(1872) the prussian race ethnologically considered

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Cornell University LibraryarV13847The Prussian race ethnologlcally conside

3 1924 031 224 565olin.anx


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Cornell UniversityLibrary

The original of tliis book is intine Cornell University Library.

There are no known copyright restrictions inthe United States on the use of the text.

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THE PRUSSIAN RACEETHNOLOGICALLY CONSIDERED.TO WHICH IS APPENDED

SOME ACCOUNT OF THE BOMBARDMENT OF THEMUSEUM OF NATURAL HISTORY, ETC., BYTHE PRUSSIANS IN JANUARY, 1871.

BYJEAN-LOUIS ARMAND DE (^UATREFAGES,

MEMBER OF THE INSTITUTE (ACADEMY OF SCIENCES) ;PROFESSOR OF ANATOMY AND ETHNOLOGY AT THE MUSEUM, ETC.

Translated by ISABELLA INNES.

LONDONVIRTUE AND CO., 26, IVY LANE,PATERNOSTER ROW.

1872.


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LONDON ;PRINTED BY VIRTUE AND CO.,

CITY ROADi


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This little work first appeared in the form of anArticle in the Revue des Deux Mondes* May it help todestroy some errors and prejudices which, after havingrendered France what it is at present, threaten allEurope with a new Thirty Years' War !

De Quateefages.

* February, 1871.


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CONTENTS.GHAFTEB PAGE

INTRODUCTION 1I. THE SOIL AND THE CLIMATE 7II. THE PRIMITIVE INHABITANTS 10lU. ORIGIN AND MIGRATIONS 07 THE PINS . . . 22IV. MIXTURE OF PINNIC AND ARYAN RAGES . . . .34V. CHANGE OF LANGUAGE 38VI. ARRIVAL OP THE GERMANS IN THE TWELFTH AND THIR-

TEENTH CENTURIES 43VII. FRENCH IMMIGRATIONS IN THE SEVENTEENTH CENTURY . 50Vni. INTELLECTUAL AND MORAL CHARACTERISTICS . . .60IX. FUSION OP RAGES. ACTION OP SURROUNDINGS. THE

PRUSSIAN RACE 61X. EOMBABDMENT OP THE MUSEUM 65XI. THE PRUSSIAN WAR . 80xn. CONCLUSION . . 83


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THE PEUSSIAN RACE.INTRODUCTION.

I HAVE always opposed the application of anthropologyto politics ; such applications rest almost always uponerror. Doubtless the diflFerence of race is evidentbetween whites and negroes. And the English andHindoo, also, could scarcely be confounded ; for theirAryan blood is more or less mingled with thatflowing from very different sources: they separatedages ago, are both modified by almost opposing condi-tions of existence, and isolated by the foundations oftheir civilisation and faith. They are very excusablefor forgetting their parentage, although it is now putbeyond a doubt. But when they treat each other asstrangers, both may rightly appeal to anthropology.

It is not, however, the same with the other Euro-pean nations.Here the ethnical elements all belong to the same


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2 THE PRUSSIAN RACE.shoots, of the same branches, of the white stem.*Agitated and brewed, as it were, in the vat of events,they have been placed in juxtaposition, mixed with,and melted into one another so completely, that thereremain but few groups nearly pure. Every politicalsubdivision, founded on ethnology, immediately leadsto absurdity. Thus, when any one has tried to invokeconsiderations of this nature, he has been inevitablyled to falsify the most evident anthropological facts,and give the lie to the most certain historical notions.The application of anthropology to politics is not

only a source of error, but is, above all, big with nearlyinevitable perils. Far from preparing the universalpeace promised us in its name, it can only engender aspirit of hatred, only render war eternal.Between peoples, nations, and states, ambition may

be curbed by the spirit of generosity, or at least bythe justice which reciprocal esteem engenders ; thestruggle, whether diplomatic or armed, may remain

* Considered in its entirety, humanity presents only three reallydistinct typesthe white, yeUow, and black. These are the funda-mentary stems of the hunmn stock. The first alone, we know, peopledEurope. It divides into three secondary types or branches ; that is tosay, the Aryan, the Semitic, and the AUophylio branch. The Semiticrace hardly set foot in Europe ; and, formerly, we regarded all itspopulations as having an exclusive Aryan origin, Now, we mustacknowledge, more and more, that the AUophylio race has nearlyeverywhere furnished an element of inoontestible importance. I shallreturn to this question in the sequel.


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INTRODUCTION. 3courteous, permit a sincere reconciliation, and preparea durable peace. It cannot be so wben between racesone

. generally attaches to tbia idea something pri-mordial or inevitable, so to say. Let two races, equalin some respects, but dissimilar in a few, come toblows, and each will regard itself as having a rightby birth to superiority. Triumphant, it will piti-lessly crush the people it despises ; vanquished, itsheart's depths will hoard up indelible resentmentsever ready to explode. Entire history, that of ourown days, that of Europe itself, shows only too weUwhat are wars of races.

This is what I have said; what I have oftenrepeated; but when I used this language, I was farfrom thinking that events were soon about to briag ita terrible confirmation. Thanks to the idea of theantagonism of races, set going and worked withMachiavelian skill, the- whole of Germany rose. Inthe name of Pan-GTermanism, they declared they wouldreign over the Latin races ; and seeing in France thehighest exponent of these races, they hurled themselveson our country with the loudly-proclaimed intention ofreducing it to irremediable impotency. Served by anunheard-of concurrence of events, as much as by theirslowly and skilfully trained forces, they conquered.The world knows how they made war and usedvictory.


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4 THE PRUSSIAN RACE.

Certainly wlieii, imder pain of death, they forcedthe French peasantry to dig trenches under the fire ofour besieged places ; when, hy their military rules,they burnt our yillages for a few gun-shots not firedby the inhabitants ; when the targets for their shellswere our public edifices, our libraries,* our scientific

* To justify my statement it is sufficient to recall what passed atStrasburg. Every one acquainted with this city, knows that thebuildings forming the library, the Protestant Church of Temple Neuf,and the Protestant Seminary, formed a large isolated block, to whichwas attached only a very small number of private houses. This,which is marked in all the plans, was assuredly known to theGei-mans, to the Badeners especially. They very well knew where thefire burst out, and they voluntarily rained shells with redoubledalacrity on these scientific treasures, on this church and college, be-longing to those of their own faith. In fact, the Germans obeyed theorders of the Prussians ; and to attack the monuments of a besiegedcity, in order to shock men's minds and terrify the inhabitants, isquite a Prussian tradition. On this subject there is testimony, it iswell to remember, in an English author. " Frederick the Great, whenhe besieged Prague, seems to have set his heart on the destruction ofthe cathedral, against which the fire of his artillery was peculiarlydirected. What his motive was, it would be difficult to say. He couldscarcely think that the garrison of 60,000 men would surrender tohim for the sake of saving the cathedral. It could not be zeal forProtestantism that impelled Frederick to vow the destruction of anancient Catholic church, without regard to its beauty, its antiquityand the numberless objects of art which it contained. I should liketo know whether Frederick, in any of his works, has attemptedto justify this barbarous treatment of the Hradsbin Church, orwhether any one has ever cited him before the tribunal of publicopinion on account of it. The impartial Bohemian historian, Petzel,gives a very detailed enumeration of aU the balls, bombs, and shellsthat were hurled against this admirable specimen of ancient architec-


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INTRODUCTION. 5

establishments ; * when they re-vived the barbarous lawof hostages ; when, not content with plunder systema-tically collected, and hierarchically distributed, theyexacted such an indemnity that the figure at firstfrightened the financial world ; when, trampling underfoot all their pretended principles, they took from us,with the tract of Grerman-speaking country, a cityexclusively French, our only defence in face of theirso formidably armed frontiers, the Germans could nothope to prepare a future of international good feelii^gand peace.Does the victory, at least, secure the supremacy of

their race ? Not at all. Called to this crusade byture by the merciless order of Frederick. On the 5th of June thebuilding served as a target for 537 bombs, 989 cannon balls, and 17carcasses; of which, however, it must not be supposed that all, orindeed anything like half, of them hit the mark they were fired at.On the 6th, 7th, 8th, and 9th the town was complimented with 7,114bombs, 14,821 balls, and 111 carcasses, of which the majority wereaimed at the cathedral. During those four days the building wasthirty times on fire, and each time it was saved from entire destructionby the vigilance and exertion of the canon, John Kaiser. The roofwas perforated by no less than 215 balls ; and when, after the can-nonade, the church was cleared of the rubbish that had meanwhileaccumulated 'there, no less than 770 balls were collected, from differentparts of the edifice. Napoleon, when he entered Moscow, sent a guardto protect the children in the great Foundling Hospital. Why didnot Frederick, when he fired his first gun against Prague, grant asimilar protection to the cathedral, on the Hradshin, by ordering hisartiUeryinen rather to fire on any object than that?" Eohl's"Austria," p. 23. A little further oa I will put this fact beyond doubt.


