D.

NILOTIC ATLANTIDÆ.

This is a far less simple group than the last, and one which may, probably, require the value of some of its divisions to be raised. Besides which, it probably comprizes, if classed according to the strict rules of ethnology, the _eastern Negroes_ of our first division. Again, it passes into the Kaffre, Coptic, and Semitic groups by imperceptible gradations. At the same time, as far as it goes, it is ethnological, _i.e._ it embraces populations actually affiliated to each other rather than populations exhibiting the common effects of common social or climatological conditions.

NILOTIC NATIONS AND TRIBES.

_Physical conformation._--Modified Negro, in certain cases approaching the Arab conformation.

_Area._--The water system of the Upper and Middle Nile.

_Chief divisions._--1. Gallas. 2. Agows. 3. Nubians. 4. Bisharis(?).

As it is the southern portion of the Nilotic area, which is conterminous with the northern Kaffre, the southern populations will be noticed first.

THE GALLAS.

_Area._--Preeminently encroaching. From 4° to (there or thereabouts) 16° north latitude. Irregular.

_Chief divisions._--1. Galla Proper, or Ilmorma--south and east of Abyssinia.

2. Somauli--The parts between the Sea of Bab-el-Mandeb, the Indian Ocean, and (there or thereabouts) 45° east latitude.

3. The Danakil, or Afer--The coast of the Red Sea from Adel to Suakin.

_Religion._--Paganism, Mahometanism. According to Dr. Beke, fragmentary Christianity among the Gallas.

_Habits._--Chiefly pastoral. Partially mercantile.

_Physical appearance._--Colour varying from a deep black to a brownish-yellow. Stature, tall; bodies, spare, wiry, and muscular; frontal profile vaulted; nose, often straight or even arched; lips, moderate; hair, often hanging over the neck in long twisted plaits.

It is the wilder tribes of the Ilmorma Gallas that have broken up the kingdom, and disturbed the ethnology of Abyssinia, both in respect to its Semitic populations, and the earlier and more aboriginal--

AGOWS.

_Divisions and localities._--1. Agows of Damot.

2. Agows of Lasta; Troglodyte Pagans.

3. Falasha--_a._ Lowlanders of Dembea. _b._ Highlanders of Samien. _c._ Christianized Falashas (Kimmont) of the hill country, north-east of Gondar.--_Bruce from Prichard_, vol. ii. p. 135.

The fact that both the Galla and Agow languages pass through the Amharic into the more typical Semitic tongues, and that the former (over and above many undeniable points of affinity with the Coptic) is quite as _sub_-Semitic as the Berber, is one of the many phænomena which break down the broad line of demarcation that is so often drawn between the Semitic and the African nations.

Again, the extent to which the Falashas exhibit a variety of customs common to themselves and the Jews has long been recognized. It by no means, however, follows that they are a result of Jewish influence. The criticism that applied to the Ghás applies here. Many of the so-called Jewish peculiarities are African as well--irrespective of intercourse, and independent of imitation.

THE NUBIANS.

_Locality._--Valley of the Nile, Nubia, and Dongola.

_Dialects._--_a._ North Nubian, or Kensi. _b._ Middle Nubian, or Nub. _c._ Dongolawi of Dongola.

_Synonym._--Barabbra, or Berber.

_Antiquities._--Monuments of _a._ an Ægyptian, in the Lower, _b._ an Æthiopian type in the Upper Nubia.

_Political relations._--Subject to Ægypt.

_Intermixture._--Arab. Negro from slaves.

_Religion._--Paganism and Mahometanism.

_Habits._--Agricultural and trading.

_Physical appearance._--Eyes, deep set and sparkling; nose, pointed; nostrils, large; mouth, wide; lips, moderate; hair and beard, thin; body, slender; _colour, shining jet black_.--_Denon._[181]

Hair, long, slightly crisp, not woolly. _Colour, intermediate between the ebon-black of Sennaar Negroes, and the brown of Ægyptians._[181]--_Costaz._

_Extract from Rüppell[181] as to the Dongolawi._--"An attentive inquiry will enable us to distinguish amongst the old national physiognomies, which their forefathers have marked upon colossal statues, and the bas-reliefs of temples and sepulchres, a long oval countenance, beautifully-curved nose, somewhat rounded towards the top, proportionately thick lips, but not protruding excessively, a retreating chin, scanty beard, lively eyes, strongly frizzled but never woolly hair, and remarkably beautiful figure, generally of middle size, and a bronze colour, as the characteristics of the genuine Dongolawi."

_Descent._--From the ancient Nobatæ.

