OUR RACE AND ITS ORIGIN. 
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scarcity of food, and discomforts of life, which may be 
regarded as hindrances to the proper development of the 
human form ; still, when similar defects are found in races 
living in more genial climes, and not subjected to the same 
evils, it is evident other causes must be sought for to account 
for such peculiarities. As a general rule, the mountaineer 
excels in size the inhabitant of the plain; but this seems 
only to apply to man : if the highlander be tall, the horses 
and cattle of the neighbouring isles are dwarfs : the Shetland 
pony and black cattle are perhaps the smallest of their race ; 
it is, however, remarkable, and a proof that every rule has 
its exception, whilst they are the inhabitants of cold and 
stormy isles, the little Timor pony belongs to a luxuriant 
and tropical one. 
Whatever may be the difference of colour, form, or feature 
of the various families of men, there are two grand proofs of 
their having all radiated from one common centre ; and the 
first of these is the general consent of antiquity. The scrip- 
tural account of the dispersion from Chaldea is confirmed by 
local histories. The gradual moving of the descendants of 
Ham westward from Babel and Nineveh, where they appear 
first to have located themselves, then to have early mi- 
grated south to Canaan, Arabia, Egypt, India, and thence 
spread out over that vast continent. The name of their 
founder, Ham, which signifies head, seems to have been 
preserved in that of their god, Am or Ammon. If an idea 
of the complexion of the Egyptians may be formed from the 
numerous paintings found in their temples and splendidly 
decorated tombs, in which the colours are quite fresh, we 
must conclude that they were of a red copper or light cho- 
colate colour, and that they resembled the reddest of the 
Fellah and Kafir tribes now existing in Africa.* 
Japhet migrated northward and westward, occupying 
Europe, and perhaps a portion of America. His name being 
preserved by the Greeks in that of Japetus. 
Shem dwelt in many of the parts vacated by Ham in Arabia, 
Syria, and Chaldea, but placed his chief abodes on the banks 
* Prichard’s “ Natural History of Man,” p. 135. 
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