336 NATURAL HISTORY OF 



very compounded race in Elam, before they were 

 driven across the straits of Babelmandeb. They had 

 even then the elements of science and civilization im- 

 parted to them by the giant invaders of western Asia, 

 or by Gomerians, high on the Indus ; for, to this day, 

 traditions, customs, and opinions, prevalent in Abys- 

 sinia, bear evidence to the fact. Later colonists passed, 

 no doubt, the same straits, for a considerable influx 

 from the west of Asia is evident in the languages still 

 spoken along the east coast, even as far as the Cape ; 

 and the higher development of the Galla and CaiFre 

 tribes can be traced to a partial Semitic intermixture. 

 The basis of civilization must have been communicated 

 from indigenous progress, already developed in the 

 peninsula of India, or by the more recent knowledge 

 carried along with the conquests of pure Caucasians, 

 in the regions of the Ganges, or in Elam (Persia), by 

 other conquerors, but both appearing to derive their 

 acquirements from some common source in the upper 

 valley of the Oxus. 



The original formation of the Ethiopian stem ap- 

 pears to have been in the burning alluvial deposits, 

 formed by the Indus, and along the southern foot of 

 the Himalayas, on the Helmund, the Kabul, in Cash- 

 meer, and the Punjaub, where Caucasian tribes, seek- 

 ing warmer regions, encountered the black races, and 

 by conquest and slavery, commenced amalgamation, 

 which every new wave of invaders conduced to in- 

 crease. Further immigration to the plains of India 

 naturally followed through the secondary ranges of the 



