31-7 
which attention was specially drawn by Professor Owen at a 
recent meeting of the Congress of Orientalists in London. 
Dispersion of the Nations. 
The dispersion of the nations, according to Egyptian records, 
was one episode of the revolt of the wicked.* “ In the beautiful 
text from Edfou, published by M. Naville, we read that the 
good principle, under the solar form of Harmachou (the rising 
sun), triumphed over his adversaries in the south part of the 
Apollinopolite nome. Of those who escaped the massacre, some 
emigrated towards the south : they became the Cushites. Some 
went towards the north : they became the Amou. A third 
went to the west, and became the Tamahou (the whites or 
European peoples) . A fourth towards the east, who became 
the Shasou, said to be the Bedouins of the deserts and moun- 
tains of Asia. Such was, for the Egyptians, the division of the 
main branches of the human family .” 
On the whole, it appears that the leading races of mankind 
have not altered in their essential characteristics from those they 
exhibited when they first came in contact with the men of 
Egypt, and also, as remarked by M. Chabas (p. 95), that “ when 
the mother-race of mankind dispersed itself, it already was 
acquainted with metals, with writing, and knew how to raise 
buildings, and possessed a social and religious organization.” 
This agrees exceedingly well with the scriptural history of the 
dispersion of mankind after the Tower of Babel. It is also 
very evident that the characteristics of the Black, the Bed, the 
Yellow, and the 'White races of mankind were well known, and 
familiar to the Egyptians from the earliest period. But how 
does this agree with the above notion of the human family 
having been one and united before its dispersion ? 
The answer must surely be found in the belief that these 
apparently indelible characteristics were stamped upon the 
human race by the same hand from which the first pair origi- 
nally proceeded. 
It is sufficiently obvious that no influence of climate or of 
civilization has sufficed to change any of these races in their 
appreciable physiological characteristics. 
“ The Egyptians considered all the strange nations as branches 
of the common trunk , of which they were the principal shoot ” 
(rejeton).f 
* Chabas, Etudes sue I’Antiquite Historique, p. .91. 
f Id. ib., p. 95. 