The relation between the Nubian of Nubia, and the Koldagi language of Kordofan, was first indicated by Rüppell, and has been generally admitted.

On the other hand, the relations of the Koldagi not only to the Furians of Darfúr, but to the more truly Negro Shilluks, &c., are equally manifest.

From the Ægyptian, therefore, to the Eastern Negro, the transition is through the Nubian.

BISHARI (BEJAS).

_Area._--The high country, and table-land between the Nile and the Red Sea.

_Divisions._--1. Northern Bishari or Ababde, from the latitude of Kosseir, north; to Deir, south.

2. Southern Bishari (=the Hadendoa, Hammadab, and other tribes) from the Danakil, Æthiopic and portions of the Shankala area to the Ababdes.

_Language._--With definite affinities with both the Nubian and Coptic.

_Descent._--Probably from the ancient Blemmyes.

_Physical appearance._--Nearly that of Nubians.

_Habits._--Pastoral and wandering.

What are the M'Kuafi? This was asked in p. 493. The M'Kuafi west of Mombaz, are conterminous with the Southern Gallas, and with the Kaffre Wanika, &c.

From these last, however, the only known vocabulary of their language disconnects them.

Hence they are at present unplaced; since they may be Kaffre, Gallas, Gongas, or, finally, the representatives of a separate class altogether. The only description is the following one of Pickering's:--

"The information respecting them was derived from young persons seen at Zanzibar, where, according to the Arabs, slaves of this class were formerly cheap, and much esteemed, but now bring high prices.

"A M'Kuafi girl stated, that she had been captured by the Mussai; who killed her father and mother, and who sold her to the Chaga. She was twenty-five days in reaching the coast. Formerly, her nation was powerful above others, so that one woman with a stick would stop a thousand persons from passing through the country unless a present was first made; but her people are broken, and at present they would not fight the M'Sigua.

"Her people do not cultivate the ground, and they eat only milk and meat. Children, when hungry, help themselves by direct application to the cow. Cattle are killed by piercing the spine; numbers of them every day, until each family is supplied. The M'Kuafi have not fixed meal times, but they eat whenever they feel inclined, inviting their neighbours of the same village to partake with them. Each family has its own cattle, which all go to pasture together, and outside the town is a place to receive them at night. The men marry as many women as they please; and each wife has a separate house. These habitations are tents of bullock-skin, supported by poles set around. The men decorate themselves with large beads, and their dress is made of skin, and consists of a painted cincture full of openings and hanging strips, and of a long cloak worn over one shoulder. Cloth, however, now is brought by traders. The women, by way of ornament, coil brass wire about the arm as far as the elbow. The beads and brass wire are procured at Pemba, by selling ivory, obtained from elephants, some of which are found dead, while others are purposely killed.

"The M'Kuafi do not bury, but they put their dead in the bush, for the wild beasts to eat. The friends afterwards cry from ten to twenty days, and then kill three bullocks and make a feast. The M'Kuafi have neither prayers nor religion, but they eat and sleep. The name of their deity is Angayai; and on some big days they take feathers and dance. They have cows, goats, donkeys, sheep, and dogs; but neither cats, nor horses. They take off the fleece of the sheep, and spin yarn, with which they sew the skins together. They have gourd shells for holding water, which are bought of the Chaga. They go out to fight with the Mussai, frequently, sometimes every day; and they take cattle; they fight, also, with the Wampugo, and the Wataita, but not with the Chaga. The country of the M'Kuafi, consists of mountains and plains, and produces some trees which supply tent-poles, but there are no fruits. Persons while sleeping, are sometimes eaten by leopards.

"On another occasion, the same girl brought two of her companions, and they sang together some simple and plaintive airs, such as are used 'in getting children to sleep.' Their dancing was not graceful, but was somewhat violent and not altogether decent. Their language was soft, and I heard terminal vowels only, the two syllables 'goonga,' frequently recurring. I read to them some translations in the Galla; but this proved to be a different language, and they did not recognise a word. On being questioned on the subject, the first girl said, 'she did not wish to return home, for her relations were all dead;' and some tears followed the allusion to the subject. Beads being offered, she preferred the red to the blue, according to the general taste in this part of Africa. Of the other girls, one came from Kaputa, and the third from Aseta.

"A fourth girl, whom I interrogated, was too young to give much information, and she, besides, had not yet learned the Soahili language. It appeared that she 'had been stolen by some Chaga;' that she came from the vicinity of the Kilmungaro mountain (which is visible from the sea), and that she understood the language of the other girls when they were brought together.

