22 VARIETIES OF THE HUMAN SPECIES. 



Phenicia, one of the smallest yet most illustrious states of antiquity, was, as 

 already hinted, an Arabian nation of the Chaldean stock. They roved upon the 

 ocean as the cognate tribes did upon the land; their very name signifies a imnderer 

 by sea^ an appropriate appellation when we reflect on their fearless voyages to 

 every part of the vrorld then known, and their successful doubling of the Cape of 

 Good Hope six hundred years before the Christian era. Tyre and Sidon were 

 their principal cities in Phenicia proper. They joined the Mauri and built 

 Carthage, and on the destruction of this city by the Romans, the two nations 

 were blended in a common family.* This again became mixed with the Arab 

 immigrations of various epochs, and partially with the Berbers, whom we have 

 next to mention.f 



5. THE LIBYAN FAMILY. 



It is proposed in this name to include the various tribes of aboriginal Africans 

 who have long been designated by the Arabic term of Berbers. I adopt the 

 former designation from Prichard and Heeren, who consider these people to be 

 the descendants of the ancient Libyans. They are found both to the north and 

 south of Mount Atlas, extending their wanderings into Morocco and Barbary: 

 on the east they inhabit as far as the Gulf of Cabes, or the Little Syrtis, while on 

 the west they reach the Atlantic. They call themselves by the collective or 

 national name of Amazirgh. 



The various communities of this family are characterised by handsome 

 Caucasian features, but in complexion they present all the shades from white to 

 nearly black. 



The Tuariks are perhaps the best known of all the Berber tribes. Captain 

 Lyon describes them as the finest men he ever saw ; tall, straight and handsome, 



* Chenier, Resch. sur les Maures, I, p. 19. 



t The term Semitic has been applied to the Syrian nations between the Mediterranean sea and 

 western Persia, "from Shem, the son of Noah, from whom, in the table of nations in the book of 

 Genesis, entitled Toldoth Beni Noach, many of them are declared to have descended.'^ The principal 

 Semitic communities are or were the following : 



1. Elam, to the northward of the Persian Gulf. 



2. Ashar, or the people of Assyria. 



3. The Chasdim or Chaldeans, from whom are descended the Hebrews and Arabs. 



4. The Lydians. 



5. Aram, or the proper Syrians. 

 See Prichard, Res. II, p. 208. 



