THE HUMAN SPECIES. 387 



THE ARABS 



THE original tribes of Arabia, already in possession of 

 the land at the time of the departure of Israel, were of 

 the same race as some of the first invaders of India. 

 They mixed with the Papuas, and formed the Ethio- 

 pian stem, which possessed the peninsula of Arabia, as 

 far eastward as the lower Euphrates, expanding more 

 and more over the desert of Syria, where the true 

 Bedoween, the swarthy ^Enese clans, chiefly resided ; 

 but here they were encountered by the giant race 

 from the north-east, who reached Syria or Shams, and 

 soon appear to have established themselves as masters 

 among them, in like manner as they effected the same 

 revolution in Egypt, and Palestine or Canaan ; con- 

 tinuing to press southward, they mixed with the pos- 

 sessors of Yemen, retaining in some cases only, a sepa- 

 rate nationality ; such, for example, as the Rustumi, 

 the Phoenicians, and the Get. International wars, 

 and the usual decrease of the fair skinned master race 

 in climates of tropical heat, caused several tribes to be 

 lost, such as those of Ad, Thamud, Jades, and Tasm, 

 which being of the more northern portion, were chiefly 

 affected by these causes, and subsequently were van- 

 quished by the Cuthites of Yemen, or were absorbed ; 

 and their fate is the subject of sundry marvellous 

 legends in the Tarikh Tebri. 