"A highly intelligent lad, who had the lobe of one ear perforated, stated, that the size of this opening, among the M'Kuafi, 'indicates the rank of the individual, the king having one of very remarkable dimensions.' With regard to his own history he stated, that, 'on the occasion of an attack by some foreign tribe,' he, with other children, hid themselves; but the circumstance had been observed at some distance by some Wampugo, who came to the spot and carried them away. The towns of the M'Kuafi are not fixed; but when the grass fails, a new one is made in another place. The M'Kuafi ride donkeys; they eat beef and sheep, and drink water and milk. It is customary, when a man kills a bullock, to send a piece to the king, to give another on account of circumcision, and then to call his friends to eat the remainder. There are camelopards in the country; and poor people, who have no bullocks, kill them for food, taking them in pitfalls, or sometimes with poison.

"The mode of circumcising differs from that prevailing among the Moslim. The government likewise differs; and if one man kills another, the price of blood is from ten to twenty bullocks.

"The M'Kuafi put on a cap of ostrich feathers when they go out to fight. On a former occasion they beat the M'Sigua, taking all the cattle, which they sold at Zanzibar. They fight with the Wakamba towards sunrise; and they are so warlike that they would fight even with their nearest relations. They sometimes go to the Monomoisy country to fight and take property; but not into the country of the Chaga, with whom they do not fight, unless meeting by accident. They fight, however, with the Lupalaconga, who live on a mountain, and speak the same language with the Chaga; and who, according to his description, must be a Negro tribe.

"His people once went towards sunrise to fight with the Sikir-washi, who are the nation called Galla at Zanzibar. They saw a large river which 'came dry,' and men carrying large spears, who spoke a different language from their own. They took all the cattle and donkeys, and the fat-tailed sheep; but they disdained taking the horses, an animal they had never before seen. The king of the Sikir-washi wears a large beard, while the rest of the people shave: using for the purpose a sort of small iron chisel; and these practices prevail equally with the M'Kuafi.

"When the lad was asked about the Mussai, he rejoined with some emotion,--'They who break my country: he knew them well; they dwell farther inland than the M'Kuafi.'

"He did not know how old he was, and asked, 'if any one could tell him.' His people have no prayers: he could not speak lies. He did not wish to return to his native-country--he had got no bullocks; he was now a slave: no matter, he should soon die. He did not know where he should go to after death. He had heard that God had made him, that was all."

MUSSAI(?).

_Locality._--West of the M'Kuafi; to which tribes they are allied. Probably M'Kuafi.

CHAGA(?).

_Locality._--South-west of the Wanika, on the upper part of the Pungany River.

_Habits._--Circumcision. Probably M'Kuafi.

WAMPAGO(?).

_Locality._--On the Ruvu, a feeder of the Pungany, within half a day's journey of the M'Kuafi country. Probably M'Kuafi.

M'KINDO(?).

_Locality._--Two days west of Quiloa. Probably M'Kuafi,

M'HIAO.

_Locality._--Uncertain. Most likely to the west of the M'Kindo. Probably M'Kuafi.

The M'Hiao markings "vary in different individuals, but often consist of raised sears or welts crossing each other, like stars. Many of the females have the upper lip perforated."--_Pickering._

FOOTNOTES:

[181] Prichard, vol. ii. p. 174.

E.

THE AMAZIRGH ATLANTIDÆ.

The Amazirgh, a native name of one of the Cabyle tribes of Algiers, is here used in a general sense, instead of the more usual term _Berber_; a term which is nowhere recognized by any Amazirgh population, and which, under a modified form, _is_ recognized by portions of the _non_-Amazirgh Nubians.

AMAZIRGH NATIONS AND TRIBES.

_Physical conformation._--Sometimes a modification of the Negro, sometimes of the Arab type.

_Languages._--With a vocabulary generally considered to be peculiar, but with a grammatical structure considered to be (if not absolutely Semitic) _sub_-Semitic.

_Distribution._--Speaking roughly, the whole north-western quarter of Africa _plus_ a narrow strip along the Mediterranean from about 15° east latitude to the confines of Ægypt.

_Descent._--From the ancient Gætulians, Numidians, Mauritanians, and Cyrenæans.

_Area._--Encroached upon along the coast of the Mediterranean--

1. _In ancient times by_--_a._ Phœnicians. _b._ Greeks. _c._ Romans.

2. _In modern times by_--Mahometan Arabs.

_Physical conditions._--Occupants of--_a._ The mountain range of Atlas. _b._ The Sahara. _c._ The Canary Isles.

_Chief Divisions._--1. Siwans, of the Oasis of Siwah, the ancient Ammonium. 2. Cabyles, of the range of Atlas. 3. Tuaricks, of the Sahara. 4. Guauches, of the Canary Islands. These last either extinct or incorporated.