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6 THE PRUSSIAN RACE.Prussia, they have accepted the sway of this power,and resuscitated for it the German Empire. PrussiaAvill not let herself be deposed.Now the ethnological elements of this nation are

quite different from those which gave birth to thetruly German people. Special climacteric conditionshave maintained and accentuated the original differ-ences. In reality, from an anthropological point ofview, Prussia is almost entirely a foreigner toGermany.

This is what I wish to show in this Kttle work.And to attain my end I need to make no hypothesis,nor even to cite new or ill-known facts. In reality, Ihave merely to recall notions that are almost commonfacts that have been long accepted by men of study inevery nation ; which, although forgotten under theempire of momentary passion, remain not the lesstrue.


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CHAPTER I.THE SOIL AND THE CLIMATE.

The physical and ethnological history of Prussiais mixed up with that of all the countries situated tothe south and south-east of the Baltic Sea.*

All this region was still a part of the bottom of theFrozen Sea at a period when men had for a long timeinhabited Central and Southern Germany, France,Belgium, &c. Slowly emerging when the presentgeological period had its birth, this bottom formed animmense and more or less imdidating plain, extendingfrom the Atlantic Ocean to the Black Sea. The ridgeline of the two basins is so little elevated that, duringthe annual inundations of the spring and autumn, thePipetz, an affluent of the Dnieper, communicates withthe Bug, an affluent of the Vistula, and with theMemen.

* This kind of combination extends, in reality, a great deal further,and embraces a much larger numh^r of countries and nations than Ipoint out here. I have been obliged to restrain myself, and giveaccount only of that which bears immediately upon the object of thiswork.


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8 THE PRUSSIAN RACE.The tract nortL, of this plain is essentially composed

of sand, and strewn witli erratic blocks, whicli attestthe mode of its formation.* Argillaceous slime, distri-buted in large patches, fertilises it in parts, leavingvast spaces covered with sterile land and inexhaustibleturf pits, which indefatigable labour alone can trans-form into cultivated fields. On this scarcely slopingsoil water collects in ponds and innumerable lakes,often fed, or put into communication one with another,by streams or rivers with sinuous bed, slow course, andrarely limpid water. A generally damp climate is thenatural consequence of this state of things. Thewinds from the north-east adding to the influence ofthe latitude, prolong the winters and render themrigorous ; nowhere is felt the moderating action of the

* " The line which limits the extension of the erratic blocks," saysM. d'Archiao, " starts from the Gulf of Tcheskaia, on the borders ofthe Frozen Ocean, follows the western declivity of the chain of theTimans to their junction with the Oural Mountains, and departingfrom this point descends, south-south-west, to Voroueje ; remountsnorthwards, towards Kalouga, to descend anew, and gain, on thenorth-east, the marshes of Pinsk, where one loses sight of it. Onefinds it beyond, on their western boundary. Afterwards, windinground the woods of KUce, Cracow,.and Galatz, it passes the Vistula,to the south of Breslau, continues, to the north-west, on the limits ofPrussia and Saxony, skirts the north foot of the Harz Mountains,traverses Hungary, and comes to an end at the Island of Urk, in theZuyderzee." The erratic blocks comprised within these limits, asregards Russia, come from the crystalline rocks of Finland. Thosefound in Poland and Northern Germany are from the ScandinavianAlps.(" Cours de PaUontologie.")


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THE SOIL AND THE CLIMATE. . 9sea. Almost continuous forests, of whicli seyeralcountries have preserved magnificent remains, seem tohave coTered almost all this region.

If one follows the shores of the Baltic from east towest, starting from the Gulf of Finland, one meetssuccessively Esthonia, Livonia, Courland, the twoPrussias (Eastern Prussia and Western Prussia), Pome-rania, Mecklenburg, and Holstein. To the south ofthis first zone come Poland (Russian Poland andPrussian Poland), Brandenburg, and Hanover.*

Such is the theatre in which the facts I am going torelate aU came to pass.

* I repeat, there is here no question of a rigorously exact limita-tion. Thus I do not include Silesia within the line of reckoning ; thoughits eastern part, at least, should, in almost every point of view, heunited with the countries indicated.


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CHAPTER II.THE PRIMITIVE INHABITANTS.

I. The Slaves and the Goths.As far as classictistory ascends, two great races of tlie Aryan stockseem to divide the lands watered by tlie Baltic, ofwhicli we now treat. Hardly do tte writers of Greeceor Rome mention a third element, of wMcli we, how-ever, shall have to give some account.

In the west, the German family* was represented bythe Saxons and Angles, who occupied the sea-shore,Hanover, Holstein, and a part of Mecklenburg.History tells that armed colonists quitted these coasts

* The German family, if we take account, especially of its anatomi-cal and physical characteristics, comprehends three distinct groups.The Scandinavians form the first ; the Germans of the north and westthe second ; the Germans of the south and east the third. Prichard,adopting the conclusions of Zeuss on this subject, divides the Ger-mans into four groups, and regards the Scandinavians as perfectlydistinct from the Germanic people of the centre. All these distinctionsrest on philological reasons, consequently, on that order of considera-tions of which German patriots make so strange an abuse in orderto reclaim, as belonging to Germany, States which ardently desireindependence, but which have the misfortune to speak a languageakin to that of their conquerors.


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THE PRIMITIVE INHABITANTS. iito establish themselves in Great Britain, where theymingled with the primitiye inhabitants, and, later,were confoimded with them under the common nameof Britons.

Others, of the same tribes as these conquerors,directed their course northwards, and landed inSweden. Everything proves that the Scandinavianpeninsida was not then an uninhabited land. Tworaces, one very short, the other, on the contrary,remarkable for lofty stature, had already disputed forits possession. Both, according to the illustrious andvenerable Nilsson,* were of Finnic race. (We shallsee, in the sequel, what is to be understood by thisexpression.) The second got the upper hand, but wereevidently in their turn subdued by the Anglo-Saxons,who forced them to speak their language. The peoplewere not annihilated on that account, and theconquerors intermarried with these lotnes. This wasnot, indeed, an isolated fact. Latham remarks, thatin the Scandinavian regions, language and blood donot always coincide,f This must have been the

* " Lea Hatitanta Primitifa de la ScandinaTie."t " Elements of Comparative Philology." According to Latham

Scandinavia was, in primitive times, Oiigrian. This author alsoconfines the primitive Germanic area in a very remarkable manner.However this may be, the Gotha have always been regarded as verydistinct from the Germans properly so-called. And it is evident thatthis distinction is ahsolutely unquestionable ; for, inita most ambitious


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12 THE PRUSSIAN RACE.beginning of the population that, under the nameof Ooths, has left so many traces in history, andwhose name must be borrowed (according to thelearned Englishman) from the country invaded bythe Anglo-Saxons.

In the basin of the Oder, the Germanic race clashed with the Slaves. From this contact undoubtedlysprang the Yandals,* a tribe of mixed blood, who inthe second century of our era occupied the uppercourse of the Elbe, and whose name has becomehistorical, with a signification which it is almostuseless to recall.

The Slaves settled on the Vistula at a pre-historicperiod, and possessed its entire basin. About threecenturies before Christ, they were attacked by theGoths,, and lost the mouth of the river, with a part ofits bed ; but four hundred years afterwards they tooktheir revenge, and expelled the invaders. Pursuingtheir conquests, they took possession of all theneighbouring states, and hurled the population(whether of pure or mixed Germanic origin) uponthe Roman Empire. In the fifth and sixth centuries,reveries Pan-Germanism has never dreamed of claiming the Scan-dinavian states as belonging to the Fatherland.

* " The Vandals have been sometimes traced to a Germanic, andsometimes to a Slavic, root. The etymology of the word at leastindicates the predominance of the latter ethnological element."A. Maury.


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THE PRIMITIVE INHABITANTS. I3a part of Courland on the east, of Mecklenburg on thewest, with all the intermediate countriesthe twoPrussias, Pomerania, Brandenburg, and Silesia, aswell as Poland and its dependencies*belonged tothe Slaves.The physical characteristics of the Goths, which are,

besides, nearly identical with those of the otherGermanic races, are well known. Many writers,both of classic and of later times, haye describedtheir lofty stature, their robust limbs, their fair com-plexion, and their flaxen, flowing hair.f

* I have been unable, here, to treat of the other countries possessedby the Slayes, or of the extension of this race in every direction. Thereader interested in the question has only to consult two curious maps,published by M. Duchrnski, as an appendix to M. Viquesnel's work," Coup-d'oeU sur quelques Points de I'Histoire gen&ale des PeuplesSlaves." Among the other historians, linguists, geographers, andanthropologists whose opinions I sum up in the course of this work,it suffices to mention Cantu, H. Martin, Amedee Thierry, A. Maury,Latham, Malte-Brun, Prichard, Prnner-bey, &c. No one, I think,will doubt the authority of these writers, or the impartiality of theconclusions arrived at by them many years before the events of thePrussian War could be divined.t Let us remark, in passing, that the same writers almost always

depict the Gauls with characteristics so similar, that some learnedmen of our day have reckoned them as descended from the Germanstock. On the other hand, relying on testimony deduced fromancient writers, &om medals and monuments, others make theinhabitants of Gaul a, type very different from the preceding.(See, amongst other works, " L'Ethnog^nie Gauloise," by BaronEoget de Belloguet.) What I have to say, presently, as to thepart played by the AUophylic races in the formation of the different


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14 THE PRUSSIAN RACE.Tlie testimonies are much less abundant and preciseon the question of the Slayes. The Eomans, in their

days of glory, did not know them as they knew theGermans. It was different with those of the latterempire, and to those we must address ourselves to getsome account of the external characteristics of thesepeople. Thus, Am^dee Thierry, giving a r^sum^ says," the Antes, the Slovenes, the Wends, with flaxen hairand long supple bodies."* A passage of Procopius,quoted by Prichard, makes one think that amongst theAntes the hair was most frequently reddish. Howeverincomplete these documents may be, they serve toshow that the primitive Slaves differed from theGermans and Celts, their brethren by origin, onlyby very slight shades. Such is the conclusion ofPrichard. Recent researches, of quite another nature,have fully confirmed his view.

