" (Strabo, lib. iii., p. 139.)
The Iberians are represented to-day by the Basques.
The Basque are "of middle size, compactly built, robust and agile, of a
darker complexion than the Spaniards, with gray eyes and black hair.
They are simple but proud, impetuous, merry, and hospitable. The women
are beautiful, skilful in performing men's work, and remarkable for
their vivacity and grace. The Basques are much attached to dancing, and
are very fond of the music of the bagpipe." ("New American Cyclopaedia,"
art. Basques.)
"According to Paul Broca their language stands quite alone, or has mere
analogies with the American type. Of all Europeans, we must
provisionally hold the Basques to be the oldest inhabitants of our
quarter of the world." (Peschel, "Races of Men," p. 501.)
The Basque language--the Euscara--"has some common traits with the
Magyar, Osmanli, and other dialects of the Altai family, as, for
instance, with the Finnic on the old continent, as well as the
Algonquin-Lenape language and some others in America." ("New American
Cyclopaedia," art. Basques.)
Duponceau says of the Basque tongue:
"This language, preserved in a corner of Europe by a few thousand
mountaineers, is the sole remaining fragment of, perhaps, a hundred
dialects constructed on the same plan, which probably existed and were
universally spoken at a remote period in that quarter of the world.
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