The Passing of the Great Race
By Madison Grant
Part II - European Races In History
Chapter
10
THE NORDIC RACE OUTSIDE OF EUROPE
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WE find few traces of Nordic characters
outside of Europe. When Egypt was invaded by the Libyans from the west in
1230 B.C., they were accompanied by blond "sea people," probably
the Achaean Greeks, and it is interesting to note that a certain amount of
reddish blondness exists today on the northern slopes of the Atlas Mountains.
That it is of Nordic origin we may be certain, but through what channels it
came we have no means of knowing. There is no historic invasion of north
Africa by Nordics except the Vandal conquests, but there does not seem to be
any probability that this small Teutonic tribe left behind it any physical
trace in the native population. The Philistines and Amorites of Palestine
may have been of the Nordic race. Certain references to the size of the sons
of Anak and to the fairness of David, whose mother was an Amoritish woman,
point vaguely in this direction. References in Chinese annals to the green
eyes of the Wu-suns or Hiung-Nu in central Asia are the only sure evidence we
have of the Nordic race in contact with the peoples of eastern Asia. The so-called blondness of the hairy Ainus
of the northern islands of Japan seems to be due to a trace of what might be
called Proto-Nordic blood. The hairiness of these people is in sharp contrast
to their Mongoloid neighbors, but it is a generalized character common to the
highest and the lowest races of man. The primitive Australoids and the highly
specialized Scandinavians are among the most hairy populations in the world.
So in the Ainus this somatological peculiarity is merely the retention of a
very primitive trait. The occasional brown or greenish eye, and the sometimes
fair complexion of the Ainus, are, however, suggestive of Nordic affinities,
and of an extreme easterly extension of Proto-Nordics at a very early period.
The skull shape of the Ainus is extremely
dolichocephalic, while the broad cheek bones indicate a Mongolian cross, as
in the Esquimaux. The Ainus, like many other small, mysterious people, are
probably merely the remnants of one of the many early races that are fast
fading into extinction. The division of man into species is very ancient, and
the chief races of the earth are merely the successful survivors of the long
struggle. Many species, subspecies, and races have vanished utterly, except
for reversional characters which we find in the larger races. The only Nordics in Asia Minor, so far as
we know, were the Phrygians who came across the Hellespont about 1400 B.C. as part of the
same migration which brought the Achaeans into Greece; the Cimmerians who
entered by the same route and also through the Caucasus about 650 B.C., and
still later, in 270 B.C., the Gauls who, coming from north Italy through
Thrace, crossed the Hellespont and founded Galatia. So far as our present
information goes, little or no trace of these invasions remains in the
existing populations of Anatolia. The expansions of the Persians and the
Aryanization of their empire, and the conquests of the Nordics east and south
of the Caspian-Aral Sea, will be discussed in connection with the spread of
Aryan languages. |
Continue on to Part 2, Chapter 11 - THE RACIAL APTITUDES