Skulls of ancient Slaves show the oval and har-monious form of the purest Aryans.f The magnificentphotographic album published by the Society ofNatural History of Moscow shows, amongst certainmodem Slaves, most characteristic traits of the racesEuropean peoples, easily explains this difficulty, whioh was formerlyso embarrassing.

* " Fils et Suocesseurs d'Attila.'' JFourth. article. Remu dea DemMondes, t. ii. 1856.

t " Notice sur les Cranes Slaves," par le Docteur Copernicki.


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THE. PRIMITIVE INHABITANTS. 15of the, same branch. ; and it might be regarded as illus-trating the accoimts of some old travellers.

Lastly, there is one entire population which, pre-served undoubtedly by their place of habitation frommixtures which have altered the primitive type,seem to have retained the essential features oftheir ancestors. These are the Gorales, or moun-taineers of Galicia. Malte-Brun thus describes themafter a modern traveller : * " They appear to forma peculiar race, distinguished from other Slavictypes by a slighter figure, a more marked physiog-nomy, a longer nose, and thinner lips. Theirsmall eyes and prominent zygomatic bones connectthem, nevertheless, with the Slaves.f More lively,more agile, more robust, more docile, and morecunning than the Slaves of the plaia, they hatethe latter with a hatred inherited from their fore-fathers." XOn the other hand, descriptions due to different

observers, which we may confirm for ourselves, con-trast singularly with the preceding. We may allknow individuals who are generally considered as* Schultes.t These two characteristics evidently announce a certain mixture

of Finnic blood.+ All these physiological or moral characteristics answer completely

to what history tells us of the Slaves.


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1 THE PRUSSIAN RACE.Slaves, and who regard themselves as such ; but are,nevertheless, little of stature, have dark eyes andhair, and complexion bordering on brown ; their bonystructure being sometimes very delicate and slim;sometimes stronger, but associated with a robust andrather squat form. Evidently, these are not the his-toric Slaves^the men of " flaxen hair and long supplebodies," spoken of by AmM^e Thierry. Althoughliving in their country, and speaking the samelanguage, their physical characteristics attest thepresence of a difierent ethnological element, forwhich we have to seek. This we propose to do,guided by history and by the best works on anthro^pology.

II. The J^ns.-^The people of whom we are about tospeak, have left very few traces in history. Neverthe-less, Tacitus speaks of Fenni, whom M. A. Mauryplaces, without hesitation, at the mouths of theVistula. The Phioni and the Zoumi, or Suomes,of Strabo and Ptolemy, inhabited part of Poland;the Esths of Jornandes were established much tothe south of the present Esthonians when, towardsthe middle of the twelfth century, the Bremens landedat the mouth of the Dwina, and set up some factorieson the neighbouring coasts. Here they met a savagepeople, speaking an unknown jargon, who called them-selves Livonians, Letts, Wends, Cours, Semigals, and


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THE PRIMITIVE INHABITANTS. 17Esths* These were, evidently, tlie descendants ofthose of whom the classic authors spoke. But thesehistorians, probably, only considered them as acolony, and by no means the representatives of arace which was fundamentally different from thesurrounding population. Modern researches alonehave, by degrees, discovered the characteristics whichisolate them from the Aryanstheir number, theirimportance, and the relationships which unite them.

Comparative philology has, in this point of view,rendered immense services, and aU the progressaccomplished in this direction has been due for a longtime, almost to it alone. From the first it hasdemonstrated that the dialects spoken by these peoplebelong to a form of language differing essentially fromthose spoken by the Aryan and Semitic races. Allare agglutinative languages, and by their secondarycharacteristics are boimd one to another in sucha manner as to form a distinct lingual group, whichis generally designated by the title of the Finniclingualfamily.\ Hence, one has been able to recognise,without much difficulty, the extent and limits of the

* Cantu.t The languages spoken by mankind are divided into three funda-

mental groups. Those most perfect are called Icmguages of flexion.They are spoken exclusively by the Aryan and Semitic whites ; thatis to say, by the races that have attained the highest degree of civili-sation. The agglutinative languages form the intermediate group.

C


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1 THE PRUSSIAN RACE.human groups which distinguish themselves fromtheir neighbours by sufficiently marked characteristics.Now this study has shown us the people of whom weare treatiug, though cut up into about twenty littletribes, not numbering together four million souls,and almost all geographically isolated, and distri-buted in clumps among the Aryan whites and theyellows.*The study of external characteristics permits us to

take another step forward. It shows modifications inthe physical type of people speaking a Finnic dialect,which connect them with the surrounding races."The North-Altaian," says M. Beauvois, "is con-nected with the Mongol beyond the Oural, with theTurk on the banis of the Volga, and with the Aryanwhite in the basin of the Baltic." From these factsalone, one might conclude that the -Fins must haveformerly occupied a more considerable tract ofcountry, and that their small mmiber and presentThey are used ty the Allophylio whites, hy a large number of theyellow tribes, and by all the black races. The native Americandialects, although presenting many particular characteristics, areintimately allied to this group. Lastly, the monosynahic tonguesrepresent the lowest form of language. Correctly speaking, theChinese alone merits this epithet ; but the dialects of the Himalaya, ofThibet, and of the peninsula of Farther India, are allied to it, and bygradual transition connect monosyllabism with agglutination.

* " Etudes sur la Race Nord-AItaique." Par M. E. Beauvois ;Revue Orientale.et Americaine, t. is.


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THE PRIMITIVE INHABITANTS. 19isolation arise, at least ia great degree, from inter-marriages, that turned out to tlie profit of the nationsthat have, as it were, submerged them.

This conclusion appears stiU more justifiable if wereverse the terms of the problem studied by M.Beauvois, and instead of keeping to the influence ofthe Aryan or Mongol races upon the Fins, we inquireinto what they have exercised around themselves,taking the Fins themselves as the term of compari-son. "We shall then very quickly acknowledge thatnumerous populations, differing from them in lan-guage, are closely allied to them in characteristicsmuch less subject to change^that is to. say, bystature, features, complexion, &c. Let us here quote astriking example.

In the region which we are considering, theEsthonians form the most compact and the beststudied Finnic group. Simuning up the descriptionsgiven of them by different authors, one finds thatthese people are of middle height. Their bust is longtheir legs short, and the region of the pelvis large inproportion to that of the shoulders. The features,especially in youth, are agreeable. The eyes, how-ever, are generally deeply set ; the nose^ straight andbut little rounded, is often too small for the width ofthe cheeks, and the space separating it from themouth is too short. In complexion and colour of hair


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20 THE PRUSSIAN RACE.tlie Esthonians present two types. Some have a clearskin and light yellowish or reddish hair ; others blackhair and brown complexions.* The Esthonians, ingeneral, lead a very rude life, and are habituallythin. "Nevertheless," adds an anatomist quoted byPrichardjf " they fatten quickly, as soon as theyenjoy a little competency and an abundant regimenbut they are never either very strong or very active."Some of the most characteristic of these traits are

found amongst another people, who are neighbours ofthe preceding, but who always held to be distinctfrom them on account of their language. I speak ofthe Letts, whose tongue has given a name to awhole group of Slavic dialects, and who, on thisaccoimt, have been always classed among the Slaves." The Letts of Livonia," says a traveller, % " aregenerally of very low stature ; the women especiallyso. One might take some of them for dwarfs. Theywould be plump if they were weU fed. The Lettishpeasants have rarely as much strength . as theGrermans, especially for raising and carrying weights."In Courland, the Lettish race, which forms almost allthe population of the province, is superior, and yieldsin nothing to the Esthonians. They are becoming

* " Atri capilli, cum subfosca facie."Baer : quoted by Priohard.t Flueot.J De Storch : quoted by Malte-Brun.


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THE PRIMITIVE INHABITANTS. 21more robust and capable of enduxing longer fatigue.But tbey do not, howeYer, approach tbe Aryantypes of wbicb we have spoken above, and arecomparatively small and squat.

