THE ITHNOUX1T ur THE iSDUN ARCHIPELAGO/ 39 



patriarchs came by sea and were in general habituated to a maritime 

 or fluvintile navigation, however raae it may have been. 



None of the great revolutions or ci viltsations can have occurred 

 in the regions connected by tho Indian Ocean and the Medi- 

 terranean, without, affecting the Indian Archipelago directly or 

 indirectly, nearly or more remotely. The old developments of the 

 Euphrates, the Nile, Syro-Arabla, and Iran, ull taking place in a 

 limited repion between the (wo Uonuis, not only mutually influenced 

 each other, but -were diffused indirectly and carried by families of 

 the races themselves, to distant countries, Europe felt them on 

 the one side and India on the other. If the Syro-Egyjrtlan 

 developments in the west and the Chinese m the east preceded 

 those of the Iranian and Indian races, their influence in the 

 earliest era of their predominance, when no other existed to 

 obstruct and limit it, must have been different from what it heeamc 

 afterwards. The effect of every new revolution in Mia distribution 

 and prevalence of races is to destroy the evidence of the prcviou* 

 state of things. The successive movements of Iranian trihes west 

 and east must have gradually swept away older races or 

 metamorphosed them by a large infusion of Iranian blood, ideas 

 and language. The ethnology of the Mediterranean must havo 

 been once revolutionised by the maritime rule of the Phoenicians, 

 and again by the destruction of that rule and the rise of the great 

 Iranian dominions on the European shores. The Indian Ocean 

 mav have seen similar changes. There may have been Afrii an 

 and Indian maritime powers before the southern Semitic peopln 

 extended them«clvcs to the Himyaritic region, and, borrowing the 

 art of navigation from their kindred tribes on the Mediterranean, 

 gave to Aden the maritime dominion of the Indo- African ocean. 

 One early human development pervaded all Africa including 

 Egvpt This is evident amidst all the diversities in form, colour, 

 civilisation, and language of the people of that continent. Did 

 this fer spread development abruptly stop on the side where an 

 African race, whether of exotic origin or not, was endowed with 

 genius and in vend verier arid erected the tiio^t ancient western 

 civilisation, and along the seas and at the isthmns where highways 

 were open for its extension to the east and north ? Is the common 

 African a more ancient civilisation than the Egyptian ? 



These are not merefer possibilities to be taken info account, in 

 order that any conclusions respecting the archaic period of tho 

 Indian Archipelago may he Srawn with the greatest caution- 

 When we bring into one view the leading facts in the ethnology of 

 the world, we are struck by certain prominent features. The 

 further we go hack, instead of finding ethnic characteristics more 

 diverse, we find them more uniform. It is true that, even with 

 respect to the great civilised nations of antiquity which still eilst, 

 or did so in the historic period, we cannot reach to the actual 

 commencement of their civilisations. Bnt with moat we can 



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