and the southern are brachycephalic. The length-height index of the former varies from 65 to 68, and of the latter from 70 to 72. Taking the mean at 66 and 70 respectively, it follows that the dolichocephals are platycephalic and the brachycephals hypsicephalic; but this platycephaly is a true flattening of the skull, and is not merely due to a lengthening of the cranium, as it is not the most dolichocephalic cantons that are the most platycephalic. FIG. 20. Distribution of the Height-length Index in Dordogne; after Collignon. 70+ 67 FIG. 21. Distribution of the Height-breadth In- Hypsicephalic (shaded) 70 Mesocephalic (blank) 67 Platycephalic (cross-hatched) 81 83 The oblique band enclosed with a thick line corresponds to the division between On the other hand, all the brachycephalic cantons have a height-breadth index of from 81 to 84, that is, they are, or appear to be, platycephalic and mesocephalic, but their mean is mesocephalic. The mixed race which inhabits the zone between the brachycephals and dolichocephals (cephalic index 80–82) is also intermediate with a height-breadth index of 83-85, but the dolichocephals fall into two groups; the one with indices from 85 to 87 are hypsicephalic, the others, like the brachycephals, are mesocephalic and platycephalic. Thus the platycephaly of the valley of the Isle is established. The brachycephals are only false platycephals owing to an exaggeration of the transverse diameter. Without going into further details, we may now make an attempt to unravel the ethnology of these five Departments. Taking the three characters of cephalic index, colour, and stature, we can distinguish: short and dark or tall and fair brachycephals; fair, tall dolichocephals and dark dolichocephals. The brachycephals occupy all the region south of the rivers Dordogne and Vézère, the whole of the Department of Corrèze and the east of that of Creuse. The brown brachycephalic type extends to the mountainous region of Auvergne, to the east of France and to the south of Germany. This race of short, dark brachycephals is a wellmarked type which has received several names. Dr. Collignon, for want of a better term, adopts Broca's designation of Celts, as the founder of French anthropology considered that these were essentially the Celtæ of Cæsar. They are often called Auvergnats. The tall, fair variety is due to a crossing of this type with the fair race. A similar racial mixture occurs in Lorraine. The fair dolichocephals inhabit the upper valley of the Cher; the neighbourhood of Limoges, whence they spread to the south, following the plateaux that separate the valleys of the Isle and of the Dordogne; and also the north of Charente, Angoulême, and in general along the very ancient route between Paris and Bordeaux. These are the modified descendants of the tall, fair, dolichocephalic race of North Europe. Dr. Collignon speaks of it as the Hallstadt race. The brown dolichocephals require further analysis. (1) A type can be distinguished which is characterised by its relative platycephaly, the extreme broadening of the face, a prominent chin, low orbits, and by the dark colour of the skin and hair. As it is usual in Europe to correlate a long, narrow face with a long head, and a short, broad face with a rounded head, the association, as in this case, of a long head with a broad face forms what is termed a disharmony. In the fair dolichocephals, on the other hand, the head is high, the face narrow, the chin moderately prominent, the orbits. normal, the skin, hair, and eyes fair. It is obvious that these two races are entirely distinct. (2) A narrow-faced dolichocephal with a high head can be distinguished, but Dr. Collignon believes that it is a cross between two races, the brown and the fair dolichocephals. This is a very favourable combination, and gives rise to a beautiful variety of man. (3) A rare but recognisable type, with an extraordinarily narrow and elongated face, a retreating forehead, projecting jaws, and retreating chin; the concave nose is so broad as to be nearly platyrhine, the hair and skin are dark. Putting the second of these two varieties out of count, there only remain the brown dolichocephal with a disharmonic face, and that with a retreating chin. They both live in the basin of the Isle and its affluents, as much in Charente as in Dordogne. From numerous other investigations we know that the Neolithic dolichocephals of Western and Southern Europe were a slight people with brown hair. They constitute the Mediterranean race of Sergi, the western branch being generally termed Iberians. The ancient cave-men of France belong to the same race; by comparing certain indices of these with the first group of our brown dolichocephals, we find a remarkable correspondence': Further, the Cro-Magnon man had a disharmonic face; this is also characteristic of the Neolithic dolichocephal of Laugerie, and it survives in their descendants in the valley of the Isle. The remaining brown dolichocephalic type, with its lowtyped, long, narrow, prognathous face, is considered by Dr. Collignon to be the far-removed descendants of the Quarternary race of Canstadt and Spy. The same type has been recognised by him in Tunis among the Berbers of Djerid (his race Gétule), as well as in Dordogne and in the south of Charente; that is to say, in places still occupied by the descendants of the race of Cro-Magnon. It might be expected that the very ancient race of Canstadt and the later race of Cro-Magnon were together beaten back by the great prehistoric invasions of Western Europe. A few words will suffice to trace the prehistoric settlements and racial movements that have occurred in this district. The earliest inhabitants were probably the people with retreating chins. According to the opinion of Dr. Collignon these were kinsmen to Palæolithic man. At the present day, as is only to be expected, this type is very rarely met with in anything like purity, and it is very difficult to isolate it statistically. 'These indices are taken from a subsequent memoir by Dr. Collignon (Mém. Soc. d'Anth. de Paris), i. (3e sér.), 1895, pp. 94, 95. The whole west of Europe was later occupied by the brown dolichocephals, the Iberian branch of the great Mediterranean race, of which the Cro-Magnon man was a variety. They buried their dead in the caves of the valleys of the Vézère, Isle, and Dronne. Judging from their art they were a skilful people, and not devoid of culture: "Later he pictured an aurochs-later he pictured a bear— Pictured the sabre-toothed tiger dragging a man to his lairPictured the mountainous mammoth, hairy, abhorrent, aloneOut of the love that he bore them, scribing them clearly on bone." 1 There, protected in their barren, rocky valleys, weathering the storm of race conflict, unsubmerged by waves of race migration, still survive the children of early Neolithic man. Also in Neolithic times a short, dark brachycephalic folk came into France from the east by two routes flowing north and south of the Alps. The invasion followed the left bank of the Danube, entered the valley of the Rhine, and later spread into France through the pass of Belfort and by the lower Moselle. A second, probably later and less important, invasion crossed the river to reach Upper Italy and Switzerland, and thence gained the valley of the Rhone. Thus their migration has been from east to west. When the invasions came of the tall, fair dolichocephals, Kymri, Gauls, Cimbrians, Burgundians, Visigoths, Franks, etc., they more particularly followed a course parallel to the North Sea. From an ill-determined point to the north-east or north they advanced invariably along the plains, probably on account of the chariots which they always brought with them. After having covered the plains of North Germany, where since then their descendants have always lived, and which became a second centre for emigrations, they passed 1 ' Rudyard Kipling, "The Story of Ung," The Seven Seas, 1896. |