ETHNOLOGICAL TRANSACTIONS.*
WE have here twenty-nine essays, and can therefore only briefly indicate the chief contents of the volume, and indulge in a few observations on a few of the papers. The President, Mr. J. Crawford, the veteran Malay scholar, is one of the most industri- ous contributors, writing on " The Plurality of the Races of Man," " The Supposed Aborigines of India," " the Vegetable and Animal Food of the Natives of Australia," "The Classification of the Races of Man according to the Form of the Skull," " The Antiquity of Man ;" and many other papers on similar topics. We have two papers on the Vey Negros, by H. C. Creswick ; two on the ethnology of the Chinese, by Dr. Lamprey ; one on the Kobe of Chota-Nagpore, by Lieutenant-Colonel E. T. Dalton ; one on the Darien Indians, by Dr. Cullen; two by H. H. Howorth on "The Archaeology of Bronze," and " The Origins of the Norsemen ;" by Dr. John Shortt, " a contribution to the ethnology of Jeypore ; besides several shorter papers. The volume is as well printed as are usually the transactions of societies, but the misprints are dis- graceful. In one paper they are so constant and disfiguring that we hypothetically charged the author with an exceptionally bad handwriting, but we subsequently found papers by other writers in the same state. It is but a friendly warning that we give to the Society, which proves that it needs it, since it acknowledges, and with an apology, but one erratum !
Mr. Crawford is well known for his outspoken dissent from the results which the modern school of ethnologists and philologists, especially those who have made Sanskrit their starting-point, con- ceive themselves to have established on a secure base, the combina- tion of Sanskrit, the languages of Persia and Armenia, and the whole system of European tongues except a very few. By proving the ultimate identity both of roots and of inflexions in the speech of the older members of all the branches of this stock, they con- ceived themselves to have established the original unity of the peoples ; and to this proof from language is gradually being added the proof from mythology, the Indian deities appearing, though often with different functions, in Western nations, Persian, Greek, Roman, and German. By showing that the Sanskrit and Zend contain the fullest forms of inflexion, from which the others could be deduced, while progress in the contrary direction was impossible, they endeavoured to establish the fact that the movement of the nations had been from west to east,—a result, it need not be said, corresponding with all that the history and traditions of these nations tell us. When the Hindus were thus made the chief now known representative of the Aryan race, the Southern Indians were lumped together with the nations of Northern Asia under the common name Turanian. This is a mere provisional term, which may have to be abandoned when they are better known.
Transactions of the Ethnological Society of London VoL 6, New Series. London Murray. 1863. each other and entire separation from the Aryans. It may be that the philologists have relied too much upon language, which they know, and consulted physiology and the possibility of such exten- sive migrations too little. At all events, Mr. Crawford thinks far more lightly of language as a criterion, as appears when he says, "The wild tribes of India are chiefly distinguished from the civil- ized nations by adventitious or supervenient characters, such as manners, language, and religion."
Language is certainly to some degree adventitious, for it comes upon a man later than his birth ; and the craniologist may, there- fore, have the right to insist that the form of the skull shall be taken into consideration first. And in exceptional individuals it is no criterion at all. An English infant reared by the Zulus would speak Zulu, and the cranium, not the language, would tell its origin correctly. So in some larger instances. The Liberians speak a sort of English, yet are no less Negro than their African neighbours. But yet language is one of man's most tenacious qualities. Think that we here, with all the German, Scandina- vian, Slavonic, and Greek nations, use the same word for daughter which was spoken on the Himalayas certainly 1,500, and probably 2,000 or even 3,000, years before Christ ; that the numerals are the same, and often actually mutually intelligible to nations separated for ages ; that the modern Greek and Slavonic verb to be is scarcely changed from the oldest Sanskrit, and we obtain an idea of the perpetuity of language which makes us demur to its being spoken of as something merely adventitious.
Mr. Crawford's position is, that where there are wild tribes in the mountains, and civilized nations in the plains, both are of the same stock, adventitious' circumstances notwithstanding. There are Hindus as black as Bhils and Kols, and among the wild tribes some have features showing as good lines as the civilized tribes ; therefore, no line can be drawn between them. And then he affirms that no invading race can exist without mixture with the natives, and that this renders a unification of the two inevitable within a few generations. An invading host consists of males only ; women they must find among the conquered. " In all emigrations the males far exceed the females in number, and when the adventurers have to fight their way, the latter must be a mere fraction. Such is the case even in modern emigration, when a voyage to America can be performed with safety and convenience in a few weeks, and even to the Antipodes in a few months." But how can we accept this axiom? If a tribe is driven by an enemy from behind, the safety of women and children is found in accompanying the men to a new land. And all nations are not equally bound to the soil. We read of the removal of whole nations of Tatars ; the Huns spread themselves westwards, a nation, not an army ; Iceland was settled by Norwegian families who fled from the tyranny of the fair-haired Harold. From the ancient world also we have the familiar instance of the separation of the Hebrew tribes from the Aramaic, and their journey from 'Juan in Syria to the South led by Abraham, and again of the exodus of the same nation from Egypt (where for the women safety was assuredly in flight), with other slighter indications of national movements equally important. Surely, then, there is no great improbability in the supposed separation of the Zendic from the Vedic people on the highlands of Bactria, and the descent of the latter through the natural opening in the Himalayas down the Indus—a migration both short and easy ?
