The Human Race Part 4

What we have just said with regard to the civilization and power of the white race applies with most force to the peoples who form the European branch.

Proceeding upon considerations grounded chiefly upon language, we distinguish among the peoples forming the European branch, three great families: the _Teutonic_, _Latin_ and _Slavonic_, to which must be added a smaller family, the _Greek_.

Although great differences exist between the languages spoken by the peoples composing these four families, these languages are all in some manner connected with Sanskrit, that is the language used in the ancient sacred books of the Hindus. The a.n.a.logy of European languages with Sanskrit, added to the antiquity evidenced by the historical records of many Asiatic nations, and notably of the Hindus, brings us to the admission that Europeans first came from Asia.

TEUTONIC FAMILY.

The people comprised in the Teutonic family are those who possess in the highest degree the attributes of the white race. Their complexion, which is clearer than that of any other people, does not appear susceptible of becoming brown, even after a long residence in warm climates. Their eyes are generally blue, their hair is blond; they are of a good height and possess well proportioned limbs.

From the very earliest times recorded in history, these people have occupied Scandinavia, Denmark, Germany and a portion of France. They have also developed themselves in the British Isles, in Italy, Spain, and the north of Africa: but in these last named countries they have eventually become mixed with people belonging to other families. What is more, these same people form at the present day the most important part of the white population of America and Oceanica, and have reduced into subjection a large portion of Southern Asia.

We shall divide the Teutonic family into three leading groups: the _Scandinavians_, _Germans_, and _English_.

[Ill.u.s.tration: 3.--WAKE OF ICELANDIC PEASANTS IN A BARN.]

_Scandinavians._--The Scandinavians have preserved almost unaltered the typical characteristics of the Teutonic family. Their intelligence is far advanced, and instruction has been spread among them to such an extent, that they have given a strong impulse to scientific progress.

The ancient poems of the Scandinavians, which go back as far as the eighth century, are celebrated in the history of European literature.

The Scandinavians comprise three very distinct populations: the Swedes, Norwegians, and Danes. To this group must be added the small population of Iceland, since the language spoken by them is most similar of all to the ancient Scandinavian.

The Feroe Isles are also inhabited by Scandinavians, and many Swedes are also met with on the coasts of Finland. But in other countries, to which in former times the Scandinavians extended their conquests, they have, in general, mingled with the peoples they subjected.

[Ill.u.s.tration: 4.--WOMEN OF STAVANGER, NORWAY.]

The _Icelanders_ are of middle height and only of moderate physical power. They are honest, faithful, and hospitable, and extremely fond of their native country. Their productions are small in extent, as they understand little more than the manufacture of coa.r.s.e stuff and the preparation of leather.

We give here some types of these people.

Fig. 3 is a wake of the peasants.

The Norwegians are robust, active, of great endurance, simple, hospitable, and benevolent.

In Norway few differences are found in the manners and customs of the different cla.s.ses of society. Customs here are truly democratic, the peasant plays the chief part in the affairs of the country. The popular diet dictates its will to the government.

[Ill.u.s.tration: 5.--CITIZEN OF STAVANGER.]

M. de Saint Blaise in his work, _Voyage dans les Etats Scandinaves_, describes the Norwegian as a rough and moody but reliable character. One thing which struck him was the absence of sociability between the two s.e.xes. They marry usually before attaining twenty-five years of age, when the woman devotes herself entirely to her husband and household affairs.

When the two s.e.xes meet at meals, they separate immediately the repast is at an end. The result of this is a too familiar manner, an absence of constraint among the men, and a neglect in the dress of the women which contrasts strongly with their natural grace.

[Ill.u.s.tration: 6.--COSTUMES OF THE TELEMARK (NORWAY).]

In figures 4, 5, 6, 7 and 8, we give types of the inhabitants of Norway.

