THE HUMAN SPECIES. 425 



followed the southern flanks of the great mountain 

 chain, through Armenia and Asia Minor, to Europe. 

 It is this movement westward, of successive tribes of 

 the family, which has commonly been designated as 

 the Gomerian. Josephus first made this application to 

 the race in question from the tenth chapter of Genesis. 

 We may retain the name, without entering into the 

 truth of the Jewish historian's derivation ; particularly 

 when restricting the meaning to the portion of this 

 great stem which passed through Middle Asia; be- 

 cause the word may be construed to imply moun- 

 taineers in one set of cognate languages, and in ano- 

 ther it may be derived, with little mutation, from 

 Guomo, Homo, which was doubtless in use among the 

 Pelasgians, a somewhat kindred nation, that passed 

 and dwelt along the same line of migration.* It sig- 

 nifies merely man or men, the common appellation of 

 a multitude of ancient tribes in the Scythic dialects, or 

 those which we take to be offspring of that common 

 tongue of High Asia, the Sanscrit, before it became 

 a polished vehicle of knowledge in the centre of the 

 ancient world. 

 If the tribes which followed the most southern route, 



* There are other derivations, or the same, reversing the 

 meaning, as is constantly the case in cognate languages, 

 such as the Celtic Combe, a valley, and Teutonic Kam, a 

 crest; for in both we may have the radical meaning of 

 Cumraeg, Cymri, Cumbers, Cumbrians, Cambrians, Cam- 

 brivii, Cambresians, Kumbers, Kempers, Kempenners, 

 Kennermers, Cimmerians, &c. See also Cuma in many 

 localities. Steph. Byzant. 