_Dialects as known from specimens._--1. Of Siwah. 2. Augila. 3. Fezzan. 4. Ghadamis. 5. Algeria (numerous). 6. Morocco. 7. The Sahara. 8. The Canaries.

_Alphabets._--1. Arabic. 2. Tuarick.

_Antiquities._--The Bilingual inscription, Carthaginian and Berber(?) of Dugga, known as the Inscriptio Tuggensis.

The aboriginal character of the Amazirgh tribes, taken with the likelihood of their representing the tributaries of Carthage, and the subjects of Masinissa, Syphax, Juba, Jugurtha, and Bocchus, has commanded the attention of scholars, and has led to important results.

That its grammatical structure is Semitic (or at least _sub_-Semitic) has been shown by Mr. F. Newman, who has also shown that the Haussa has Amazirgh elements. The fact, however, of its vocabulary having fewer Semitic forms than its grammar has complicated the philology. Nevertheless it _does_ contain numerous Semitic words; whilst its isolation from the other tongues of Africa has been most gratuitous. So far from such being the case, it supplies a long list of words with miscellaneous affinities.[182]

With the Guanches of the Canaries we find the Ægyptian habit of desiccating the bodies of the dead into mummies.

With the Tuaricks of Wadreag, Mr. Hodgson found hair so crisp and skin so black, as to look like Negroes. There was, however, no suspicion of Negro intermixture.

On the other band, so light-complexioned are the Amazirghs of the ancient Mons Aurasius, that the hypothesis of an intermixture of Vandalic blood from the subjects of Genseric has been entertained.

FOOTNOTES:

[182] Some of these have been collected by the present writer. See Classical Museum, vol. i.

F.

ÆGYPTIAN ATLANTIDÆ.

By Ægyptian Atlantidæ are meant the _Old_ Ægyptians; the subjects of the Pharaohs and the Ptolemies; and the modern Copts so far as they are (what is rarely the case) of unmixed blood; the present dominant population of Ægypt being Arab.

COPTS.

_Area._--The valley and delta of the Nile, from Essouan to the Mediterranean.

_Physical conformation._--A. _Of the Old Ægyptians preserved as mummies._--Hair, fine, and either waved or curly; skull, with an upright frontal, and a moderately depressed nasal profile; maxillary profile, moderately prognathic; teeth, much worn; colour, undetermined. According to the testimony of ancient writers and paintings, darker than that of the Greek, lighter than that of the Nubian. Perhaps brown, with tinges of yellow and red.

B. _Of the Modern Copts._--Hair, black and crisp, or curled; cheek-bones, projecting; lips, thick; nose, somewhat depressed; nostrils, wide; complexion, varied, from a yellowish to a dark brown; eyes, oblique; frame, tall and fleshy; physiognomy, heavy and inexpressive.

_Religion of the Modern Copts._--Christianity.

_Pantheon of the Ancient Ægyptians._--Osiris, Isis, Anubis, Horus, Typhon, Phtha, Neith, &c.

_Language._--Coptic in three dialects. 1. The Memphitic, 2. Sahitic. 3. Bashmuric.

_Alphabets._--1. Hieroglyphic, of unknown, 2. Coptic, of Greek origin.

The researches of Benfey and others, have shown the extent to which the Ægyptian language, those of Morton (in the Crania Ægyptiaca) the extent to which the Ægyptian osteology is Semitic; indeed this side of the question has gained quite as much admission as the evidence justifies.

The determination of what may be called the other aspect of the Ægyptian language has been attempted with less success.

Klaproth compared it with the Caucasian languages: the evidence of Herodotus as to the Ægyptian origin of the Colchians indicating this relation.

The Chevalier Bunsen has connected it with the Indo-European; the early development of Ægyptian civilization dicating this.

The real affinities are those which its geographical situation indicates, _viz._ with the Berber, Nubian, and Galla tongues, and through them with the African languages altogether,[183] Negro and non-Negro.

FOOTNOTES:

[183] A short list of the words common to the Coptic and the African tongues at large, may be found in the author's Report on Ethnographical Philology.--_Transactions of the British Association for the Advancement of Science_, 1847, p. 223.

G.

SEMITIC ATLANTIDÆ.

No error is greater than to imagine that connection with the Semitic is synonymous with separation from the African stock, a remark which leads us from the Copts to--

THE SEMITIC TRIBES AND NATIONS.

_Area._--Abyssinia, Arabia, Palestine, Syria, Mesopotamia, parts of Kurdistan.

