Hero Tales and Legends of the Rhine | Page 7

their foes, probably seeking asylum with their kindred in Gaul.
Probably the Teutonic tribes had already commenced to apply pressure
to the Celtic inhabitants of Rhine-land in the fourth century before the
Christian era. As was their wont, they displaced the original possessors
of the soil as much by a process of infiltration as by direct conquest.
The waves of emigration seem to have come from Rhaetia and
Pannonia, broad-headed folk, who were in a somewhat lower condition
of barbarism than the race whose territory they usurped, restless,
assertive, and irritable. Says Beddoe:[1]

[Footnote 1: The Anthropological History of Europe, p. 100.]
“The mass of tall, blond, vigorous barbarians multiplied, seethed, and
fretted behind the barrier thus imposed. Tacitus and several other
classic authors speak of the remarkable uniformity in their appearance;
how they were all tall and handsome, with fierce blue eyes and yellow
hair. Humboldt remarks the tendency we all have to see only the single
type in a strange foreign people, and to shut our eyes to the differences
among them. Thus some of us think sheep all alike, but the shepherd
knows better; and many think all Chinamen are alike, whereas they
differ, in reality, quite as much as we do, or rather more. But with
respect to the ancient Germans, there certainly was among them one
very prevalent form of head, and even the varieties of feature which
occur among the Marcomans--for example, on Marcus Aurelius’
column--all seem to oscillate round one central type.
The ‘Graverow’ Type
“This is the Graverow type of Ecker, the Hohberg type of His and
Rutimeyer, the Swiss anatomists. In it the head is long, narrow (say
from 70 to 76 in. breadth-index), as high or higher than it is broad, with
the upper part of the occiput very prominent, the forehead rather high
than broad, often dome-shaped, often receding, with prominent brows,
the nose long, narrow, and prominent, the cheek-bones narrow and not
prominent, the chin well marked, the mouth apt to be prominent in
women. In Germany persons with these characters have almost always
light eyes and hair.... This Graverow type is almost exclusively what is
found in the burying-places of the fifth, sixth, and seventh centuries,
whether of the Alemanni, the Bavarians, the Franks, the Saxons, or the
Burgundians. Schetelig dug out a graveyard in Southern Spain which is
attributed to the Visigoths. Still the same harmonious elliptic form, the
same indices, breadth 73, height 74.”
Early German Society
Tacitus in his Germania gives a vivid if condensed picture of Teutonic
life in the latter part of the first century:

“The face of the country, though in some parts varied, presents a
cheerless scene, covered with the gloom of forests, or deformed with
wide-extended marshes; toward the boundaries of Gaul, moist and
swampy; on the side of Noricum and Pannonia, more exposed to the
fury of the winds. Vegetation thrives with sufficient vigour. The soil
produces grain, but is unkind to fruit-trees; well stocked with cattle, but
of an under-size, and deprived by nature of the usual growth and
ornament of the head. The pride of a German consists in the number of
his flocks and herds; they are his only riches, and in these he places his
chief delight. Gold and silver are withheld from them: is it by the
favour or the wrath of Heaven? I do not, however, mean to assert that
in Germany there are no veins of precious ore; for who has been a
miner in these regions? Certain it is they do not enjoy the possession
and use of those metals with our sensibility. There are, indeed, silver
vessels to be seen among them, but they were presents to their chiefs or
ambassadors; the Germans regard them in no better light than common
earthenware. It is, however, observable that near the borders of the
empire the inhabitants set a value upon gold and silver, finding them
subservient to the purposes of commerce. The Roman coin is known in
those parts, and some of our specie is not only current, but in request.
In places more remote the simplicity of ancient manners still prevails:
commutation of property is their only traffic. Where money passes in
the way of barter our old coin is the most acceptable, particularly that
which is indented at the edge, or stamped with the impression of a
chariot and two horses, called the Serrati and Bigati. Silver is preferred
to gold, not from caprice or fancy, but because the inferior metal is of
more expeditious use in the purchase of low-priced commodities.
Ancient German Weapons
“Iron does not abound in Germany, if we may judge from the weapons
in general use. Swords and large lances are seldom seen. The soldier
grasps his javelin, or, as it is called in their