Lapps, and some
smaller tribes."<45> Researches into the surroundings of these people,
combined with what we have already learned as to the culture, customs,
and manners of the Neolithic people in the preceding pages, throw no
little light on this age. The darkness of oblivion seems dispelled by
the light of science, and we behold before us the Europe of Neolithic
times, thickly inhabited by a race of people, small in stature, dark
visaged, and oval-faced--fond of war and the chase, yet having a rude
system of agriculture. The picture seems complete; and we have now only
to raise some inquiries as to the great stock of people to which they
belonged, and conjecture as to the date of their arrival in Europe.<46>

We are now learning that far back in the past, when mankind was
yet young in the world, the great Turanian family held a commanding
position. They seem to have dispersed widely over the earth. Their
migrations began long before that of the Aryan and Semitic people.
When tribes of these later people began their wanderings, they found a
Turanian people inhabiting the country wherever they went. Long before
the times of Abraham, the fertile plains of Chaldea were the home of
powerful tribes of this family. Egypt, and the fertile Nile Valley,
the home of ancient civilization, was their possession at a time long
preceding the rise of the Pharaohs. Their Asiatic origin is corroborated
by what we have learned of their domestic animals and cereals, which we
know to be also from Asia, or the south-east. These Turanian tribes, at
some far remote time, must have appeared in Asia Minor. Urged onward
by the pressure of increasing population, they passed into Europe and
Northern Africa. Their progress was, doubtless, slow; but they gradually
filled Europe. The English Channel must have presented no inconsiderable
barrier, and it was after Europe had been populated for a long time that
they ventured to brave its passage in their rude canoes.

The Neolithic culture, which we have treated of in reference to Europe
only, is seen to have been of Turanian origin. From its Asiatic home it
spread over the entire world--to the islands of the Pacific, and even
America. The road that leads from barbarism to civilization is long and
difficult, and it is not strange that but one or two families of men
were able to attain that end by their own unaided effort.<47> The
Turanian Family, which probably advanced man from savagism into
barbaris