The bronze age and the Celtic world - Universal History Library

136 THE BRONZE AGE AND THE CELTIC WORLD
nationals to believe that Germans, qua Germans, were the inheritors of many, in fact
of most admirable quaUties. As a matter of fact such " patriotic " ideas were current
in most countries, as can be seen by an examination of the school text-books, especially
history books, in use at that time, and sometimes, too, at the present day. Only in this,
as is their wont, the Germans were very thorough, and they pressed every science and
every hypothesis into their service.
What was read into the hypothesis of Penka, though it does not follow that he
wished it, was that these Wiros or Aryan super-men were the same as the Nordic super-men,
and that their home was in Germany, as could easily be proved from the pages of
Tacitus. It was impUed that from Germany had come all that was Aryan or Nordic or
reaUy valuable in the population of other countries, and that, therefore, the Aryan Nordic
Germans were the salt of the earth. This view, which grew up insensibly from the
hypothesis of Penka and others, was caught hold of by those who were wishing to
transform the peaceful Alpine German into an aggressive militarist, and in its full absurdity
was given to the world by a renegade Englishman, Herr Houston Chamberlain.'
Now, as we have seen, the original Wiros, though they had their good points,
had by no means a monopoly of the virtues, and were enabled to spread their tongues
largely by their incapacity and unwillingness to learn the speech of others. The Nordic
is a picturesque and romantic figure, with many admirable qualities, but is seldom
clever, skilful with his hands or patient in research. Lastly, an examination of the
physical types, as they exist to-day in Germany, shows us that outside the former
kingdom of Hanover, the Nordic type is rare." There are probably as many pure
Nordics in France, distributed over the northern departments from Dunkirk almost to
the west of Brittany, as will be found in the German empire. There is this difference
only between the populations of the two countries. In Germany the fair colouring of
the Nordic element seems to be a dominant character over the relatively dark pigmentation
of the Alpine ; so we meet with a majority of people having broad Alpine heads but
fair Nordic colouration. In France, on the other hand, there is a large Mediterranean
element, surviving from neolithic days, and the brunette colouring of this race is more
dominant than the blondness of the Nordic. As all three types have mingled in
France, fair hair is less frequently found among those with broad heads.
9 Chamberlain (1911). '° Ripley (1900) 217, 218 ; Parsons (1919).