The soul of Spain / by Havelock Ellis.

  • Havelock Ellis
Date:
1908
Catalogue details

Licence: In copyright

Credit: The soul of Spain / by Havelock Ellis. Source: Wellcome Collection.

    49/446 page 31
    primitive Iberians of Berber stock. Once, as place-names still show, this language was spoken over the greater part of Spain, but now, in a modified shape, it is confined to the people who inhabit the north-east corner of Spain and the adjoining region in France. The Basques them- selves, as Telesforo de Aranzadi has shown in a detailed anthropological study, correspond to the primitive Iberians of Berber affinity, though modified, he believes, by some admixture with people, on the one hand, of Lapp and Finn type, on the other hand, of Cymric or Germanic type. Their isolation on the flanks of the Pyrenees has enabled the Basques to retain their ancient language and some of their primitive institutions, —as, in some districts, precedence of the eldest daughter over all the sons in inheritance,—but the Iberians still, it is probable, form the funda- mental material in the population all over Spain. Moreover, it is a remarkable and significant fact that nearly all the successful historical invasions of Spain have been carried out by peoples who were of North African or allied stock, and often very largely of actual Berber race. The Car- thaginians, who played so large a part in the early history of Spain, were mainly, it is prob- able, of race allied to the Berbers. The Moslems, who represent by far the most important invasion, reached Spain from Morocco, and though their leaders often came from farther east, the bulk of
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