1103] In his valuable and comprehensive work, _Africa: Antropologia della Stirpe Camitica_, Turin, 1897. It must not be supposed that this cla.s.sification is unchallenged. T. A. Joyce, "Hamitic Races and Languages," _Ency. Brit._ 1911, points out that it is impossible to prove the connection between the Eastern and Northern Hamites. The former have a brown skin, with frizzy hair, and are nomadic or semi-nomadic pastors; the latter, whom he would call not Hamites at all, but the Libyan variety of the Mediterranean race, are a white people, with curly hair, and their purest representatives, the Berbers, are agriculturalists. For the fullest and most recent treatment of the subject see the monumental work of Oric Bates, _The Eastern Libyans: An Essay_, 1913, with bibliography.

[1104] "Les Maures du Senegal," _L'Anthropologie_, 1896, p. 258 sq.

[1105] That is, the _Sanhaja-an Litham_, those who wear the _litham_ or veil, which is needed to protect them from the sand, but has now acquired religious significance, and is never worn by the "Moors."

[1106] p. 269.

[1107] See F. Stuhlmann's invaluable work on African culture and race distribution, _Handwerk und Industrie in Ostafrika_, 1910, especially the map showing the distribution of the Hamites, Pl. II. B.

[1108] The Kababish and Baggara tribes, chief mainstays of former Sudanese revolts, claim to be of unsullied Arab descent with long fict.i.tious pedigrees going back to early Muhammadan times (see p. 74).

[1109] "Les Chaouias," _L'Anthropologie_, 1897, p. 14.

[1110] P. 17.

[1111] The words collected by Sir H. H. Johnston at Dwirat in Tunis show a great resemblance with the language of the Saharan Tuaregs, and the sheikh of that place "admitted that his people could understand and make themselves understood by those fierce nomads, who range between the southern frontier of Algeria and Tunis and the Sudan" (_Geogr. Jour._, June, 1898, p. 590).

[1112] Cf. Meinhof, _Die Moderne Sprachforschung in Africa_, 1910.

[1113] _Ti-bu_ = "Rock People"; cf. _Kanem-bu_ = "Kanem People,"

southernmost branch of the family on north side of Lake Chad.

[1114] [Greek: Onton de kai auton ede mallon Aithiopon] (I. 8). I take [Greek: ede], which has caused some trouble to commentators, here to mean that, as you advance southwards from the Mediterranean seaboard, you find yourself on entering Garamantian territory already rather amongst Ethiopians than Libyans.

[1115] Reclus, Eng. ed. Vol. XI. p. 429. For the complicated ancestral mixture producing the Tibu see Sir H. H. Johnston, "A Survey of the Ethnography of Africa," _Journ. Roy. Anthr. Inst._ XLIII. 1913, p. 386.

[1116] Reclus, Eng. ed. Vol. XI. p. 430.

[1117] From the enormous sheets of tuffs near the Kharga Oasis Zettel, geologist of G. Rohlf's expedition in 1876, considered that even this sandy waste might have supported a rich vegetation in Quaternary times.

[1118] See _Histoire de la Civilisation egyptienne_, G. Jequier, 1913, p. 53 ff. Also, concerning pottery, E. Naville, "The Origin of Egyptian Civilisation," _Journ. Roy. Anthr. Inst._ x.x.xVII. 1907, p. 203.

[1119] The Egyptians themselves had a tradition that when Menes moved north he found the delta still under water. The sea reached almost as far as the Fayum, and the whole valley, except the Thebais, was a malarious swamp (Herod. II. 4). Thus late into historic times memories still survived that the delta was of relatively recent formation, and that the _Retu_ (_Romitu_ of the Pyramid texts, later _Rotu_, _Romi_, etc.) had already developed their social system before the Lower Nile valley was inhabitable. Hence whether the Nile took 20,000 years (Schweinfurth) or over 70,000, as others hold, to fill in its estuary, the beginning of the Egyptian prehistoric period must still be set back many millenniums before the new era. "Ce que nous savons du Sahara, lui-meme alors sillonne de rivieres, atteste qu'il [the delta] ne devait pas etre habitable, pas etre const.i.tue a l'epoque quaternaire" (M.

Zaborowski, _Bul. Soc. d'Anthrop._ 1896, p. 655).

[1120] G. Jequier, _Histoire de la Civilisation egyptienne_, 1913, p.

95, but see E. Naville, "The Origin of Egyptian Civilisation," _Journ.

Roy. Anthr. Inst._ x.x.xVII. 1907, p. 209.

[1121] _Handwerk und Industrie in Ostafrika_, 1910, p. 143.

[1122] "Migrations," _Journ. Anthr. Inst._ x.x.xVI. 1906.

[1123] "A Survey of the Ethnography of Africa," _Journ. Roy. Anthr.

Inst._ XLIII. 1913.

[1124] See p. 482 below.

[1125] For an alternative route see E. Naville, "The Origin of Egyptian Civilisation," _Journ. Roy. Anthr. Inst._ x.x.xVII. 1907, p. 209; J. L.

Myres, _The Dawn of History_, 1911, pp. 56-7, also p. 65, and the criticism of Elliot Smith, _The Ancient Egyptians_, 1911, pp. 88-9.

[1126] _The Ancient Egyptians_, 1911.