*In our article Manetho we have shown the nntrust-
worthiness of ninny of these astronomical data as founda- tions for Egyptian chronology. The English Egyptolo- gists in general reduce the beginning of the first dynasty to B.C. 2717 (Lane, Poole, Wilkinson), and even "this is unnecessarily far back. There is good reason for datin the reign of Menes from B.C. 2417.— Ed.
moreover, as he went out from his native country, found other nations already in existence. The natural infer- ence from these considerations would be that the Black Races existed before Adam.* Such a conclusion is sus- tained by other anthropological considerations. The Black Races— a term used only for present convenience —may be regarded as comprising (1) Negroes, (2) Hot- tentots and Bushmen, (3) Papuans, (4) Australians. They possess in common a dark or black skin and a marked degree of dolichocephalism, as well as much greater prognathism than the White and Dusky races. They are further characterized by long thigh-bones, sometimes long arms, lean shanks, oblique pelves, and deficiency of secondary sexual characters. The Negroes are distinguished generally by short crisped hair, with a flattened section, scanty or absent beards, thick lips, flattened nose, retreating forehead, and projecting jaws; and they inhabit Africa from the southern border of the Sahara to the territory of the Hottentots and Bushmen, stretching from ocean to ocean save where the Hamites have intruded on the extreme east. The Bantu or southern Negroes embrace the Zanzibar and Mozam- bique nations, and the well-known Betchuans and Kaf- firs. The Soudan or northern Negroes embrace the tribes speaking a variety of languages, and stretching from the coast well into the interior. The Hottentots and Bushmen occupy the southern parts of Africa nearer the Atlantic Ocean, and are characterized by the tufted matting of their hair, and among the women by the pe- culiar formation known as steatopygy. The Bushmen have a leathery -brown skin, which becomes much wrinkled with age. The Koi-Koin (Hottentot) lan- guage possesses great ethnological interest, as it has been thought by Moffat, Lepsius, Pruner Bey, Max Midler, Whitney, and Bleek to present affinities with the ancient Egyptian. Though other authorities have pronounced against any relationship, it is certain that we find among these savages linguistic elements which belong to a refined civilization, and which leave the question open whether they have lived in contact with the Egyptians or have descended from them, or from some common stock not very remotely removed. But even if it should appear probable that the Hottentots (and, inferentially, the Bushmen) are descended from the Hamitic Egyptians, we are not in possession of evidence indicating any immediate relationship between the other black races and the Adamites; so that the resid- ual probability remains that these races are more an- cient than the (perhaps Adamic) father of the White and Dusky races. The Papuans are intermingled with the population of Australia, and inhabit New Guinea, the Pelew Islands, New Hebrides, New Caledonia, the Loyalty Islands, and the Fiji Archipelago. They pos- sess peculiarly flattened, abundant long hair, which grows in tufts surrounding the head like a crown eight inches high. The beard is abundant, the skin very dark, varying to chocolate color in New Guinea and blue-black in Fiji. The jaws are less projecting than in Negroes, and the nose is broad and aquiline, giving the features a Jewish cast. The Australians occupy the continent of Australia and the islands contiguous, in- cluding Tasmania. Their body is thickly pilose: the hair of the head is black, elliptical in section, and stands out around the head in a shaggy crown less striking than that of the Papuans. Though less gifted than the
* We call the attention of the reader to the fact that these positions of our respected contributor are purely inferences from the presumption that the ethnographical list in Gen. x is intended to specify all the posterity of Noah as now or historically known to exist on the earth, whereas it is evidently meant only as a catalogue of those tribes with which the Hebrews were more or less acquainted. The black races were certainly included under the Cushites (q.v.). and this disposes at once of the argument that Noah is the progenitor of the whites only. Indeed, if any- thing is to be inferred from the meaning of the name Adam, it would go to make him the parent, not of the Caucasian, but of the copper-colored or Tartar tribes.— Ed.
PREADAMITE
486
PREADAMITE
Papuans, they ate higher in the psychic scale than for- merly represented. They were, indeed, found living in the age of rude Btone i m i It ments, and used simple tree- trunks for boats; bu< th( ir language reflects a consider- able degree of refinement and grammatical perfection. Viewing the Black races from either a psychic, a zoolog- ical, or ;m archaeological standpoint, we discover evi- dence that they diverged from the White and Dusky i i period which, compared with the epoch of
Egyptian and Assyrian civilization, must be exceeding- . i he conclusion is indicated, therefore, that the common progenitor of the Black and the other races was placed too far back in time to answer for the Bib- lii al Adam. This view lias been maintained by MM !aus- lani (A dam and the Adamiti [Lond. 1872] ; Tfo Builders of Babel, ch.v), and was recently favored by Dr.Whedon (Meth. Quar. Rev. Jan. 1871, p. 153, and July, 1872, p. 526). See also an article entitled Was Adam tin First Man? in Scribner's Monthly, Oct 1*71 ; and Pozzy, La 'l\ rre et le Recit Biblique de /a Creation, liv. iii. c. xii. * To those who think the language of the Iiible con- templates Adam as "the tirst being who could be called a man" — not alone the progenitor id' the races which figure in Biblical history — it may be conceded that Buch is its meaning, in case it shall appear allowable, on Biblical grounds, to carry hack the advent of man sufficiently far; and provided, further, that a progenitor having the complexion which seems to be indicated by ii Adam can be reasonably regarded as the pro- genitor also of races of black color, and seemingly much lower in the organic and intellectual scale than the fa- ther of Setli and his civilized posterity not far removed.! The time-question involved is admittedly serious. In reference to the difficulty presented by the color of Ad- am's skin, it will be borne in mind that color alone is one of the most untrustworthy of ethnological characters (Peschel, Races of Man, p. 88). In reference to the inferior psychic and bodily endowments of the Black races, it may also be observed that degradation and de- terioration of tribes are phenomena familiar to ethnol- ogy. But there are strong objections to the assump- tion that the Black races represent, in general, a degen- eracy. We have no knowledge of the degeneracy of entire races, but only of tribes and fragments of tribes. Nor has tribal degeneracy taken place, except where the oppression of superior tribes has driven the weaker into the midst of natural conditions unfriendly to exist- ence. Bui the Black races have been free to roam over entire continents in search of the mosl congenial condi- tions. Vi t. on the healthful and luxuriant table-lands of Central Africa the Mack man is marked by an infe- riority as real and almosl as -reat as alone,- the pesti- lential borders of the wesl coast, or in the least-favored regions of Australia and New Guinea. The structural peculiarities of the I Hack races, moreover, are inheri- tances of lower grade rather than reminiscences of a higher. The Mack man is nol on a descending grade, cending, according to the organic and psychic law of existence. His remotest progenitor was lower rather than higher. All these considerations militate hi idi a thai Adam, the father of the Noachian races, was low enough in the scale of organization, and rem., i,. enough in the genealogical line, to be the father also of the Melanic races. Thus, while the conflicting nature of the insufficient evidences forbids our dogma- : • of proof seems rather to sustain the