THE HUMAN SPECIES. 375 



in the monsoons reached not only the marts of India, but, it 

 appears, penetrated by their own efforts, or in connection with 

 a remote navigating system in the South Seas, to the ports of 

 China. For ages the southern portion of Arabia was possessed 

 by Phoenicians and Cuthites: the last mentioned, after they 

 had been driven across the Red Sea to Africa, returned, and 

 again swayed the commercial provinces by their authority ; 

 they opposed the progress of Islam, but were at length van- 

 quished, not by the power of the true Arabians, but by the 

 affiliated tribes of Mostarabi, who, with the Koran in hand, 

 rallied all parties in a career of unexampled victory, extin- 

 guishing in their progress languages, nations, traditions, and 

 history, to the wall of China, and to the Pyrenees. 



Notwithstanding the vicissitudes and intermixture of races, 

 the aspect of the present typical Arabs is a light sinewy struc- 

 ture, with great capacity of endurance, a swarthy complexion, 

 with high lengthened features, black curly locks, and a bril- 

 liant dark eye, full of malignant fire. Though not exempt 

 from subjugation, they have survived conquests, because no 

 victorious nation has ever thought the desert a possession 

 worth acquiring. 



With the national convulsions the language of Arabia has 

 likewise changed. Ancient Arabic is not only a dead lan- 

 guage, but the character and alphabet are equally lost, though 

 it is suppos:ed to have had two dialects, the Hamjar and Kore- 

 ish, and that certain words and forms of speech in the Axumite 

 tongue of Abyssinia are remains of it. 



THE HEBREWS. 



Though of all the nations of antiquity this people is best known, 

 and clearly depicted in the most authentic records, the conclu- 

 sions of the comment on the text are by no means free from 

 objection, respecting the assumed geographical position of the 

 original stem, nor the inference that this people, so far as 