_Physical conformation._--Light-complexioned Atlantidæ, with dolikhokephalic capacious crania, straight or prominent nasal and orthognathic maxillary profiles. Referable to three types. 1. The Arab. 2. The Jew. 3. The Kaldani.

_Influence on the History of the World._--Preeminently moral--spiritually as well as intellectually. In the case of the Arabs, material as well.

_Religion._--Preeminently monotheistic for the later part of their history. For the earlier part, Paganism.

_Social and civilizational development._--Early, influential, and probably as much self-developed as that of either the Ægyptians or the Hellenic Iapetidæ.

_Alphabet._--With the exception of the Æthiopic, written from right to left. The earliest in the world.

_Divisions._--More or less artificial.--Syrians, Assyrians, Babylonians, Phœnicians, Beni Terah, Arabs, Æthiopians, Solymi(?), Cappadocians(?), Elamites(?), Cyprians(?), Philistines(?), Canaanites(?).

SYRIANS.

_Area._--Syria, Cœlosyria, part of Mesopotamia, the northern and eastern frontier being undetermined.

_Divisions._--1. Syrians of Syria, either extinct or incorporate.

2. Syrians of Mesopotamia, ditto.

3. Syrians of Kurdistan or Kaldani.

_Physical appearance of the Kaldani._--Mountaineers, with fair complexions, grey eyes, and reddish beard.

_Religion of_--_a._ The ancient Syrians, chiefly Nestorian Christianity. _b._ Of the Kaldani, the same.

_Pantheon of the Pagan Syrians._--Thammuz, Rimmon, &c.

_Languages._--1. Syriac of Syria. 2. Chaldee of Mesopotamia. 3. Kaldani of Kurdistan.

The Syrian influence as an element of civilization has, probably, been undervalued. It was through the Syriac that two contiguous nations received much of their knowledge of what was to be learned from Greece, the Armenian and the Arabian; the latter, whose civilizational influence has been proportionately over-rated, being in many cases translators of Syriac translations rather than students of the original Greek.

More important still was the propagandism of the Nestorian Christians in the direction of Central and Eastern Asia. Without hazarding an opinion as to the extent to which their teaching may be the real epoch of the civilization of the Chinese, the fact of the Uzbek Turk alphabet, itself the prototype of the Manchu, being Syrian, is a pregnant one. The alphabet of Palmyra is the alphabet of the wall of China.

ASSYRIANS.

_Area._--Assyria, east of the Tigris.

_Language._--Known to be Semitic from the remains of it in the Arrow-headed inscriptions of Nimrúd, Khorsabad, &c., deciphered by Major Rawlinson.

_Original Pagan Pantheon._--Nisroc (Assarac), Belti, Bar, Ani, Dagon, Bel, Nebo, &c.

BABYLONIANS.

So far as they were Semitic what applies to the Assyrians applies to the Babylonians also; the differences between them being matters of history and archæology rather than strict ethnology.

Among the first if not first builders of cities, among the first if not the first organizers of empires, the inhabitants of both the Lower Tigris and the Lower Euphrates, were one of the earliest influences in civilization, much in the way of Art; more, however, in the way of politics and commerce than either intellectually or morally. It is not, however, for the sake of enlarging upon these points that the notice of the Babylonians detains us.

Gesenius has given reasons for considering the Chaldees to have been other than a _Semitic_ population: thus either disconnecting the Babylonians from them, or else both from the Phœnicians and Hebrews.

Without giving an opinion on the fact, I satisfy myself with indicating its bearings.

The Chaldees (Khasdim), if not Semitic, were either Persian Kurds or Armenians, from the highlands of the Upper Tigris; and if so, their language was Iranian, their religion Fire-worship, and their affiliation with the Iapetidæ.

As far as we may venture to distribute the outward exponents of civilizational development amongst the Semitic nations, the first application of weights and measures seems to have been Babylonian, just as the paramount achievement of alphabetic writing is apparently the work of the--

PHŒNICIANS.

_Divisions._--_a._ Of Phœnicia (Tyre and Sidon). _b._ Africa (Carthaginian), _c._ Spain.

_Language._--Closely akin to both the Syriac and the Hebrew. Known only from inscriptions, and two scenes in the Pœnulus of Plautus.

BENI TERAH (SONS OF TERAH).

I can think of no better collective name for that portion of the Semitic nations which comprises not only the Jews, but those other tribes which, allied in blood, though separated by belief, are necessary to be noticed in order to give the more important Hebrew nation its due position, than the one at the head of this section; Terah, the father of Abraham, being the _eponymus_.

AMMONITES (BENI AMMON).

_Habits._--Agricultural.