Evidently, no anthropologist would accept theLetts as brothers either of the historical Slavesof AmM^e Thierry, or of the Gorales of Malte-Brun. Any one who has in the slightest degreegiven himself to anthropological studies, will, onthe contrary, see in them the brothers of theEsthonians, led by no matter what circumstancesto adopt a foreign language, without, on that account,losing the physical characteristics which betray theirreal affinity.To conclude, the Esthonians are neitjier Germans

nor Slaves; this is a universally acknowledged fact.The Letts are no more so than they are. Althoughspeaking an Aryan language, they belong, with theformer, to the group of races named by turn Tchudes,Mongolians, Turanians, and North Ouralians ; but theyare more generally known under the name of Finnicraces, and belong to the Allophylic branch of the whitestem.


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CHAPTER III.ORIGIN AND MIGRATIONS OF THE FINS.

Thus, in the midst of a people called Slaves, andhitherto accepted as such, we find a tribe, as pureas one can expect to meet with in Europe at thepresent day, of quite an alien blood. This is a veryimportant fact, and will serve to explain many others.But before proceeding on this track we must approacha question which has mtich importance."We know pretty well whence come the Slaves and

Grermans. We are certain, in any case, that theybelong to that group of races which we call Aryanand that they were scattered, even in barbaroustimes, between the banks of the Granges and theshores of the Atlantic. But whence come the Fins ?How were formed those islets in the sea of humanity,that seem lost in the midst of other races which everyday encroach upon them ? Formerly it was verydifficult to answer these questions. One can do sonow, thanks to the recent researches in pre-historicarchaeology and human palaeontology.


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ORIGIN AND MIGRATIONS OF THE FINS. 23In nearly every part of Europe that has beenexamined, traces have been found of the existence of

pre-historic man. Some lived in those geologicalperiods which preceded the one in which we exist.Their presence, then, is attested by the products oftheir industry, which was undoubtedly rudimentary,but in which we can also sometimes trace the germ ofhigh instincts almost ready to develop themselves.Every artist wiU admire what is correct, firm, and truein some of the designs, graven with mere flints uponplates of mammoth teeth and upon reindeer horns,which have been taken out of the caves of the Made-leine, of Langerie-Basse, &c. ; the ivory handles ofpoignards, found in the caverns or covers of Bruniquel,are worthy of our best modern ornamental sculptors.Unhappily, these workmen of palseontological timesare known to us ordinarily by their works alone.Human fossils are still very rare. But, nevertheless,from the whole of the observations collected up to thepresent time, arise some very clear conclusions, theimportance of which cannot be denied.When the rhinoceros and the elephant, the reindeerand the musk-ox, Hved in France ; when the Frozen

Ocean covered at least .all the lands which are strewn,up to the present day, with erratic blocks ; andextended, perhaps, far beyond ; the part of Europethen existing had already its inhabitants. These


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24 THE PRUSSIAN RACE.primitiTe people resembled eacli otter by proper andcommon osteological characteristics. Certain details,of less importance, established distinctions among tbem,analogous to those which in our time separate nations,sprung from the same stem. They were divided intotwo yery distinct types ; one very tall, the otherdiminutive, or, at most, of middle height. Eachof these types seems to have been again subdivided intotwo minor types, each characterised by some secondarymodification.* When the mere skeletons show dis-tinctions of this nature, it is quite permitted to us toimagine that the exterior characteristics, such as thefeatures, hair, and complexion, would present stillmore salient differences analogous to those that wemeet with amongst ourselves.

Judging from the immense number of arms, tools,and utensils that have been collected, these ancientpeoples must have been, in space at least, as dense as thevocation of hunters woidd permit. One can trace them

* The discoveries of archaeology and palseontological anthropologywere scattered through a host of collections and isolated puhlications,when Dr. Hamy, already well-known by several interesting works onthese difficult and complex questions, had the good idea to unite andarrange this collection of data in a work entitled Frkois de JPaUonto-logie Humaine, which is found, as an appendix, at the end of the secondedition of Sir Charles Lyell's " Geological Evidences ofthe Antiquity ofMan." By this, Dr. Hamy has rendered true service to science It isto he desired that this work should be republished separately, with allthe developments of which it admits.


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ORIGIN AND MIGRATIONS OF THE FINS. 25throughout all the different phases of the quarternaryperiod, and follow them to the beginniag of moderngeological times. Most certainly their descendantswere the first to occupy the soil of Europe as it isnow; and, without doubt, they multiplied the morethe conditions of existence became, in the main, morefavourable, even during the transformations, andwhilst they caused a perturbation in those primitivesocieties of which we can still find the trace.*The quarternary men certainly did not people

Europe alone. They were spread much more widelyover the earth in those ancient times. But theywere the ancestors of out AUophylic whites, who allseem to have certaiQ comcmon anatomical featuresand all, at any rate, speak dialects pertaining to thesecond form of language,f

* Dr. Hamy has rightly insisted on this fact, that the art andindustry of the latter quarternary period indicate a real decline.t " M. Pruner-hey, who first published conclusions almost identical

with these, was encountered with a furious opposition. Undoubtedlythere were certain exaggerations and unconneotable gaps in theopinions first formed by the eminent anthropologist, as was natural inthe then state of science. Facts enable us now to set these aside,while we render justice to the author of them ; and some writers whomost combated his ideas seem now ready to adopt the most essentialof them. (See Dr. Hamy's work.) Besides, it is ever to be under-stood that in expounding here what I believe to be the general mean-ing of the notions actually acquired, I make express reserve as tocorrections which may hereafter result from the progress of science."De Quatrefages.


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26 THE PRUSSIAN RACE.Such is the great human formation that theAryans inTaded at different epochs, the greater

numher of which are hidden from us in the night oftime. We have no historical or traditional documentsthat can teach us what passed in Europe when thetwo groups clashed one against another. Perhaps pre-historical archaeology may, one day, throw some rayof light into this ohscurity of ages. But, meanwhile,we may judge of the general results from what haspassed in historical times, and almost in our own days.The Allophylic races were conquered ; they must

have suffered greatly ; but they were not exterminated.To cause a race or nation entirely to disappear,

exceptional circumstances are needed. The strugglemust take place in a limited and bounded territoryas in an island, for example. Thus the Spaniardswere able to aimihilate the Caribbean race in certainisles of the archipelago in the Gulf of Mexico; butin that case, even, there were exceptions. Besides,the Caribbeans were scarcely reckoned among thepopulations of that quarter of the globe. On thecontinent it was quite different. In spite of themassacres perpetrated by the conquerors, the localraces still form the base of the population in Spanishand Portuguese America. And this, notwithstandingantagonism of race, and a war in which quarterwas unknown, but also, on the side of Europeans,


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ORIGIN AND MIGRATIONS OF THE FINS. 27superiority of weapons, the force which, civilisationgives, and the disdain which it inspires for the life ofthe savage, or of men whom it calls such.Between the Aryans and the Allophyles there did

not exist so marked a difference. The means of attackand defence were nearly the same. The untilled andforest-covered land afforded safe retreats for the primi-tive inhahitants. The invaders could not possiblyhave destroyed all the people whom they found occupy-ing France, even had they wished to do so. The tworaces necessarily Kved in the neighhourhood at leastof one another, and must have had more or less inter-course. They would thus form alliances, and the pro-duction of a mixed population would become inevitable.In fact, the very lawlessness of a barbarous conquestproduces these unions. Time, in due course, wouldcabn hatred and soften repugnance ; and the Aryansand Allophyles would mingle the more easily as theconquerors were certainly not much above the con-quered in a social point of view.* Thus began thepopulations with mixed characteristics, which are tobe found everywhere. In some places the racessettled down in juxtaposition, so to speak ; occupying

* What we know of the burial-place of Solutre, studied with somuch care by M. de Ferry from an arohEeological point of view, andby M. Pruner-bey in relation to anthropology, justifies all that hasbeen said.


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28 THE PRUSSIAN RACE,the same country, and probably mingling in somedegree, but -without becoming entirely confounded.Hence would be left those clumps of a separaterace, which, as mentioned before, are to be foundin many parts of Europe, particularly in theregions round about the Balticthe objects of ourstudy.The Esthonians, the Livonians, the Fias of Courland,

and all the populations which resemble them physi-cally, and which speak, like them, a Finnic language,are the descendants of the race of little men who livedin Europe during the quarternary period.*

This is a fact which will certainly come out moreand more by a comparison between the bones of fossilraces and of persons lately dead. Even noW it is

* Here I have nothing to do with the quarternary races oharacter-iaed hy a lofty stature, and by a stull projecting ia front and behind(the dolichocephalic race). I will only remark that the existence ofthese races permits one to solve, at least, in a plausible manner, someof the difficulties which have been raised] in these latter years ofvehement discussion. It explains the mixture of types presented bythe Basque population. In this, too, one finds the origin of the lotnes,or Knnic giants, of M. Nilsson. I may add that I think I havediscovered among certain inhabitants in the heart of our LandesBordelaiaes plain characteristics of one of these races (race of Cro-Magnon). Unfortunately I have not yet been able to procure someskulls, the study of which is necessary to confirm or disprove thisconception, which is, however, founded upon an attentive exami-nation of exterior characteristics. As to the great fossil race whichonce peopled the basin of the Danube, it is as yet too little known topermit any comparison with existing poople.


