OF THE HUMAN RACE. 



645 



eastward of Canaan ; and as his descendants were " not to be 

 numbered for multitude,'' it follows that those of some of the 

 sons above mentioned must have migrated to a great distance.* 

 It is likely that some of Abraham's bond- women were either 

 black or mulatto, being descendants of Ham ; perhaps of Cush^ 

 and it is hardly possible that Hagar should not have been dark, 

 even black, considering her parentage ;-[• in which case Ishmael 

 would have been copper-coloured, or mulatto, J and some, if not 

 all of Abraham's sons by concubines, would have been of those 

 colours. If this be assuming* too much, there can be no 

 doubt that in the next generation Esau, or Edom, was a red 

 man, and that his descendants, the numerous Edomites, or 

 Idumeans, were also red : now as Esau married the daughter of 

 Ishmael, we have, in this case, distinct evidence of the origin 

 of a race of red, or copper-coloured men. Had the common 

 colour of the human race been at that time red, Esau's colour 

 would not have been remarked : had it been black, Cush would 

 have been no distinctive appellation. It must then have been 

 originally fair, as no colours are mentioned in the Scripture, 

 with reference to the human race, except fair, red, and black. 



A rapid increase of flocks and herds, as well as population ; 

 a consequent diminution of vegetable food ; jealousies and dis- 

 putes between the children of bond- women and those of the 

 free, and the comparative indifference of fathers to the oiF- 

 spring of their slaves, must have stimulated migration in every 

 direction ; and, when once begun, no doubt the love of no- 

 velty, and desire of finding countries still better than those yet 

 explored, increased, and eventually perpetviated that passion 

 for wandering which we see to this day in the Arab, the 

 migratory Malay, the roving Tartar, and the ever-restless 

 South American Indian. 



* See Genesis, Chap. xiii. for evidence of the necessity there was to 

 emigrate in those early times. t Herodotus, lib. ii. 



X The Arabs, next to the Jews the most marked people on earth, who 

 have preserved their genealogies in an unbroken line, assert that they 

 are descended from Ishmael; their colour is the same as that of the 

 Malays, the Polynesian islanders, and the Americans. 