_Locality._--East of the Israelites, on the north. Conterminous with, and closely allied to--

THE MOABITES (BENI MOAB).

_Habits._---Pastoral.

_Locality._--East of the Israelites on the south.

_Chief deity._--Chemosh.

The Moabites and Ammonites were, probably, transitional between the Hebrews and the Syrians; the next families being transitional between the Hebrews and the Arabs.

ISHMAELITES (BENI ISHMAEL.)

_Locality._--Probably migratory tribes on the frontier of the Desert.

EDOMITES.

_Area._--From the Dead to the Red Sea.

_Habits._--Partly pastoral, partly commercial and industrial.

BENI ISRAEL (HEBREWS, THE TWELVE TRIBES).

_Area._--Palestine.

_Divisions._--1. Samaritans (The Ten Tribes). 2. Jews (the tribes of Judah and Benjamin).

SAMARITANS.

_Divisions._--1. Samaritans Proper. 2. Galileans.

_Canonical books._--The Pentateuch.

_Alphabet._--A nearer approach to the Phœnician than the Jewish, and probably an older form.

_Æra._--National existence terminated A.D. 721. Since then either extinct or incorporated. Equivocal remains in the neighbourhood of Nablous.

JEWS.

_Æra._--National existence terminated, A.D. 89. Since then dispersed, but not incorporated.

_Physical Conformation._--Differing from that of the Arab in _a._ greater massiveness of frame; _b._ thicker lips; _c._ nose more frequently aquiline; _d._ cranium of greater capacity.

_Intellectual culture._--Preeminently early, and preeminently continuous, _i.e._ from the time of the Prophets to that of the Rabbinical writers of the Middle Ages, and from these to the present moment; in the latter case the medium generally being languages other than the Hebrew, _i.e._ those of the respective countries of the different writers.

_Moral influence._--1. As manifested by Jewish writers of modern Europe, identified with that of the literature of the

## particular country which produced it.

2. As manifested by the Rabbinical writers anterior to the revival of literature, and subsequent to the dispersion, limited, or nearly limited, to the Semitic nations.

3. As manifested in the evolution of monotheistic creeds co-extensive with _a._ Judaism Proper. _b._ Christianity. _c._ Mahometanism.

ARABS.

_Physical conformation._--Face, oval; forehead, vaulted; nose, straight or aquiline; lips, thin, even when thick not projecting; hair, wavy or curled; complexion, various shades of brown; limbs, spare.

With the Arab of Africa, the colour is sometimes nearly black, the frame more massive, and limbs more fleshy than in the Peninsula.

_Religion._--Originally Sabæanism; since the Hejirah, Mahometanism.

_Alphabets._--1. That of the Koran, based on the Cufic forms of the Syriac 2. That of the Himyarite inscriptions, akin to the Æthiopic.

_Languages._--1. Arabic Proper.--A. Ancient--of the Koran. B. Modern--of _a._ The greater part of the Arabian peninsula. _b._ Syria. _c._ Ægypt. _d._ Western Africa.

2. Himyaritic Arab.--_a._ Ancient--of the Himyaritic Inscriptions. _b._ Modern=the Ekhili.

_Intellectual culture._--Later in origin than that of either the Jews or Syrians. Less continuous than that of the former.

_Moral influence._--1. As manifested by the non-religious portion of the Arabic literature, considerable in amount and diffused in area.

2. As manifested in the propagation of a creed, co-extensive with Mahometanism--the religion of many sections of the Mongolidæ and Atlantidæ, but of none of the Iapetidæ.

The remarks upon the extent to which Syria has been one of the intellectual influences of the world, anticipated the notice that would otherwise have been required for Arabia.

The love of learning which appreciated, and the zeal which diffused the valuable sections of Greek science and philosophy have taken the garb of the power of originating; the extent to which this latter was the case, even in the departments most generally admitted to have been developed by Arabian cultivation, being by no means ascertained.

In the way of minute ethnology, the spread of the Arabs has engendered numerous complications; though the facts of a nation speaking the Arabic language, and exhibiting an Arabic physiognomy are _primâ facie_ evidence of Arab extraction, they are anything but conclusive. Thus, the extent to which the old Ægyptian stock may still survive in Ægypt has been indicated in the notice of the Copts, although the Coptic language has ceased to be spoken. Here, however, as the physical appearance bore a marked difference, the recognition of a Copt population was safe.

Perhaps the same might have been done in Syria, where there is special testimony to the two separate ranges of Lebanon and the Amanus retaining remnants of the original Syrian. I do not, however, know the evidence on which the statements rest; indeed, in order to be conclusive, it would require to be of a very peculiar kind.

