The Richmond palladium and sun-telegram. [volume] (Richmond, Ind.) 1907-1939, 1920-01-15
Ethuologists Tell Irish Early History

were soon Jumped together as mere
Irish," and their common misfortunes
broke down the barriers between them.
There are some interesting phenom-
ena in the medieval and early mod
ern native literature which are to be
explained as the result of this unifica-
ton. AS the fair-haired folk were
doubtless numerically in the minority,
it is the aboriginal stock which pre-
dominated in the consequent mixture,
and which is the predominant element
in the modern population.
The Mediterranean analogies of this
predominant element give rise to all
the familiar unscientific talk about
Spanish colonists on the west coast OF
Ireland. The analogies are not con-
fined to the external racial character
istics, there are temperamntal links as
we'll
Till further and more systematic
scientific work has been done, both in
photographic surveys and in archaeo-
logical research, we cannot hope to
! translate these probabilities into GER
tainties. A thorough archaeological
survey is the first desideratum. In
1908 theree royal commissions were
appointed to conduct archaeological sur
veys in England, Scotland and Wales,
and the thirteen magnificent volumes
that appeared, down to the time when
their work was interrupted by the war,
are an earnest Of the admirable thor
oughness with which these surveys
will be carried out. The prayer of the
two chief archaeological Sc. cites of
Ireland, that similar commission
should be appointed to carry out the
same work in the sister country was
met with curt refusal.
.. "Book Of the Dun Cow"
These native legends form, a COM
plicated study into which enter many
elements other than chronological. The
essential point for our present pur-
! pose is that just noted: their testi-
mony to the existence of a variety of
racial type. Further and yet more i'm
| portant evidence bearing on the same
matter is to be found elsewhere in an
cient Irish literature The present
| writer, some time ago. went through
two Of the largest and oldest of the
i ancient manuscript miscellanies that
| have come down to us in the country:
| the so-called Book Of the Dun Cow"
and the Book of Leinstcr' Cloth of
the twelfth century,, but containing
much older material. and he collected
| all the personal descriptions there
contained. The result of this study
established a rule that every person
who was kingly, noble. heroic, or 9TH
erwise endowed with desirable quail
!, ties, was described as tall and of fair
| complexion; every person who was
despicable, socially or morally. was
described as hort and dark. Further,
the fair-haired persons wore their hair
long and flowing, the dark-haired
1 were close cropped.
Mediterranean and Nordc Races.
There is only one possible explana-
ton of this fact. The literature was
an aristocratic product and was for
the benefit of the fair-haiIed aristoc-
racy. There was servile dark popu-
lation despised by their over lords
Clearly the distinction could not be
maintained without barriers against
intermarriage. We see quite plainly
an aboriginal dark population reduced
to subsection by light-haircd popula-
ton of later immigrants.
A sufficient number of excavations
! has not yet been carried QUIT under
scientific auspices to enable us to say
! much about the evidence Of ancient
craniology But so far as our present
knowledge permits us to say anything.
the ancient Irish were probably long
4 and narrow headed to an even more
marked degree than are the modern
inhabitants of the country. Short
headness seems to have increased
since the Anglo-Norman conquest, and
probably is direct result of that
event. Both the tall fair and the short
dark population of ancient times were
long headed. This being so, we may
assign the ancient people to the Med
iterranean race of ethnologists, and
their fair haired conquerors to the
Scandinavian or Nordic race. This
result is. naturally, nothing more than
a tentative working hypothesis, which
seems to fit the facts so far as they
have been collected up to the present