The Ethnological Society have this advantage over philological or however-styled linguistic societies, that they admit physiologi- cal evidence as well as linguistic. We have in this same volume the evidence of a craniologist " on some skulls of the hill tribes of India," being the first skulls made attainable for this purpose, which is given in the following terms :—
"To revert to that classification of the Hill Tribes, the undoubted Aborigines of India, made by men of great research and learning, into one grand Tamulian or Turanian family, it becomes at once apparent that investigations into their physical characters, and especially into their craniology, afford no support whatever to such a view. Indeed, much more might be said, and it seems only fair to add that craniolo- gical enquiry quite disproves their homogeneity. It proves that they must be separated into at least two classes, almost as far as the poles asunder, and perhaps into many more."
This is a note of warning, which the comparative linguists will do well not to neglect. Whether craniology is to override all other evidence of national affinity, is perhaps not fully made out ; but, at all events, when it gives one verdict and language another, no satisfactory result can be attained, and wise men will hold their judgment in abeyance till the difference is settled. One of the longest and most interesting papers, that on the Kola of Chota- Nagpore, by Lieutenant-Colonel Dalton, describing their tribal But it is convenient, to indicate their presumed connection with divisions, their traditions, and customs, makes it very difficult to
believe them to have anything in common with the Hindu of the plain. The Hindu conception of them as a serpent race, and their own practice of magical arts and belief in magical transformation into serpents and other animals, would alone be sufficient bar to community of origin, except, indeed, in the farthest recesses of time.
One other paper we must notice. It is one of several by Mr. H. H. Howorth, and is on the " Origins of the Norsemen." Let, any one read it who is inclined to say that nothing new with a semblance of truth can be advanced on this subject. While the history of the Norsemen in Scandinavia is connected and intelli- gible, great obscurity hangs over their previous fortunes. How did they get to Scandinavia, and whence ? After showing that Ptolemy, our earliest authority, peoples Scania or Sweden with tribes of Finnic on doubtful but certainly not Norse origin, and. that the view that the Norsemen were the descendants of the Old. Saxons who fled from Charlemagne is untenable because it violates national character, and leaves no room for the Norse mythology, epics, and other traditions, Mr. Howorth brings forward J
to show that in the sixth century the tribes inhabiting Sweden were distinctly Teutonic, and that they thence advanced towards the Euxine, conquering the Sclavi and Antes on their way. Then he shows that the Norsemen turned their attention and arms as much to the east as to the west, invading the Baltic provinces, establishing the first Russian dynasty at Novgorod, and settling (under the name of Russians) at Aldenborg (Old Ladoga) in the Gulf of Revel, Alaborg in that of Olonetz, and Holmgard in Arch- angel, and observes that in classic times we find in this very region the Roxolani
"A . . . . satisfactory . . . . etymology ; one, too, adopted by the Continental ethnologists, is found in the name given by the modern Finns, the collateral descendants of the Ugrian inhabitants of the Ukraine (from whom the Greeks would receive the name), to the Swedes and Norsemen of the present day. They call them Ruotsalanien, and their country Raotsi. Ruotsalanien is word for word the same as Roxolani. Tacitus, in giving an account of the reign of Otho, A.D. 69, says, 'that the Roxolani, a people of Sarmathia, who the preceding winter had cut off two cohorts, invaded Moesia with 9,000 horse. Their weapons are long spears or sabres, of an enormous size, which they wield with both hands. The chiefs wear coats of mail, formed with plates of iron sewn on tough hides, impenetrable to an enemy's weapons, but very cumbrous to the wearer.' If this description applies to any ancient tribes we know it is surely to the Northern pirates, with their iron armour and two-handed swords."
Having, by the power of this name, fetched the Norsemen out of Russia, it is not much further to find them originally in the Caucasus :—
" We thus find evidence accumulating on all hands to justify us in drawing the race of the Northern pirates from the head shores of the Caspian and the plains, or rather marshes, north of the Caucasus. Among the rivers and pools of the regions of the Don long boats are still used, which travellers have referred to as similar to those described in the Saxon Chronicles. Here are found pillar stones and other objects neglected by antiquaries, which are covered with the earlier forms of runes, and furnish the best link in tracing the history of that strange alphabet to its fountain-head in the Persian cuneiform inscriptions. Here was placed the country of the Asi, whence Odin, according to the Northern Scalds, brought his followers and his religion. Here was placed the half-mythical Asgard, which the cuneiform inscriptions have at length rescued from the character of being no more than a poetic fig- ment ; the name Asagarta occurring repeatedly among them. Here may be found buildings to compare with and furnish explanations of the Picts' houses of the Orkneys. Here, within the limits of the Par- thian empire, may be found ornaments of silver and gold covered with the decorations also found in Northern relics, and of which a large collection of armlets and bands discovered in England may be seen in. the magnificent collection at Edinburgh."
We feel so convinced that Mr. Howorth has struck the right chord on the main question, that we hardly like to suggest diffi- culties in detail. We cannot, however, help observing that the name Russian points not to the northern and Baltic provinces where the Scandinavians settled, but to the great corn-growing plains of the south-west, still called Rus, the etymon whence come the adjective russky (Russian) and Rosskiya (Russia). For the Danes, too, he hints at a most doubtful etymology ; treating dan as the root, as being the word for water which occurs in Danubius, Don, Dniester, and (we will add) Gdansk or Danzig, and inter- preting the name marshlanders. But the strength of Denmark lies in her islands, which are not marshy ; and Jutland, which is ; is inhabited, according to Mr. Howorth himself, by a different race, the Jutes or Goths. Besides, we would add, it is very doubtful whether the n belongs to the root ; more probably Dani stands for Dahiri, Dacini ; and if so, the connection with Daci (which is sup- ported by the Russian form for "Danish," Datsky) may be well founded, after all.
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