_Physical form_ would not be likely to supply any evidence at all, since no one can say how an Arab naturalized in Syria would differ from an absolute Syrian.

_Language_, too, if only used as the language of religion, would be inconclusive; since the Syriac being the tongue of the Nestorian Christians, might be retained by even an Arab population, if previously Christianized.

Again, the same intermixture which a certain amount of the Arab stock has undergone in combining with Coptic, Syriac, and other imperfectly-incorporated populations, occurs in the history of the primitive, ante-Mahometan religion of Arabia. Without, at present, being enabled to separate the Mahometan, Christian, and other elements from the anomalous creeds of the Yezids, as described by Layard; of the Mendajaha, of Chesney; and, perhaps, of the Druses, as well, it is nearly certain that Sabæanism is the oldest element in them all. The ground, however, here is full of ethnological problems.

The immigrant Arabs of Africa may be viewed under four aspects:--

1. _In respect to their geographical distribution._--_a._ Of Ægypt. _b._ Nubia. _c._ Dongola. _d._ Mauritania. _e._ The Northern and Middle Sahara. _f._ The Southern Sahara.

2. _In respect to their origin._--_a._ Arabs direct from Arabia. _b._ Arabs from tribes already occupants of Africa.

3. _In respect to their habits._--_a._ Beduins, or wandering, pastoral, or predatory Arabs. _b._ Settled agricultural Arabs.

4. _In respect to the purity or intermixture of blood._--From what I collect from Prichard, purity of blood is the rule rather than the exception; the chief Africans by which it is crossed being those of the Tuarick division of the Amazirgh. The Southern Sahara, to the north of the Niger and the Sahara, and the ethnological frontier of the Woloff, Mandingo, Fulah, Sungai, and Howssa Negroes form the great area of the Arab and Tuarick intermixture.

ÆTHIOPIANS.

_Area._--Abyssinia.

_Physical condition of area._--An elevated table-land, or system of terraces--disconnected from the other portions of the Semitic area by the Red Sea (geographically), and by the Nubian and Ægyptian areas (ethnologically).

_Division, Languages, and Religion._--1. Tigré, of the province of Tigré, speaking a language generally admitted to be derived from the Gheez or ancient Æthiopic. Christians.

2. Amharic Æthiopians of South-western Abyssinia, speaking a language not generally admitted to be derived from the Gheez, but still so like the Tigré as most probably to be so descended. Christians.

3. The Gafat Æthiopians, Pagans, nearly displaced by the Gallas, but whose language is considered to be allied to the Amharic.

_Alphabet of the Christian Æthiopians._--Written from left to right, not (like the Syriac, Hebrew, and Arabic) from right to left. Closely allied to the Himyaritic Arabian of the inscriptions.

_Antiquities._--Chiefly of the ancient Gheez capital, Axum.

The ethnology of the Semitic Abyssinians has the following complications.

1. The Gheez language is too closely allied to the Arabic and Hebrew to lead to the belief that it is aboriginal, _i. e_. other than of comparatively recent introduction.

2. The Amharic, on the other hand, and, _à fortiori_, the Gafat, have too many African elements to lead to the belief that the _first_ Semitic immigration was that which introduced the Tigré.

The hypothesis, which would reconcile these discrepancies, would be--

That the Gafat represented a _primary_, the Tigré a _secondary_ migration; and this is much the same view which was taken concerning the relations between the island of Sumatra and the Peninsula of Malacca. It is also one which arises from the circumstance of the Isthmus of Suez being only one of the passages from Asia to Africa--the Straits of Bab-el-Mandeb being the second.

Hence, the present classification is provisional, since if we admit the Gafat to be primarily Semitic, the Tigré to represent a secondary influx of population, and the Amharic to be fundamentally the same as the Gafat, only containing a greater admixture of the Gheez, we have a class into which other sections of the Abyssinian populations should be admitted; _e.g._ the Agows, truly considered by Dr. Beke to be the aborigines of Æthiopic Africa.

In order to exhibit in full the elements of the ethnology of the Semitic class, notice must be taken of--

1. _The Hittites, Hivites_, &c.--The earlier inhabitants of Palestine, Canaanitish idolaters, geographically, but not genealogically, Semitic.

2. _The Philistines._--Uncircumcised idolaters, of which a portion remained unconquered at and beyond the date of the Jewish Captivity. Language, probably unintelligible to the Hebrews; on the other hand, they seem to have been closely related to the Phœnicians--facts not easily reconciled.

3. _Solymi._--Cilicians. The question involved in the Semitic character of the Solymi, is the difficult question as to the _north-western_ frontier of the Semitic area.