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ORIGIN AND MIGRATIONS OF THE FINS. 29difficult to entertain any remaining doutt when on*eis confronting tlie three skulls of modern Esthonians(generously presented to the Museum of Paris by theCabinet of Natural History at St. Petersburg) withcertain hutman remains found in France and Belgium,*The lower jaw of two of them present, in the highestdegree, the remarkable peculiarities which characterisethe jaws discovered by M. Boucher de Perthes in thequartemary soil of Moulin-Quignon, and of some ofthose which M. Dupont dug out of the cavernsso skilfully explored by him. The third offers alto-gether a no less striking resemblance to the fossilhuman heads found in the same cavern by the learnedBelgian. Amongst other points of resemblance, thefossil heads and the heads of our contemporariespresent ia different degrees, but in each case in anextremely marked manner, that projection of thefront teeth called prognathism, and which has beenlong regarded as characterisiag the negro races.Besides this, the fossil remains seem to indicate theexistence of two types among the primitive populationdiffering but little from one another, exactly as wefind the two among the Esthonians of modem times,which is a very remarkable coincidence.* I have elsewhere shown the most palpable anatomical features

which these skulls present, and the connections to which they lead, in anote of ancient date.("Bulletin de la Societe d'Anthropologie,"2e s6rie, t.i.)


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30 THE PRUSSIAN RACE.In tlie present state of our knowledge, everything

tends to show that the Allophyles of the Baltic regionsare really the direct descendants of the men who livedin France and Belgium when elephants and reindeerroamed in these countries.Whoever conceives a just idea of the signification of

the word racewhoever admits, as I do myself, themodifying power exercised over all living beings bythe whole of the conditions of existence, or, inother words, of one's surroundings, will demandperhaps how the Esthonians can stiU. resemble theirfossil ancestors. Here we are in presence of a lapseof time as yet impossible to compute by years, butwhich ascends far beyond the most distant memories ofhumanity. Duriag this long course of ages Europehas been the theatre of most important modificationsin the soil itself, but still more in the climate. Onehas a right to ask if it be really possible that men canhave passed through such revolutions without losingtheir race characters.The geological and palaeontological facts which

suggest this objection, fiimish at the same time themeans of answering it.The Esthonians, the Letts, and their kindred

have lived under the empire of general conditions ofexistence that have differed but little between thosedistant ages and the present century. The soil and the


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ORIGIN AND MIGRATIONS OF THE FINS. 31climate remain for them pretty mucli what they werefor their forefathers. The latter inhabited, it is true,what are now the temperate parts of Europe ; but theylived at the glacial epoch. K^ow, at that time, as I havealready remarked, the sea, covered with floating ice-bergs, flowed over a large portion of our present con-tinent, running up into the inhabited portions bynumerous and deep gulfs. Other causes, still un-known, added to the first, the temperature wasstrangely low. Enormous glaciers coated all ourchains of mountains and filled the valleys which nowseparate the Alps from the Jura. The fauna andflora were in harmony with this state of things. Theelephants and rhinoceroses (which have long dis-appeared) were covered with thick fleece ; the musk-ox, that has now retreated beyond the sixty-fourthparallel of latitude, inhabited Perigord; the reindeerdescended as low as the Pyrenees. In fact, even inSouthern France the climate was damp and cold, andconsequently very similar to that of the present Baltic .regions.When a new geological period began ; when thebottom of the sea heaved itself up, to give our conti-

nent that relief which we are now enjoying ; whenthe temperature increased, the plants and animals forwhich it became too high, accompanied the ice, whichreceded towards the north, and peopled the lands just


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32 THE PRUSSIAN RACE.uprisen. Many tribes of men would surely followthese, enticed also by habits, by the attraction of*a new world opening before them, or by the neces-sities of the chase, as the E,ed-skins of Americaare in our days. Perhaps, also, the first Aryaninvasion drove a number of the Allophyles into therude solitudes of the basia of the Baltic, wherethey enjoyed liberty, until the flood of the Slavesoverflowed them.*

* This manner of comprehending the origin and the migrations ofthe Fins of the Baltic is not in aooord with the view of some writers ofgreat merit, who regard them as having come from the north-east.Without entering into a discussion which would lead me too far, Iconfine myself to remarking that my opinion rests principally uponthe data certain, though recently acquiredon the subject of theclimacteric modifications which our hemisphere has gone through.At the time when the quarternary man lived in France, the Tundrasof the Jenissei and all analogous localities did not exist, or were unin-habitable. But perhaps on directing their course towards the north,after the quarternary period, these people approached the point of theprimitive departure of their race. We know now that man lived inFrance and in California even in the tertiary period. He must haveoccupied, at least, a certain number of intermediate points. At thisepoch the mammoth and the rhinoceros with divided nostrils lived inSiberia. (Murohison, De Vemeuil, Keyserlink, and D'Archiac.) Thereindeer, which M. Lartet regarded as of Asiatic origin, was doubt-less their companion. These animals arrived in our latitudes nearlytogether, during the short period of transition which separates thetertiary from the glacial period. It is evident they fled beforethe cold, as the reindeer, the now sole survivor, fled in laterages before the heat. iMan, who had been very well able to liveamongst them in Upper Asia, must have been obliged to followthem in their migrations for the same reasons, and to obey his instinct


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ORIGIN AND MIGRATIONS OF THE FINS. 33HoweTer this may be, retiring, step by step, beforethe changes in their first conditions of existence, and

constantly placed in a medium climate Yery analogousto that which they had quitted, the inhabitants ofprimitive Europe could not help preserving their cha-_racteri'stic traits so long as no crossing with anotherrace occurred to alter them. This is why theEsthonians of our time have all the osteological essen-tials of the quarternary men of France and Belgium.for hunting. Of course, all this is oonjeotuie ; hut it at least agreeswith many other facta. Prehistoric archaeology may perhaps teU,some day if it be really well founded.


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CHAPTER IV.MIXTURE OF FINNIC AND ARYAN RACES.

That the AUophyles preceded tlie Aryans into Europeis incontrovertible ; that its present populations re-sulted from the mixture of these two elements is, Irepeat, what will become more and more evident, ac-cording as one studies the question more closely.

In expressing myself thus, I know that I approachdeKcate ground, and touch on a question obscured byone of those errors that I pointed out above, and byprejudices that I would fain combat.

In consequence of political struggles, and swayed bysentiments worthy of the most serious sympathy, butwhich have led them astray, some clever men haveadmi'tted the existence of a radical antagonism betweenthe Aryan and Finnic races. Iran and Turan, theysay, have ever been at feud ; they could not dwell onthe same soil in peace, stiU. less unite and mingle inone people. A little attentive observation sufficesto refute these exclusive theories. Even in Paris one


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MIXTURE OF FINNIC AND ARYAN RACES. 35can, witliout mucli trouble, point out marked traces ofFinnic blood. The fact is stUl more evident in cer-tain parts of Frencb territoryin tbe soutbem part ofBasse-Bretagne, for example. I have found there eventhe women that are nearly dwarfs, of whom I spokejust now. We have no cause to blush for the resultsof the mixture. However depressed we may be at thispresent moment, the enemy will not be able to erasethe French name from any page of history ; and,verily, the sons of our old Armorica have shown them-selves brave enough, in every way, for us to be able toaccept, without repugnance, a certain commonness ofancestry with them.

Let us connect these facts which concern us withthose which the shores of the Baltic and the basin ofthe Vistula present. Without having recourse tomigrations of which history must have lost all trace,we shall easilj' explain a fact noticed by M. Duchinski."The distinctive characteristics of the Armoricans,traced by Ceesar, have," says this author, "muchanalogy with those of the Lithuanians. All Poleswho have sojourned in Bretagne agree in findinginnumerable points of resemblance between the presentBretons and their fellow-countrymen, especially thosewho border on Lithuania." This is because the mix-ture of Finnic and Aryan blood has worked in bothcountries. Only, in the basin of the Baltic the Alio-


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36 THE PRUSSIAN RACE.pHylic lias united witi tte Slavic race ; among usit has crossed with the Celts.

Traces of this mixture are to be found everywherein the countries we are talking of. Malte-Brun,speaking of the Samogitians, expresses himself thus :" It appears there were two races in Samogitia, oneof lofty stature descending from the Goths or the"Wends, who occupied these countries in very ancienttimes ; the other short and squat, but hardy androbust, like the Letts."* Samogitia is only anancient province of Lithuania, so the inhabitants ofthe two could scarcely differ, and one is not surprisedto find Malte-Brun regarding them as the same peoplejHerberstein, an old German traveller, quoted byPrichardjt characterises the population of Prussia bysaying it is composed of giants and dwarfs. Thediversity of races is here plainly notified, thoughby an exaggeration of the author. Anthropologistswould not apply the term race of dwarfs either to theGoths or the Slaves."We have now seen that, north-east of the area we

are studying, there exist some Finnic groups thatare almost pure. If indications do not mislead us, weshall find more elsewhere. Although perhaps a little

* Malte-Brun, t. vi.t Herberstein, "Eesearohea into the PhyBioal History of Man-

kind," t. iii.


