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ON THE ANCIENT 



who differed much among each other in idiom belong also the 

 Dravidians of India of onr days, who in those times occupied 

 Ariana and Persia. In Europe, these Turanians appear to 

 be represented by the Esthonians, and in many places of 

 Western and Central Asia, they form the substratum of the 

 population, while they supplied in China the ground work of 

 the civilization of the Celestial Empire. 



A branch of the descendants ascribed to Ham, emigrated 

 early from Asia to Africa and founded the Empire of Egypt, 

 while others, remaining in their native continent, established 

 there famous kingdoms. In the plains of Shinar there lived 

 together and became amalgamated to a mixed population, the 

 Shumir and Akkad. Shumir is the ancient name of Assyria 

 and the Shumir were the inventors of the cuneiform character. 

 The old Mesopotamian sovereigns called themselves Kings of 

 Shumir and Akkad. The Shumir had originally settled in the 

 north, while the Akkad lived more in the south, their country 

 being washed by the waters of the Persian Gulf. Their name 

 is mentioned in Grenesis x, 10. "And the beginning of his 

 (Nimrod) kingdom was Babel and Erech, and Akkad and 

 Kalneh in the land of Shinar." They were the neighbours of 

 those Kushites, who dwelt along the seashore, and whose 

 abodes extended from the Straits of Babel Mandeb to 

 Malabar. The Akkad were the first, as far as historical 

 evidence goes back, to navigate the Persian Grulf and the 

 Indian Ocean. The coast of the Persian Grulf was also the 

 ancient home of the Kanaanites, a part of whom became 

 celebrated in after-time under the name of Phoenicians. The 

 shores of Arabia, Persia, Beluchistan and Western India were 

 thus at an early period inhabited by industrious and enter- 

 prising nations, some of whom, as the Akkadians, and more 

 so still the Phoenicians, became famous sea-faring people. 



About 2500 years after the Egyptain empire had been 

 established, i.e., 2500 B.C., and after the Akkadian dynasty 



