Passing of the Great Race — The Nordic Race Outside of Europe

X THE NORDIC RACE OUTSIDE OF EUROPE

We find few traces of Nordic characters outside of Europe.

When Egypt was invaded by the Libyans from the west in 1230 B. C.

they were accompanied by “sea peoples,” probably the Achæan Greeks.

There is some evidence of blondness among the people of the south shore of the Mediterranean down to Greek times and the Tamahu or fair Libyans are constantly mentioned in Egyptian records.

The reddish blond or partly blond Berbers found to-day on the northern slopes of the Atlas Mountains may well be their descendants.

That this blondness of the Berbers, though small in amount, is of Nordic origin we may with safety assume, but through what channels it came we have no means of knowing.

There is no historic invasion of north Africa by Nordics except the Vandal conquests but there seems to be little probability that this small Teutonic tribe left behind any physical trace in the native population.

There seem to have been traces of Nordic blood among the Philistines and still more among the Amorites.

Certain references to the size of the sons of Anak and to the fairness of David, whose mother was an Amoritish woman, point vaguely in this direction.

References in Chinese annals to the green eyes of the Wu-suns or to the Hiung-Nu in central Asia are almost the only evidence we have of the Nordic race in contact with the peoples of eastern Asia, though there are statements in ancient Chinese or Mongolian records as to the existence of blond and tall tribes and nations in those parts of northern Asia where Mongols are now found exclusively.

We may expect to acquire much new light on this subject during the next few decades.

The so-called blondness of the hairy Ainus of the northern islands of Japan seems to be due to a trace of what might be called Proto-Nordic blood.

In hairiness these people are in sharp contrast with their Mongoloid neighbors but this is a generalized character common to the highest and the lowest races of man.

The primitive Australoids and the highly specialized Scandinavians are among the most hairy populations in the world.

So in the Ainus this somatological peculiarity is merely the retention of a primitive trait.

The occasional brown or greenish eye and the sometimes fair complexion of the Ainus are, however, suggestive of Nordic affinities and of an extreme easterly extension of Proto-Nordics at a very early period.

The skull shape of the Ainus is dolichocephalic or mesaticephalic, while the broad cheek bones indicate a Mongolian cross as among the Esquimaux.

The Ainus, like many other small, mysterious peoples, are probably merely the remnants of one of the early races that are fast fading into extinction.

The division of man into species and subspecies is very ancient and the chief races of the earth are the successful survivors of a long and fierce competition.

Many species, subspecies and races have vanished utterly, except for reversional characters occasionally found in the larger races.

The only Nordics in Asia Minor, so far as we know, were the Phrygians who crossed the Hellespont about 1400 B. C.

as part of the same migration which brought the Achæans into Greece, the Cimmerians who entered by the same route and also through the Caucasus about 650 B. C.

and still later, in 270 B. C.

, the Gauls who, coming from northern Italy through Thrace, founded Galatia.

So far as our present information goes little or no trace of these invasions remains in the existing populations of Anatolia.

The expansions of the Persians and the Aryanization of their empire and the conquests of the Nordics east and south of the Caspian-Aral Sea, will be discussed in connection with the spread of Aryan languages.