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MIXTURE OF FINNIC AND ARYAN RACES. 37taller than the Letts, or the Esthonians, the Pome-ranians must he nearly related to them, judging fromwhat several persons have told me who saw this por-tion of the Prussian army with their own eyes*

* Among others I may mention M. Rochet, my colleague at theAnthropological Society, whose testimony has double weight, thanksto his skill as an artist and the special direction he has given to hisstudies.


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CHAPTEE V.CHANGE OF LANGUAGE.

The area wliicli I attribute to tlie Finnic races is, itwill be seen, mucb more extensive than tbat generally-assigned to tbem. This is because I take physicalcharacteristics for my guide, while, up to the presenttime, little else has been listened to but the teachingsof language. In the study of the hiunan. race, thefirst have, incontestably, greater value and importance.

Invasions can do nothing, or scarcely anything, tochange the stature, features, and complexion of a popu-lation. Even the mixture of races partly respectsthese physical characteristics ; owing to atavism, theyreappear from time to time in their first integrity, evenin what has been a mongrel breed for centuries.Not so with lingual characteristics. These maydisappear rapidly enough ; but are then effaced with-out the power of recovery. In case of conquest, thevictorious race by the end of a certain time alwaysimposes its language upon the vanquished. The


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CHANGE OF LANGUAGE. 39history of Europe, and indeed of the whole world, isreplete with examples of this kind."When the remembrance of this kind of change is

lost, however recent it may have been, strange mis-takes are liable to arise. Populations speaking thesame language are referred to the self-same root, andregarded as sisters ; those whose language is effacedare declared annihilated. Researches, which are oftendifficult, are then necessary to recover traces of the realorigins, and demonstrate the united presence on a some-times very limited territory, of very different ethnologi-cal elements. Thus the general adoption of Spanish bythe descendants of the Guanches, made people believein the extinction of this race, until M. Sabin Berthelotrevealed its existence, showed that most of the Canariesbelong to it, and that there are still many familieswhose direct ancestors fought against Bethencourt andhis companions.* Something quite similar, but accom-plished on a much vaster scale, evidently came to passin the countries of which we treat. The Slavicdialects superseded those of the Fins, because the firstwere spoken by the conquering race. But physicalcharacteristics betray this usurpation. Samogitia,the Lithuanian province where the two types arestill so very distinct, is at the same time that in,* " Memoire sur les Gruanclies " [Memoires de la, Soeiite ^Ethnohgie,

t. i., et " Histoire Naturelle des Canaries).


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40 THE PRUSSIAN RACE.which one hears the purest Lithuanian ;* that is to say,the Aryan language, as it most approaches the Sanskrit,The Borussian, or old Prussian, which was still spokentowards the end of the seventeenth centuryf by thepopulation composed of "a mixture of giants anddwarfs" was, strictly speaking, only a dialect ofthe Lithuanian. Besides, Thunmann (whose ideasMalte-Brun seems to have adopted) thinks there arenumerous traces of Finnic in this language, as wellas in that spoken by the Letts. Here, then, philo-logy itself confirms conclusions already justified by thestudy of physical characteristics.JWhen colonisation succeeds. to conquest, the indi-genous population, always more numerous than theinvaders, for a long time forms groups, into which thestrange element penetrates but very slowly, in whichthe language, as well as the physical characteristics,is preserved. This came to pass also in the reigion of

* "The chief locality for the chief dialect of the Lithuanian isSamogitia."Latham, "Elements of Comparative Philology.''t " Malte-Brun gives the date 1683 as that of the extinction of the

old Prussian language."De Quatrefages.X I ought here to remark that Adelung has contested some of these

results. According to him there do not exist any Finnic words inthe Lithuanian languages, excepting among the Letts, who borderon the Livonians. Thunmann and Adelung also admit Gothic elementsinto Lithuanian. But Malte-Brun, who has made this language hisspecial study, thinks that these resemblances may well arise from thecommon hase of all the Lido-Germanic tongues.


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CHANGE OF LANGUAGE. 41whicli we treat. According to Thuamanii, a Finnicgroup of this kind still existed in Eastern Prussiaabout 1259* The Livonians, the Esthonians, theCourlanders of our day are nothing else.But in the long run the ascendancy of the dominant

race necessarily sweeps all before it. The Finniclanguage has totally disappeared from Prussia. Itwill do so sooner or later in Livonia, Esthonia; andCourland. As late indeed as 1862 there remainedonly about two thousand individuals in the latterprovince who spoke one or other of the two Finnicdialects formerly in use. In Livonia twelve individualsalone speak the language of their forefathers.! A fewyears hence any one, guided by philology alone, willclearly think himself justified in affirming that theLivonians have disappeared.

This is the cause of the error into which bothAdelung and Prichard have fallen. Each has takenaccount solely of data connected with language ; and,finding a certain number of Gothic words in theLithuanian dialects, they have concluded that fromthe Vistula to the Memel the inhabitants derived theirorigin from a mixture of Slaves and Germans. It iscertain that no physiologist, no one at all acquaintedwith the phenomena of crossings, would adopt this

* Malte-Brun. t Latliam.


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42 THE PRUSSIAN RACE.view. It is not from the union of two tall races tliata race of giants and dwarfs could spring.We know now where the dwarfs came from; butwhence sprung the giants? Philology now recoversall its advantages. It shows us, in the differentLithuanian dialects, some that are entirely Slavic,mixed only with some words from the Grothic. Itteaches us, that the tall races of these countries isprobably itself a mixed product, in which the Slavicelement forms by far the principal base. TheGothic element has only entered in a slight degree,and plays an entirely subordinate part. The studyof language, therefore, confirms, in all points, thehistorical data which show the Goths as having beenexpelled by the Slaves.


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CHAPTER VI.ARRIVAL OF THE GERMANS IN THE TWELFTH AND

THIRTEENTH CENTURIES.We tave seen that Fins, and after them Slaves, moreor less pure, m.ore or less mixed, were, until the middleof the twelfth century, the only ethnological elementsthroughout the whole region, extending from Esthoniato Mecklenburg. Undoubtedly the Slavic race wasdominant, and to it belonged the great majority ofthe wild aristocracy which ruled these tribes.* Atmost, some Goths and some few Vandals stayed be-hind ; and, accepting the yoke of the Slaves, mayhave mingled their blood with the latter. As to theGerman element, properly so called, it announces itspresence by no appreciable sign, and history isabsolutely mute on the subject.Commerce, and religion as it was then understood,went to modify this state of things.* Malte-Brun has already made a similar observation. This author

insists, at different times, but unfortunately in a general manner, onthe points of difference which distinguished the Pruozi chiefs fromtheir vassals.


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44 THE PRUSSIAN RACE.In 1158 a ship from Bremen, freighted for tlie Isle

of Gothland, was driven by the winds to the mouth ofthe Dwina.* The merchants on board found tribes onthese coasts living very much like the savages of thepres^it day ; and, like them, very willing to exchangerich furs for salt, common cloth, and other thingsrequired by society when in its infancy. The Han-seatic traders, hastened to this new mart, to share iathe benefits of a commerce resembling that now carriedon with the Red Indians of North America. In thesame manner they sent agents to establish themselvesat the most favourable points, and built a fort at eachfor the protection of their persons and merchandisefrom native aggression, and from Danish pirates.Thus the German race gained a footing upon the

land of the Slaves. In any case, they would scarcelyhave forsaken the coast if they obeyed merely theimpulse produced by commercial interests. A morepowerful motive ere long led them into the interior ofthe country. St. Adalbert, Archbishop of Prague,tried, in 997, to introduce Christianity amongst thePruczi or Prutzi ; a people that history mentions forthe first time about this period, as occupying nearlythe present Eastern Prussia, and consisting of numeroustribes, which seemed bound together by a commonsacerdotal organisation. It is clear that these primitive

* Cantu, Malte-Bnm.


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ARRIVAL OF THE GERMANS. 45Prussians were zealous for their religion ; for, wtenAdalbert penetrated into the sacred precincts of theirsanctuary, called Romow or Romowe, he was mas-sacred, as having committed sacrilege. Ahout acentury passed without any other attempt at con-yersion.In 1106 a monk, named Maynard, joined the mer-

chants, and resumed this interrupted work, addressinghimself to the Livonians. When these threatenedhim, he built several forts, sending for all thematerials by sea. The title of Bishop of Yakiillrewarded this active and conquering zeal. Maynardwas succeeded by two warlike prelates ; men, who, inthe ardour of proselytism, were willing to forget thehorror which the Church professes at the effusion ofhuman blood. The first, Berthold, a Saxon by origin,was expelled by force of arms; but returned at thehead of an army, defied the Livonians, and was himselfkilled whilst in their pursuit. The second, Albertof Asseldern, aided by the Emperor and the King ofDenmark, put himself at the head of a crusade, landed,with twenty-three vessels on the northern banks ofthe Dwina ; and there, in 1200, built the city of Riga,where he occupied the episcopal throne for twenty-eight years.To secure less precarious assistance than that of

crusades, the warlike bishop called some German


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46 THE PRUSSIAN RACE.nobles around Him, and distributed tbe conquered landsamongst them, subject to tbe tenure of military service.He also founded the order of Sword-beaxiag Knights,who subdued the Esthonians.

