Brinton] *^ [April 19, 



Members of the White Race the Earliest Known Occupants. 



Excluding for the reasons above given the various alleged 

 prehistoric races named, we are justified in saying that western 

 Asia at the dawn of history was under the exclusive control and 

 substantially wholly populated by the white race. 



This race is that to which Blumenbach erroneously applied 

 the name " Caucasian," by which it is still familiarly known. It 

 is distinctively the " European," in contrast with the Asian 

 (Mongolian, yellow), and the African (Negro, or black) sub- 

 species. I have, however, assigned it the more correct name 

 ■•' Eurafrican," as its primitive home included northwest Africa 

 as well as western Europe.* 



In western Asia it was represented from the remotest historic 

 times, as it is to-day, by branches of its three great linguistic 

 stocks, the Aryan or Indo-Germanic (Xorth Mediterranean), the 

 Semitic (South Mediterranean) and the Caucasic. In a general 

 way, the Caucasic tribes are and always have been in the north, 

 the Aryans in the centre and the Semites in the south. The 

 tribes which cannot positively be assigned to one or other of 

 these stocks I shall consider later. 



Lines of Immigration. 



There was a time when the doctrine was general that the white 

 race originated in central Asia, and moved westwardly into 

 Europe and Africa. 



Cogent I'easons have of late led to a reversal of this opinion. 

 The white race, as such, most probably had its " area of charac- 

 terization " f in western Europe and the Atlas region (then 

 united by a land-bridge), and moved eastwardly in two great 

 streams, the Hamitic and Semitic branches journejung south of 

 the Mediterranean, the Ar3'an and Caucasic north of it. 



For a very long period the proto-Semites resided in Arabia, 

 developing there the special traits of their languages, their 

 ethnic character, and to some extent their earlj' culture. Later 

 they spread over Syria and Mesopotamia, advancing in both 



♦See my Races and Peoples, p. 103, S(jq., for the subdivisions of the white race, 

 tl adopt this excellent expression from M. de Quatrefages, and have explained it in 

 my Races and Peoples, p. 94. 