The _Danes_ (the old _Jutes_ or _Goths_) are a people proud of their race, and full of valour and stubbornness. The men are tall and strong; the women slender and active. Their hair is blond, their eyes are blue, and their complexion ruddy. The children are fresh and rosy, the old men lithesome and erect in their walk. Their voices are good and vigorous, they speak in an energetic manner. We encounter in Denmark a strange mixture of democratic and feudal customs: perpetual entails are contrasted with laws whose object is equality. The working cla.s.ses have an ardent desire to possess land in their own right.

[Ill.u.s.tration: 7.--WOMEN OF CHRISTIANSUND (NORWAY).]

There are in Denmark three cla.s.ses of peasantry: those who possess both house and garden, those who possess merely a house, and those who only rent apartments. The first of these furnish their board with rich plate and utensils; their wives and children go to work in the fields decorated with rings and bracelets.

The people therefore enjoy a considerable amount of comfort. Add to this a general degree of instruction, which extends even to the peasant's cottage, and which embraces notions of agriculture, geography, history and arithmetic. The civilization of Denmark is, therefore, very considerable, and certainly greater than that of France, England, Spain, and Italy.

Drunkenness is rarely met with in Denmark, and marriage is considered sacred.

The marriages of the Fionian peasants last seven days. They dance and make merry three days before and three days after that on which the marriage takes place. The ceremony is performed amid a flourish of trumpets. The bridegroom is elegantly dressed, the bride still more so; she wears, moreover, a kind of diadem in which flowers are seen mingling with gold.

[Ill.u.s.tration: 8.--BOY AND GIRL OF THE LAWERGRAND (NORWAY).]

_Germans._--When wandering as nomadic tribes in the woods, that is, at the time of the Roman Empire, the ancient inhabitants of Germany much resembled their neighbours, the Gauls. They were men of large stature and vigorous frame, with white skins. Their hair, however, was usually red, while among the Gauls the ruling colour was blond. Their head was large, with a broad forehead and blue eyes. But the modern descendants of the old inhabitants of Germany have undergone many modifications, which would render it difficult at the present day, to find, in the greater portion of that country, general characteristics based upon the structure of the head, and the colour of the eyes or hair.

The modern inhabitants of Germany, the Germans, occupy a very large portion of Germany proper and of Eastern Prussia, as well as a broad band of country to the right of the Rhine. They are found also in different parts of Hungary, Poland, Russia, and North America. The Germans of the East and South having mixed much with the peoples of Southern Europe, do not represent exclusively the Teutonic type; some of them are met with who have brown hair and black eyes.

[Ill.u.s.tration: 9, 10.--SUABIANS (STUTTGARD).]

We give in the accompanying ill.u.s.trations (figs. 9 to 14) some types and costumes of the inhabitants of Germany proper (Baden, Wurtemberg, Suabia and Bavaria). The national costumes of Alsace are also shown.

We shall borrow from a work, published in 1860 under the t.i.tle "_Les Races Humaines et leur Part dans la Civilisation_," by Dr. Clavel, an interesting description of the customs of modern Germany:--

"Impinging, at its south-western frontier, upon the Latin world, at its south-eastern frontier, upon the Slavonian world, and at its northern frontier, upon Scandinavia, Germany," says Dr. Clavel, "does not admit of any very distinct definition. Throughout the whole periphery of this country there exists no ident.i.ty either of customs, language, or religion. Its provinces on the frontiers of Denmark are half Scandinavian; those bordering on Russia or Turkey are half Slavonic; those which are neighbours of Italy or France are half Latin: the provinces which together represent the frontiers of Germany, form a zone more mixed and various than is possessed by the frontiers of any other nationality.

"It is only toward the centre of the country that we find in all its purity the blond Germanic type, the feudal organization and the numerous princ.i.p.alities which are its consequences. It is here that we find the conditions of climate which appear to produce this race with blue eyes, red and white complexion, tall figures, and full, powerful frames.

"Whilst the Latin, glorying in the light of heaven, enlarges his windows, builds open terraces, and clears his forests that he may plant vineyards in their stead; the German loves above all things shade and mystic retreats. He hides his house in the midst of trees, limits his windows in size, and lines his streets with leafy elms; he reveres, nay, almost worships his old oak trees, endows them with soul and language, and makes of them the abode of a Divinity.