Christian, the Apostle and Bishop of Prussia, followedthe example of Albert, and instituted the Brothers ofthe Militia of Christ. But in a battle, which lastedtwo days, the Prussians slew all the knights of thisorder but five. Then Christian called upon the Teu-tonic Knights (who were already illustrious throughtheir combats against the infidels in the East), im-ploring them to succour his propaganda. Eagerly didthey obey the call; and, uniting with the Sword-bearers, whose identity was soon lost in theirs, theybegan a bloody war upon the pagans of the Baltic,into which Poland was often dragged, as she was alsothreatened by the invading body of knights, and wasoften called by the Prussians to their aid.We have not to relate all the turns of fortune inthese struggles. Suffice it to record, that in the begin-ning of the fifteenth century the Teutonic order pos-sessed Esthonia, Livonia, Courland, Samogitia, Prussia,Pomerania, and Posen; in other words, they weremasters of the greater part of the territorial area thatwe are now studying.

In their struggles with the natives the knights wereaided by colonists, called from all parts, but especially


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ARRIVAL OF THE GERMANS. 47from Germany, who established themselves as citizensin the towns, while the open country was left tothe Slavo-Finnic race. The great majority of theknights were Grermans. Thus, in every place whichthe fortune of war gave them, they, by violence,imposed the Christian religion, their laws, and theGerman language.* This is how the German racepenetrated into the heart of the local populations. Thisis, . above all, how their language, the tongue of theconqueror, dispossessed the different Slavonic dialectsin Prussia, Brandenburg, &c., and how it penetratedmore and more into Esthonia, Livonia, and Courland.If the victory of Tannenberg, gained by the Poles in1410, had not stopped the development of the Teutonicpower ; if Poland had been subdued, as were thecountries bordering it on the north, no doubt thePolish language would have disappeared in the samemanner, and the country of the JageUons would nowbe proclaimed German territory.The accession of the reigning house of Prussia must

have given activity and extent to the transformation,the causes of which we seek. In 1411 Frederick,Count of HohenzoUern and Burgrave of Murberg, ob-tained the March of Brandenburg and dignity ofElector from the Emperor Sigismund of Hungary forthe price of four hundred thousand golden florins.

* Cantu, Malte-Brun specially insist upon this last fact.


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48 THE PRUSSIAN RACE.One of his descendants, Albert, Grand Master of theTeutonic Knights, took up with Luther's Reformation,and secularised the Military Order that had chosenhim for its chief. As a reward he was recognisedhereditary Duke of Eastern Prussia, under the sove-reignty of Poland. In 1618, by his daughter's mar-riage with John Sigismund, this fief returned to thereigning house of Brandenburg, whilst Western Prussiaremained a PoKsh province. I need not relate howsuccessive divisions have upset this arrangement.Thus disappeared the empire foimded by the Teu-

tonic Knights, after having lasted nearly three cen-turies; thus began the new empire that now weighsupon the destinies of France.* One sees how Cantucould with justice say that the history of Prussia, at itsbeginning, was a consequence of, or rather an episodein, the history of the crusades.

In parsing actually into the hands of a German prince,while keeping, with the title of " noble," the greaternumber of the old knights of the same origin, thecountry necessarily became Germanised more and morein the upper classes, whilst the basis of the populationremained the same. Indeed the Slavo-Finnic ele-ment that first conquered it was far from having dis-appeared, even among the nobility. The ancient aris-

* The Peace of Cracow, which ratified these great changes, wassigned in 152a.


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ARRIVAL OF THE GERMANS. 49tocracy of tlie Pruczi did not struggle for their inde-pendence witli the perseTerance and tenacity mani-fested ty the people. Malte-Brun several times returnsto this point, and Cantu confirms his general ideasby a number of details. Some of the early nativechiefs accepted the yoke of the Teutonic Knights.Several even entered their ranks. Their descendantsthus necessarily took place, side by side, with the secu-larised German Knights and their offspring. Withoutdoubt this was the origin of more than one noblePrussian family ; and genealogical researches, madewith this point in view, would have a real ethnologicalinterest.


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CHAPTEE VII.FRENCH IMMIGRATION IN THE SEVENTEENTH CENTURY.I WILLINGLY acknowledge that the first cause of allcrusades has been a desire to propagate the Christianfaith in some form of beliefstrangely interpreted, itis true. HoweYer, in their course they always stirredup, and satisfied, purely terrestrial passions, ambition,and the love of lucre. The warlike orders which theybrought forth^the Teutonic in particularwere soondistinguished for being swayed by them.* Otherreligious events and purer motives introduced intoPrussia, and especially into Brandenburg, an ethno-logical element very difierent from those we havebeen considering.As early as 1614 the Margrave, John George, re-* The pride and luxury of the Teutonic Knighta yielded in no

degree to all that has been said of the Templars. At a dinner givenin 1363 by the Grand Master, Wallenrod, to a dozen of the most dis-tinguished knights in his army, the repast consisted of no less thanthirty courses. The guests sat under canopies of cloth of gold. Theywere served in gold and silver vessels, changed at each course, and atthe conclusion each guest was presented with 'those he had used.


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FRENCH IMMIGRATION. 5nounced tlie tenets of Lutlier and embraced those ofCalvin. His successors remained firmly attached to thisbranch of Protestantism. But Prussia was the onlygreat Calvinistic Court in Germany. When, forgettinghis promises and the opinions of his youth, Louis XIV.began to persecute the French reformers, some ofthem emigrated to the opposite banks of the Rhine.Being badly received by the Lutheran princes, theyapplied to those who held the same doctrines withthemselves. Frederick WilUam, then reigning inBrandenburg, comprehended the importance of thismovement, and immediately set everything in trainto lead an honest, hard-working people into hisstates, perceiving that they would bring with themelements of prosperity unknown in the North, andwould fill up the gaps left by the Thirty-years' War,and by the conflicts with Poland. This intelligentpolicy bore abundant fruit. As early as 1672 a Frenchcommunity existed at Berlin which was authorisedto perform these religious services in their mothertongue, and one of their number was grand equerry tothe sovereign.*

Hardly had Louis XIV revoked the Edict of Nantes,when the Elector replied by the Edict of Potsdam, f

* Charles Weiss, "History of the French Protestant Refugeesfrom the Eevooation of the Edict of Nantes to our Times."t The Eevooation of the Edict of Nantes was signed October 22ud,

1685 ; the Edict of Potsdam is dated the 29th of the same month.


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52 THE PRUSSIAN RACE.vrhicli opened a Fatherland, in the fullest extent of theterm, to the French emigrants. His representatives inother states received orders to smooth for them all thedifficulties of the journey. The goods they broughtwere freed from all rights and customs. To theagriculturists were given the houses and lands whosepossessors had disappeared, and their property wasexempted from taxes for six years. To mechanics hegranted, at the first onset, the right of citizenship inthe towns, and entrance into the trade corporations.To gentlemen he secured the rights and prerogativesof the native nobility. Special commissioners werecreated to superintend the carrying out of thesemeasures. Institutions were founded to lend money,to provide for their first wants, and to prepare for thefuture. The refugees were allowed to have, as inFrance, their courts of justice, consistories, and synods.Lastly, all business concerning them was transacted inFrench.*

* " The example of the Elector was followed by almost all theprinces connected with the house of Brandenhvirg. Among them oneought to mention Charles I., Landgrave of Hesae-Cassel. Withouteven waiting for the Edict of Revocation, he offered an asylum to thepersecuted Huguenots. The town of Casael, then numbering onlyeighteen thousand inhabitants, received three thousand, and theLandgraviate five or six thousand, of whom about one hundred and fiftywere heads of famOies belonging to the nobility."Charles Weiss,*' History of the French Protestant Befugees, from the Eevooationof the Edict of Nantes to our Time^."


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FRENCH IMMIGRATION. 53It is not surprising that, attracted by sucli great

advantages, tlie French Protestants pressed -in crowds toBrandenburg. Their conscientious historian, CharlesWeiss, estimates their number at twenty-five thousandmen, without reckoning those who did not wait till thelast moment.

This is a high figure when compared with thenative population. At the death of the Elector, Prussiareckoned only a million and a half iohabitants.Evidently -the refugees must have brought a great in-crease of prosperity to these provinces, arriving, as theydid, just after the latter had been depopulated by war.History represents them as, almost unaided, rebuildingthe towns destroyed by TiUy and his rivals, anderectiag new, and the finest, quarters in the capital. Ittells that they founded colonies, repeopled wholedistricts, and cleared large tracts that had beenabandoned for forty years.*

Besides, to appreciate at its just value the partplayed by the Huguenots in Brandenburg, it is notenough to number them : we must remember theservices they rendered their adopted country, and theposition it has been able to acquire through the same.

