82 PRIMEVAL MAN. 



that curtain of thick darkness, in front of 

 which these names are made to pass. And 

 yet there are, as it were, momentary liftings, 

 through which we have glimpses of great 

 movements which were going on, and had 

 long been going on, beyond. No shapes are 

 distinctly seen. Even the direction of those 

 movements can be only guessed. But voices 

 are heard which are as the voices of many 

 nations. The very first among the descen- 

 dants of Noah whose individuality and 

 personality is clear to us, — the very first 

 whose doings can be brought into relation 

 with events otherwise known or recognizable 

 in the History of Man, — is introduced in a 

 manner which reveals the fact that difierent 

 races of the human family had then already 



