The bronze age and the Celtic world - Universal History Library

138 THE BRONZE AGE AND THE CELTIC WORLD
" so it came to pass that in England, the native land of fads, there chanced to enter into
the head of an eccentric individual the notion of placing the cradle of the Aryan race
in Europe."
Those of us who hve " in that land of fads" may well be proud of Dr. Latham, who
advanced these views in 1851, and subsequently enlarged upon them.'' In due course
nearly all other philologists followed suit, and Max-Miiller alone was unrepentent, and
as late as 1887 wrote " I should still say, as I said forty years ago, ' Somewhere in Asia,'
and no more."'* But by then the Asiatic cradle had gone to the Hmbo of exploded
hypotheses.
In 1868 Benfey, in a preface to Pick's work,'' acknowledged the value of Latham's
protests, and, arguing for the first time from the type of evidence known as linguistic
palaeontology, advocated a European as distinguished from an Asiatic cradle, and
suggested, as Latham had done earHer, the region north of the Black Sea. He was
followed in 1871 by Geiger,'* who with national pride wished to prove that the
super-man had always Hved in the plain of North Germany, to which, some years later,
Pietrement'^ retorted by suggesting that Geiger's arguments would apply equally well
to the neighbourhood of Lake Balkash and the Ala-tau mountains.
In the same year in which Geiger's work appeared Cuno made a notable contribution
to the h37pothesis.*° He contended that the original undivided Wiros were not a small
clan, but must have been a numerous, nomad pastoral people, inhabiting an extensive steppe
region. For the evolution of the parent tongue with its elaborate grammar a long
period, several thousands of years, must have been needed, and during this time the
Wiros must have moved freely over the area of the cradle, having frequent intercourse
with one another, but Httle or none with outsiders. These conditions, he thought,
could only be obtained on a vast plain, undivided by lofty mountain barriers or
impassable forests ; this cradle must have been in a temperate cMmate, tolerably
uniform in character, where there would have been ample room for the growth of a
numerous people. Such an area can only be found in the great plain of Northern
Europe, stretching from the north of France to the Ural mountains.
'5 Latham (1851) cxlii., (1854) 197, 198, (1859) ii. 503. '8 Geiger (1871) 113-150.
"« Max-Miiller {1888) 127. '9 Pidtrement {1879).
'7 Fick(i868). " Cuno (1871).