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Show 244 TilE CRANIAL CllAUACTERISTICS Now, tho beautiful Osmanlis arc the lineal descendants of the warlike Seldjuks, who, in tho ninth century, suddenly made their appearance in Southern Asia, overthrew the empire of tho Khalifs, and founded tho states of Iran, Korman, and Roum, or !conium. Tiistory informs us that those Soldjuks were, by no means, careful al>out vrosorving the purity of their genealogy; for it is not ~ifficult to adduce instances of their chiefs intcrmanying with Arab1an and C1u·istian womcu. In short, when we consider that, as a body, they were constantly engaged in extensive predatory excursions, dul'ing which they enjoyed almost unlimited opportunities for capturing slaves and amalgamating with them; that in compliance with the invitation of Osman, tho son of Ortogrlml, groat numbers of tho adv nturous, the discontented, and tho desperate, from all the surrounding nations, fled to his standard, and gradually swc1lcd tlJC ranks of tho Osmrmlis; that at a later period, the tl1inning of tboir rnnnbort: l in war was avowedly provided for by tho capture of slaves ; that in the ranks of tho Janissarics, a military order instituted in the early part of the fourteenth century by Orkhan, one-fifth of all the European captives were enrolled; that for two centuries and a JwJf this body was cntir ly dependent for its renewal upon tho lu·i stian slaves captured in Pole nd, crmany, Italy, &c.; that in th course of four centuries, at least half a million of European mal s derived from the abovc-mcutionecl sou t· ·cs, and by piracy along tho Mediterranean, had been incorporated into the Turkish population ;-wllCll we consider all these, and mm1y other facts of a like nature, we at·e forced to conclude with tho Ot'llditc Gobineau, that the history of so amalgamated a nation furnil:lhes no arguments, either for Ol' against the doctt·ine of permanency of typo. l!'ut'ther on, and confirmatory of the above remarks, the reader will find some allusion to the special character of the Turkish ct·anium, and tho marks wbich distinguish it from tho Mongolian, :E'innic, and other forms of the skull. The M.ao·yars arc also produced as an example of the mutability of cranial form. "Bien qu'ils no lo clldont t\ n.uoun pouplo ni on beau tiS physique ni on d':svoloppomont iutolloctuol, ils doscontlont, d'npr~s los indications do l'histoiro ot do Ia linguistiquo oompar6o, do Ia grnnde race qui occupo l'Asio soptontrionalo. lis sont du mOmo sang quo los Samoi:~dOI! indolonts, los Ostinos stupidcs ot dobiloA, lea Lnpous indomptnblos. 11 y n environ millo nus, lea codesccndnnts do ccs pouplt1dcs m(lpris6os, los Mngyn.rs moderucs, furout ohns~6~ par uno invnsion do 1'urca hors do !rt Grande-IIongrio, pnys avoisinnut l'Ourn.J, qu'ila habituiont it cotte 6poque. A leur tour ils expulserent los rnoes slaves dos plnincs fo•·til es do It\ Hongrio nctuollo. Pnr cotto migration, los Magyars 6ohnng~ront un des plus rudos elimnts do l'nncicn continent, uno COJltr6e snuvago dans Jnquello l'Ostinc ot lc Snmoi'bdo ne pcnvcnt s'ndounor i\ In ehaMso ()llO pendant quelques mois, contro un pnys plu~ m6l'idiouul, d'uno luxuriauto fodilit6. lis fut·ont eutrain6s it so d6pouillot· pou it pou do leurs 0~' TilE RACES OF MEN. 24!) moours gro~sicres ct it se mpprochcr de lcnra voisins plus civilis6s. Aprea un mil\ior d'nnn6os, la forme pymmidalo do Jour crU.no est dovouuc cllipti()uo. L'ltypothbso d'un creiROmout g6u6t·nl de rncos n'cst pas ndmissible quand il s'ngit rlcs Magyars si tiers, vivn.nt dttns l'isoloment Jo plus s6v~rc. La simple expatriation no auflit pas non plus pout· modifier l>t forme du crU.no. Lo Lttpon, issu du mllmo snug que lo M!1gynr, a comrne lui uussi chnut;6 do dcmcnt·o; il vit maintcnnnt en Europe; mais il y a conscl'V6 1o type pyramidal de SOH crU.no nvcc an vic do nomado suuvago." This asserted transformation of tho Samoicdo or N ortltcrn Asiatic typo into the liungariaD, in the short space of eight hundred, or, at most, one thousand years, stands unparalleled in lJisLory. But we may ask, if the Macryar has thus chang d tho form of his head, why htwo not his habits and mode of lifo changed a ·cordillgly? ·why, after a residence of nearly one thousaud ycttrs in II ungary, docs ho still withhold his hand from agricultural pur. uits, and, depending for his support upon llis herds, leave to tho aboriginal Slovack poi.Jttlation tho task of cultivating tl1c soil? Wl1y docs l10 jealously preserve his own lnngung , and, tlJOlJ<rh professillg tho same religion, rcfnso to intermingle with his lavouian neighbot·s? Can it be that the language, manners, and customs of a people a1·e more dumblo than the hardest parts of their organism- the bony skeleton ? It' the reader will consult tho able essay of 0EUANDO, upon tho ot·igin of tho Hnngarians,03 l1o will find a simple explanation of these apparent difficulties. It is there shown by pow rful philological arguments, and upon tho authority of Greek and Arabian historiaus ~n<l Hungarian annalists, that tho Magyars are a remnant of tl1c warltko Huns, who in the fourth century spl'cad such terror through Europo. Now, the Huns were by no means a pure Mongolic race, but, on tho contrary, an exceedingly mixed people. In tho veins of the so-called White Ifuns, who formed a portion of Attila's heterogeneous hordt', Germanic blood fiowod frc ly. "In the whole of tho high r gion west of the Caspian," says llAMILTON SMITII, "to the Euxinc ancl eastern coast of tho M cditorrancan as far as the II 'llospont, it ito~ difficult, if not impossible, to separate distinctly tho Fin.uic fl'Om tho pnrc Germanic and eltic naLions." IH lluMDOLDT, iu the Asie Centrale, alludes to, tho Kbit·ghi?:-Kasakcs as a mixed race, and tells us thnt, in 569, Z6march, the ambassador of Justinian TI., received from tl10 Turkish chief Dithonboul a present of a illtirgl1iz concubine who was partly ·white. Dlil GomNEAU consirlers tho !IUJlgariaM to be White Runs of Germanic origin, and attributes to a slight intermixture with the Mongolian stock their somewhat angular and bony facial conformation.9r. U:J EM~t\i !Tistoriquo sur l'Ot·igino des IIongrois. Pnr A. Do 06rando. Pnris, 1814. ~ko also lfnmilton Smith's Nat. llist. of lluman Spcoios, pp. 823, 825. o• Op. cit., p. 825. oo Op. cit., p. 228. |