HISTORY AND ETHNOLOGY. 3 



the founder of the art of poetry ; and Naamah introduced the useful arts of 

 spinning and knitting. Society soon became divided into castes, the 

 stronger confirming themselves in power, and placing their weaker brethren 

 in servitude. 



After the flight of Cain, Eve bore another son, Seth. The exiled 

 murderer, unfortunately, had not carried w^ith him all depravity, for the 

 corruption of morals was commensurate with the increase of population. 

 To arrest the progress of vice, the deluge came, and, with the exception of 

 Noah, the descendant of Seth, and his family (eight persons in all) swept 

 man and beast from the face of the earth. Traditions concerning this flood 

 are found in many nations, and they generally agree w^ith each other. 



After the subsidence of the waters, the family so signally preserved, 

 turned their earliest attention to the business of husbandry and the rearing 

 of flocks, specimens of which, together with every species of living nature, 

 Noah had taken with him into the ark. Ham, a son of Noah, having 

 offended the paternal dignity, fell under his father's curse, which consigned 

 him and his children to bondage under his brothers. This caused inequality 

 of condition, and the patriarchal form of government grew weak and 

 inefficient. 



Noah's other posterity, . proceeding eastward, settled in the country of 

 Mesopotamia, between the rivers Euphrates and Tigris. At first they led 

 a nomadic life ; but wishing to attain a more stable position, the w^hoie 

 people assembled in the plains of Babylonia, and commenced the erection 

 of a tower, whose lofty dome was to pierce the clouds, and form the rallying 

 point for the scattered laborers and warriors, when affairs of general interest 

 were to be discussed. But according to the legend of the Old Testament, 

 the Deity, beholding in this movement a bold and rebellious spirit, con- 

 founded the language of the laborers, and thereby dispersed the 

 multitude. The various parties, united now in accordance with their 

 leading interests, abandoned the place, and founded colonies in different 

 parts of the globe. Thus separate tribes present themselves before us as 

 early as 2000 B.C. Thenceforth their legends grow more authentic, and 

 make a respectable approach towards history. We now proceed to treat 

 of them in order. 



1. The Egyptians and Ethiopians. 



The opinion has long prevailed that the old Egyptians sprang from the 

 African Negro stock. It has oeen proved, however, that the inhabitants of 

 Africa have belonged to three different races in all history. The Negro 

 stock predominates in the interior or west, the Caffrarian occupies the south, 

 and the Moors, who in their form, physiognomy, and hair, resemble the 

 handsomely-shaped nations of Europe and Western Asia, and indeed differ on] y 

 in possessing a dark color, settled in the north and west. Beyond question, 

 the ancient Egyptians were descended from the Moors, as must be obvious by 

 the numerous monuments in which the country abounds. The mummies, as 

 well as the inhabitants represented on these huge structures, point to the 



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