11. The deluge of Noah was not universal,
and it destroyed only the. lews (ibid. lib. iv. cap. vii-ix |; nor is it possible to trace to Noah the origin of all the races of men (ibid. lih. iv, cap. xiv). Some of these po- sitions were far hi advance of the age, and it ought to he said were defended with knowledge and candor which were not appreciated by the adversaries of Peyrerius.
The question of Preadamites admits of discussion in our day from quite another standpoint. Recognising it as a question of scientific fact, we should unhesitatingly appeal to anthropology for a dual answer. Ethnologists are generally agreed that the civilized nation- of Eu- rope, Northern Africa, and Western and Southern Asia belong to one race, which was designated Caucasian by Blumenbach, hut which, with recent authorities, is known under the name of the Mediterranean Nations. They are recognised as constituting three groups of peoples, commonly called Handle-. Sh< mite-, and Indo- Europeans or Japhetites. These designations are de- rived from the names of the three Bons of Noah, to whom, through the invaluable aid of the Biblical eth- nology, the learned have traced the pedigree of these three types of people. They may. therefore, be desig- nated collect i\ el \ a- Moachites. (1.) The Hamitea are known to have distributed themselves through the north of Africa, the Nile valley, and the east of the continent
a- far a- the Strait of Bab el-Mandeb. The ancient Egyptians are pure Handle-, and are generally i a- the founder- of the oldest ei\ ilization. They are slill more or less perfectly represented by the I-'ellahin. or peasantry of the lower Nile, and especially by the Cop- tic Christians of the towns. The Hamiiic Berbers, iu- cluding Libyans, Moors. Numidian-. and Gsetulians. are spread, intermingled with Shemites and Europeans, through the countries south of the Mediterranean and
through the Sahara. < llhcr llainilic nation-, p a civilization far beyond that of any of the purely black races, occupy some of the regions about the Nil.', es- pecially in Nubia, and arc scattered in distinct tribes, united by common linguistic elements, through Abys- sinia, and in on,' direction a- far as the heart of Africa,
from * th to 3 south, and in the other direction
from near Bab el-Mandeb to Juba on the Indian < )< ean. The antiquity of the Hamitic civilization in Egypt is indicated by the evidence in our possession that the
PREADAMITE
485
PREADAMITE
heliacal rising of Sirius must have heen observed (ap- parently) as early as B.C. 4242 (Lepsius, Ckronol. cler Aegyptei; pt. i, p. 165 sq.).* (2.) The Shemites, from the date of earliest records, have inhabited Western Asia, whence they have taken possession of parts of Eastern Africa. They are represented by the Jews, the Arabs, the Abyssinians, the Aramaeans, the Canaanites, and the Assyrio-Babylonians. Linguistic researches lead to the belief that the Hamites and Shemites de- veloped their languages in a common primeval home, and hence are nearly related. This view is favored by Genesis, where (Shemitic) Sidon is described as the eldest son of Canaan, who was descended from Cush, and thus from Ham (Gen. x, 1-15), the father of the Hamites. (3.) The Indo-European (Japhetic) family appear to have dwelt originally, according to the con- clusions of Peschel, along the slopes of the Caucasus, and through the gorge of Dariel, within reach of both the Euxine and the Caspian Sea (Races ofjfan, Amer. ed. p. 507). Hence a migration westward of a portion of them led to the separation into Asiatic and European Aryans. Some of the Asiatic Aryans crossed the Hidit- Kush, according to Max Midler and others, and dis- possessed the aboriginal population of the territory along the Ganges, transplanting there the religion of Brah- minism, while those left behind developed the Zoroas- trian religion. The European Aryans swept over Eu^ rope in successive waves. The Celts displaced in Spain and France an older population, the Basques — perhaps also Aryans — and were succeeded by the other nations of southern Aryans — Greeks, Albanians, and Italians. The northern Aryans are represented by the Letts, the Slavonians, and the Germanic nations.
We thus discover the posterity of Noah in all their ramifications; but in this survey the Mongoloid nations and the black races do not seem to be embraced. The Mongoloids are spread widely over the earth's surface. The best modern authorities unite here the Malay tribes ■which are dispersed over South-eastern Asia and many of the islands of Polynesia ; certain southern Asiatics, embracing Chinese, Siamese, Burmese, and races in Thibet and the Himalayas; Coreans and Japanese ; the Ural-Altaic race in several European and Asiatic divis- ions; the tribes on both sides of Behring's Strait and the aborigines of America — including as well civilized nations of both parts of the continent as the wild hunt- ing tribes. The Dravida, also, according to modern eth- nology, should be recognised as a race distinct from the posterity of Noah. These aborigines of western India have dark skins, long, black, curly hair, somewhat in- tumescent lips, but nothing of the prognathism of some of the black races. They linger in some parts of Belu- chistan, in the extreme south and south-west of Hin- dustan, and in the northern half of Ceylon. One of their languages is the Tamul, spoken by not less than ten millions, and possessing an ancient literature. Other tribes occupy a belt along the east coast of Hindostan, and even stretching into the interior. The Mongoloids and the Dravida, which may be designated as the Dusky Baces, cannot be very far removed from the Noachites. Their common ancestor was an antediluvian — perhaps Seth, or some one of his descendants older than Noah. It is open to conjecture that their father was Cain, the brother of Seth, or some other son of Adam. In any event, as Noah was the parent of the White Races, and as these are so closely allied to the Dusky (including copper-colored) Eaces, it seems quite possible that the Biblical Adam was removed sufficiently far in the past to be the progenitor of both the White and the Dusky Races. The name Adam, signifying red, would imply that he was not the parent of the Black Races. Cain,