* Among other examples of this kind, C. Weiss mentions theGrafschaft of Buppin, which had scarcely any inhabitants left, andwas brought agaia into cultivation by French labourers. Buppin is inthe very heart of Brandenburg, and only some leagues firom Berlin.


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54 THE PRUSSIAN RACE.We cannot here enter into details, but refer to C.Weiss's work, as well as to the Grerman writers fromwhom he has drawn his facts. It will he easy tobecome convinced that this new element, imported froma country which was more advanced in every respect,gave the entire Prussian nation an unexpected impulse.Almost all the sources of public welfare were renewedand considerably increasedfrom the culture of flowerand kitchen gardens to that of the fields ; * from themanufacture of common stuffs to weaving and dyeiagsilk and brocade ; from button-making and hat-makingto jewellery ; from the art of digging metals out of theearth to that of working in them. Thanks to thefugitives that she had welcomed, Prussia escaped themost of the taxes she had formerly paid to other statesto provide for her consumption, and rendered themtributary in their turn.

It must be confessed that Prussia knew how torecognise the services thus rendered her. In conse-quence of the Kberal arrangements of the Edict ofPotsdam, no refugee sunk into the lowest classes of thepopulation. The most humble were free colonists,and soon became cultivators, in easy circumstances ; orthey took their places among small shopkeepers, andwere not long in rising, through their intelligence and* Among cultures iniroduoed into Brandenburg by the French, one

may mention that of tobacco.


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FRENCH IMMIGRATION. 55industry. A great many established themselves, fromthe begianing, in the first rank of extensive com-merce and large manufactures, which from them re-ceived quite a new impulse. At the same tiiae, thecourt, diplomacy, the army, and the magistracy, werethrown open to a number of French families, several ofwhom have left historic names. Others renderedthemselves illustrious in science, literature, and thearts. Many of their families are still in existence ; Icould not mention aU, the Kst would be too long.There are some, however, like those of AnciUon andSavigny, which are universally known. In our time,the colony has worthily sustained its old reputationin every respect. But I will abstain from recaUingorigins, which the owners seem to wish should beforgotten.* I will only remark that, in consequenceof alliances contracted with local families, France canclaim .her part in the ethnological origin of manyillustrious persons bearing names that are quiteGerman. It is sufficient to mention the two Hum-boldtsPrussian on their father's, French on theirmother's side.The whole of France was represented in the Pro-

testant emigration to Brandenburg. But the provinces* A great numter of these families have disguised and Germanised

their names, either by changing the spelling, or by translating thosethat had any meaning : such as Lacroix, Sauvage, &c.


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S6 THE PRUSSIAN RACE.of tlie centre and south fumislied the larger part.Metz and her territory sent, it is true, about threethousand refiigees, who nearly all settled in Berlin.But, although leaving the city that Grermany hastaken from us, these last were, in no respect,Germans. Their names, which have been preserved,aU testify to a French origin. Anjou, Poitou, the Islesof France, Beam, and Orange, each gave a considerablecontingent. It seems, also, that Upper and LowerLanguedoc were represented in a special manner inthis exodus ; thanks to the efforts and activity of twobrothers, Francois and Jacques de Gaultier. Therewere the workmen of Nismes, Montpellier, Beziers,and their environs, who carried with them the art ofweaving different woollen stuffs; and Pierre Labry,a native of Vigan, introduced the kind of stocking-weaving LQto Prussia which is still popular in ourCevennes.Thus the purest French blood has penetrated every-

where throughout the province of Brandenburg, thevery heart of the kingdom of Prussia. At the presentday this blood flows in the veins of the upper andlower citizens, in the upper and lower nobility.*By searching well, we should find, withont doubt, thatthe great majority of those composing the upper ten

The reigning funily has even some drops of French blood ; forFrederick William married the granddaughter of onr Coligny.


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FRENCH IMMIGRATION. 57thousand have receiyed a share, either In a direct orindirect line.

This community of race has not awakened sympathyfor us in Prussiaquite the contrary, perhaps. Pureor mixed,. these descendants of the refagees from theRevocation of the Edict of Nantes are quite as Prussianin heart and sentiment as are their fellow-countrymenof Slavic, Finnic, or German origin. They provedthis at the time of the invasions of Napoleon and the"War of Independence ; they loudly proclaimed it atthe beginning of the recent war by some of their mostdistinguished representatives.

France must feel pain at finding that the descend-ants of her own sons are her enemies. But she mustown that she has no right to reproach them. Indays of yore, she, with very rare exceptions, associatedherself fally in the great fault, the great crime ofLouis XIV. ; she hunted out the Huguenots by refine-ments of persecution and cruelty such as the veryexecutioners of pagan Rome did not invent. She metthem, soon after, on the battle-fieldon it she has nowagain found their descendants. Verily, they are notthe least formidable of our adversaries. In thoseanathemas which pietist Prussia has hurled againstCa;tholic France, there is, without the least doubt, adistant echo of our old religious wars ; and one knowstoo well what an inexhaustible source of wrath and


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58 THE PRUSSIAN RACE.hatred men have made of that teaching which itsFoimder condensed into two precepts :Fear God ;Love your neighhour.

In spite of their too just resentments, the Frenchof Prussia preserved the language of their mother-country and spread it everywhere. The interestedpartiality of Frederick II. came to their aid in thispoint of view. French replaced Latin in the academyat Berlin; it was long the only language used in thecolony ; it penetrated into the most distant provinceswith the new arts, industries, and methods of agri-culture. For a moment one would believe that thispeacefiil conquest would go on to its end, and that theGerman would submit to the same fate that it hadimposed on so many other languages. But a quickreaction, which had its source in sentiments which werecognise to be just and true, soon restored superiorityto the tongue of the Fatherland. The wars of theEmpire helped on this movement. The descendants ofthe refugees, espousing in everything and for every-thing the sentiments of the population that had sohospitably received their ancestors, were inclined moreand more to mix themselves up with them. Theyadded the language of their adopted country to thatwhich they inherited from their forefathers. KeHgioususages clearly helped on the progress of this revolution.Until 1819, Berlin possessed seven churches where


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FRENCH IMMIGRATION, 59service was performed exclusively in French. Afterthat year, they preached alternately in French andGerman. Since 1830, German has prevailed. Inmany large towns which formerly had a Frenchchurch, they now preach in French only once a year.In the smaller towns and villages, the French lan-guage has heen long suppressed.*

But, at the same time, the tradition of the Frenchlanguage is not yet lost in families. This explains a factwhich hecame of great moment in the recent war, andin the events which immediately followed it. Men wereto be found only too easily in aU ranks of the Prussianpopulation and army who spoke French purely andwithout a German accent. These had no difficulty inpassing themselves off as Frenchmen, in slipping ineverywhere, in surprising and betraying what it wasmost important for us to conceal, and in preachingundiscipline and insurrection. In truth, if Linnaeushad lived in our time, he would not have failed toinscribe the Revocation of the Edict of Nantes, and theconsequences which this act has brought upon France,in his "Nemesis divina." f* C. Weiss.t Linnseus admitted the doctrine of pumshment of the fathers in

their children in all its rigour. He thus explains the misfortuneswhich, personally unmerited, overtake hoth individuals and families.(See a curious article by M. GefEroy, in the ReviM des Dmx Mondes.)


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CHAPTER VIII.INTELLECTUAL AND MORAL CHARACTERISTICS.

There is a class of characteristics less easy to definetlian those which, until now, we have been examining ;and which are not the less real. I mean the instincts,aptitudes, good qualities, and faults, which give toeach phase of civilisation, to each human society, itsphysiognomy, and its historical significance. In casesof crossing, these characteristics fare as do the others.Each race brings his share to the common fiind, andthe mongrel race cannot refiise its heritage. It istherefore important to iaquire, from this point of view,what elements are now more or less iu fusion amongthe Prussians.'The Fin of the Baltic, as history paints him, and as

he is still ia our time wherever his race is preserved, ishard-working enough; moderately industrious; patient,but obstinate ; hospitable, but not very familiar withstrangers. Endowed with poetical, and especially withmusical instincts, he was, and is still, very muchattached to his traditions and to his religious or


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INTELLECTUAL CHARACTERISTICS. 6isuperstitious tenets. Loving independence, he liascourageously resisted conquest, has often revolted, andalthough reduced almost everywhere to the harshestserfdom, he has generally preserved a certain personalpride. Unhappily aU the good in this picture ismarred by a quality which seems to be thoroughlynational. The Fin never pardons a real or supposedoffence, avenges it on the first opportunity, and is notfastidious in his choice of means. Thus is explainedthe , frequency of assassination in Finland amongst thepeasants.*Nothing indicates that the spirit of conquest has

ever animated the Finnic . populations ; but, on theother hand, this spirit has shown itself strongly amongthe Slaves, as among all the Aryans that have.appearedin Europe.- Like all his kindred, the Slave arrived abarbariapi ; he had the good qualities and the faults ofsavage life, very well depicted by M. A. Thierry,fHe was always distinguished by his manner of fight-ing. His war was that of ambuscades. He excelledin lurking behind a rock, in crawling amid longgrass, in hiding himself for whole days, waiti

(1872) the prussian race ethnologically considered

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