Blair Collection > Kelt or Gael

12 The Kelt or Gael.
varieties. The only difficulty in my mind is,
can the Aryan Hindoo be a variety of the Aryan
Slav or the Aryan German, without giving to
the word "race" a meaning so wide as to render
it worthless ? I cannot answer the question
satisfactorily, but I have no hesitation in saying
that the word "race" in its present acceptation will
satisfactorily cover every European variety of
the Aryan, viz., Greeks, Latins, Kelts, Germans,
and Slavs. There is no incompatibility in size
or form. There are variations, such as we may
see in many families ; nothing more. So also in
the test of colour. The red or fair hair of the
Venetian donna, a pure Kelt, of the Galway
colleen, or of the Argyle lassie, are very much
the same ; so are the blue eyes ; but in Venice,
Galway, and Argyle there are dark Kelts as well
as red or fair. So there are fair Germans and
dark Germans, fair Slavs and dark Slavs, fair
Scandinavians and dark. But the fairest and
most blue-eyed people in the world are the
South Russians, the White Russians, the Little
Russians, and the Great Russians, Slavs to a
man. Fair hair and blue eyes is only a modified
form of Albinoism ; the fair-haired and blue-
eyed man is generally seen in spectacles ; and
Dr Penka and Dr Poesche think the colour
is due to long residence in a semi-Arctic climate.
Again, it is within the experience of most people
that dark-haired parents frequently have fair-
haired children, and fair-haired parents dark-