Davis, and other cranioseopists, have not heen toilfully wrought out
in vain; if, however,,this permanency is hut a dream, if typical
skull-forms vary in periods of time not greater than the historic,
then all is confusion and uncertainty, and the labors of the craniolo-
gist hopeless for good, alike without objects and without results.
Now a moment’s reflection will show that this question of permanency
underlies and in great measure substitutes itself for the fiercely-
vexed problem of the unity or diversity of human oiigin.
“ S’il est démontré,” says Gobineau, “ que les races humaines sont, chacune, enfermées
dans une sorte d’individualité d’où rien ne les peut faire sortir que le mélange, alors la doctrine
des Unitaires se trouve bien pressée et ne peut se soustraire à reconnaître que, du
moment où les types sont si complètement héréditaires, si constants, si permanents, en un
mot, malgré les climats et le temps, l’humanité n’est pas moins complètement et inébranla-
blement partagée que si les distinctions spécifiques prenaient leur source dans une diversité
primitive d’origine.” 88
After citing the Barâbra or Berberins of the Nile-valley, and the
Jews, in proof of the proposition under consideration, our author
proceeds to speak of the Turks in the following manner.
“ Les Turcs d’Europe et de l’Asie mineure nous offrent une autre preuve que la forme
caractéristique du crâne peut se modifier complètement dans le cours des siècles. Ce peuple
nous présente le modèle d’un type elliptique pur et ne se distingue rien de la masse des
nations éuropéennes. Par contre, il diffère tant avec les Turcs de l’Asie centrale, que
beaucoup d’écrivains le placent au nombre des nations caucasiquejs, tandis qu’ils rattachent
les Turcs d’Asie à la race mongole. Or, l’histoire démontre d’une manière irréfutable que
ces deux peuples appartiennent au groupe de l’Asie septentrionale, avec lequel les Turcs de
l’Orient conservent les relations les plus intimes, non-seulement au point de vue géographique,
mais par la concordance de tous les usages de la vie. La transformation du crâne
a eu lieu non chez les Turcs de l’Asie centrale, mais chez ceux de l’Europe. Ceux-ci ont
perdu peu à peu le type pyramidal de leurs pères et ils l’ont échangé contre la plus belle des
formes elliptiques. Or, tout en étant les représentants par excellence de cette forme, ils
sont aussi les consanguins les plus proches de ce peuple hideux aux yeux louches, qui mène
paître ses chevaux dans les steppes de la Tartarie. . . . . Nous devons attribuer cette
modification du crâne aux améliorations sociales, à la civilisation qui tend toujours à équilibrer
toutes les anomalies des formes faciales, à niveler toutes les protubérances du crâne
pyramidal ou prognatique et à les mener à la symétrie du type de l’ellipse. Les Turcs
orientaux sont restés ce qu’étaient les anciens Turcs ; placés sur le même degré inférieur de
la civilisation, ils ont conservé le type des peuples nomades.”
The mode of argument here employed appears to be this. In the
first place it is taken for granted that the Turks are of Asiatic origin ;
secondly, in consequence of certain unimportant resemblances, they
are assumed to be affiliated with the Laplanders and Ostiacs through
what are erroneously supposed to be their Finnic or Tchudic branches ;
and lastly, as relations of the Lapps, (?) it is inferred that they must
have originally presented all the Mongolie characters in an eminent
degree, and been remarkable for low statures, ugly features, &c.
86 Op. cit., t. 1, p. 212.
These premises supposed to be established, a comparison is next
instituted between the Turks of Europe and of Asia Minor, and a
conclusion drawn adverse to permanency of cranial types.
ft is of vital importance to cranioscopy, that these-arguments
should be carefully sifted, and examined in detail. It has been recently
shown that at so remote a period as the days of Abraham
numerous Gothic tribes occupied those boundless steppes of High
Asia, which lie outstretched between the Sea of Aral and Katai and
between Thibet and Siberia.89 From the Altai Mountains of this
region appear to have descended, at this distant epoch, the Orghuse
progenitors of the Turks. Now it is a note-worthy fact, that the
Oriental writers, though familiar with the European standards of
beauty, have filled their writings, even at a very early period, with
the highest eulogies upon the form and features of the tribes inhabiting
Turkestan. The descriptions they give of these tribes by no
means apply to the true Mongol appearance, to be met with on the
desert of Schamo. Haneberg describes Scharouz, the daughter of
the Khakan of the Turks, who lived in the early part of the sixth
century, as the most beautiful woman of her time.90 Alexander von
Humboldt tells us that the monk Rubruquis, sent by St. Louis on an
embassy to the Mongolian sovereign, spoke of the striking resemblance
which the Eastern monarch bore to the deceased M. Jean de
Beaumont, m complexion, features, &c. “ This physiognomical observation,”
says Humboldt, “ merits some attention, when we call to
mind the fact, that the family of Tchinguiz were really of Turkish
not of Mogul tirigin.” Further on, he remarks, “ The absence of
Mongolian features strikes us also in the portraits which we possess
of the Baburides, the conquerors of India.”91
B A*rak Turks’” writes Hamilton Smith, “ more, especially the Osmanlis, differ from
the other Toorkees, by their lofty stathre, European features, abundant beards, and fair
complexions, ^derived from their original extraction being Caucasian, of Yuchi race or from
an early intermixture with it, and with the numerous captives they were for ages incorporating
from Kashmere, Affghahistan, Persia, Syria, Natolia, Armenia, Greece, and eastern
Europe. Both these conjectures may be true, because the Caucasian stock, wherever we
7 oontl™>s to rise into power, from whatever source it may be drawn, and therefore
may m part have been pure before the nation left eastern Asia, while the subordinate
hordes remained more or less Hyperborean in character; as, in truth, the normal Toorkees
about the lower Oxus still are. All have, however, a peculiar form of the posterior portion
of ft i B t 18 m depth than 1116 Eur°Pean> a»88 not appear to be a result
ot the tight swathing of the turban. Osmanli Turks are a handsome race, and their chil
<*ren, m particular, are beautiful. ”»2
"'r Asie I* i f K t t ew s^ iii ? ’ VOI. n . ; and Lassen’s Zntschnftfur die Kunde dee Morgmlandes, vol. II.
Zeitsckrift fu r die Kunde des Morgenlandes, vol. I., p. 187.
| To1- 1 P- 248. See also Gobineau, 'sur I'Inigaliti, ¿u, Chap. XI.