"In order thoroughly to enter into the German genius, we must wander among the paths of their old forests, observe and a.n.a.lyze carefully the effects of light and shade, springing up in ubiquitous confusion, intersecting confined and narrow perspectives, lending isolated objects a brightness vividly contrasting with the neighbouring obscurity, changing even the appearance of the face in their alternations, and forming dark backgrounds, illuminated by prismatic tints and glowing sunbeams. Pausing beneath the venerable trees, we must listen to sounds, re-echoed a thousand times, then dying away among the thickets, to give place to the rustling of aspen leaves, to the sighing of the firs, or to the harmonious murmurs of rivulets which force their way amid the flags and water-lilies. We must inhale the air scented with the pungent odour of fallen leaves, or the exhilarating scent of the wild cherry blossom.

It is only then that we come to appreciate the love of nature and the druidical tone which pervade German literature; we understand Goethe's pa.s.sion for natural history; the poem of Faust becomes full of meaning; a feeling of melancholy creeps over the mind and leads us to the contemplation of things that are soft, sad, mysterious, fantastic, irregular, and original.

[Ill.u.s.tration: 11, 12.--SUABIANS (STUTTGARD).]

"Being brought thus in contact with nature, the German is natural and primitive; he sympathizes with the world's infancy. He easily goes back to the past and the consideration of olden times; but it is not in him to antic.i.p.ate the future, and he regards progress with distaste. If he advances towards equality and unity, it is the ideal of the Latins which impels him. There is in him a resistance which forms part of his patient and cold nature. His movements are sluggish. His language is hardly formed. His literature, overflowing with imagination, is wanting in elegance and purity, it is not ripe enough for prose and unfit to form a book.

"The plastic arts of Germany also possess the simplicity and variety which are produced by imagination; but they are wanting in proportion, in purity of style and elegance; they are capable of arranging neither lines nor colours; their productions often verge on the grotesque, or are marked by heaviness or pedantry, and they clearly are not the work of children of the sun.

"The Germans possess an ear which appreciates sound in a wonderful manner, and reduces with ease to melody the fleeting impressions of the Soul.

"... . He who possesses a strong and enduring const.i.tution brings to his means of action energy of will. His projects are neither frivolously conceived, nor abandoned without good reason, and they are often followed out in spite of a thousand obstacles. This patient and continuous activity on the part of the Germans enables them to succeed in all forms of industry, in spite of their subdivision and other hindrances resulting from their political const.i.tution.

"When men are laborious, patient, and frugal, we may expect to see family life become strongly organized, and exercise a decisive influence upon national customs.

"Love, whose duty it is to bring together the s.e.xes into a united existence, is in Germany, neither very positive, nor very romantic; it is dreamy in its character. It seeks its _object_ in youth and speedily finds it; faithfulness is then observed until the time for marriage arrives.

"Early engagements being admitted by custom, betrothed couples are seen together, arm in arm, among the crowd at public or private festivals, or in lonely woods, or in twilight seclusion. Pleasure and pain they share with one another, happy in the conviction that their hearts beat in unison, and in the repet.i.tion, over and over again, of tender a.s.surances. The calmness of their temperament and the certainty of belonging to one another some day, diminish the danger of these long interviews. The young man respects the girl who is to bear his name and rule his home with her virtuous example; she, on her part, shrinks from a seduction which would dishonour her and compromise her future life.

"Such customs cannot but meet with approbation. They a.s.sure the future of a woman, and save her from coquetry. They form a man for the performance of his duties as head of a family, make him thoughtful for the future, save him from licentiousness, which wears out the heart as well as the const.i.tution, and lastly, render his love permanent by reducing it to habit.

"When the wedding-day, looked forward to for so many years, arrives, the characters of man and woman have taken their respective stamp. The young people know each other; they have no ground for suspecting deceit, for the singleness of their heart admits of only one affection.