4. _Elamites._--These have the same import with the Solymi, _mutatis mutandis_, _i.e._ in the consideration of the _south-eastern_ Semitic frontier.

5. _Cyprians._--Almost certainly Semitic; probably Phœnician.

6. _Cappadocians._--Stated by Strabo to have been _white Syrians_.

Throughout the whole of the present volume the complex question of _descent_, or the relation between the people of antiquity and the modern populations of the same area is only _indicated_. Truly a part of ethnology, it is the one most liable to extreme differences of opinion, as well as the one which involves the most subtle and minute criticism.

* * * * *

THE MALAGASI.

_Locality._--Madagascar.

_Physical Conformation._--Generally speaking, African rather than Amphinesian; in some cases Amphinesian rather than African.

_Language._--Amphinesian rather than African.

_Religion._--Feticism.

_Name of one of the Malagasi Deities._--Vintana. Compare this with the Australian _Wandong_.

The Malagasi have already been enumerated amongst the Oceanic Mongolidæ. Why were they, then, only mentioned by name, and why do they now find a place at the end of the Atlantidæ? The reason lies in the antagonism between the evidence of their language and the evidence of their physical conformation; the first pointing exclusively towards Malacca, the latter partly towards Malacca and partly towards the opposite coast of Africa. The phænomenon of intermixture is, in this ease, so likely, that the doctrine that the Malagasi are Africans speaking a Malay language, or, at least, that there is a strong African intermixture, almost forces itself upon the investigator.

There is nothing, however, in what has hitherto been noticed which induces me to admit any African element at all; since after considerable reflection and hesitation I have come to the conclusion that the differences in physical form, as described by many excellent observers, are not greater than those which occur within the pale of the Amphinesian populations themselves.

On the other hand it is difficult to imagine that the first human pair who set foot in Madagascar, were from beyond India rather than from the coasts of Mozambique, or Zanzibar. To which must be added the tradition--perhaps we may say the existence--of the _Vazimbers_.

Drury writes that in his time the interior of the island was inhabited by undersized Negroes, called _Verzimbers_.

Of these--as living occupants--no trace now remains. Instead thereof, the Hovas of the Vazimber localities pay a superstitious reverence to certain upright stones, the _graves of the Vazimbers_.

This, in my mind, points towards Africa as the birth place of the Madagascar aborigines; and considering the degree to which the extent of their extermination is evidence of physical inferiority, combined with what has been said concerning the original northward extension of the Hottentots, it is, on the whole, more probable that such aborigines--provided they really existed at all--were of the stock of the Koranas, or Gonaquas, rather than of the Koosas or Bechuanas, _i.e._ Hottentot rather than Kaffre.

* * * * *

Are all the alphabets, that have ever been used, referable to one single prototype, as their ultimate original, or has the process of analysing a language into its elementary articulations, and expressing these by symbols, been gone through more than once? The answer to this is, partially a measure of the intellectual influence of the Semitic nations. Great would be that influence, even if only the Greeks and Romans had adopted the alphabet of the Phœnicians. How much greater if the world at large had done so.

The doctrine of a single prototype is the most probable. For the present alphabets of Europe the investigation is plain enough--indeed they are all so undeniably of either Greek or Roman origin, that doubt upon the matter is out of the question.

For others, however, the affiliation is less clear; and lest the extent to which many of them differ from each other, as well as from their assumed original, be over-valued, the following principles of criticism are suggested.

1. That considering the undeniable differences in form, order, number, and direction of writing between alphabets so undeniably connected as (say) the Hebrew, and (say) the English, no objections to the doctrine of a common origin is to be taken from mere points of dissimilarity in any of the above-named characters.

2. That, considering the probability that such alphabets as the Hieroglyphic and Arrow-headed are just as likely to be artificial derivations from some simpler ones--either in way of cypher alphabets, or in way that the illuminated letters of the Middle Ages differ from common manuscript--no arguments in favour of their antiquity are to be drawn from their undoubted peculiarity of structure.

3. That an alphabet, however much it may differ from others in the arrangement of the lines and points which form its letters, is not to be considered original if it has been framed within the literary period, and with a knowledge of previous ones--the idea of the analysis of a sentence into words, and of words into elementary articulations, being the really great achievement in the invention of an alphabet, and this, in such cases, not being original.

4. That the question of the affiliation or originality of alphabets be considered not only with a view to the particular alphabet, but with a due recognition of the fact that, taking the world at large, the derivation of one alphabet from another, rather than the repetition of the very remarkable process of the analysis of words, and the symbolization of their articulate elements, is the _rule_, and that the _apparent_ instances of the reverse are the exceptions.

With these, as preliminaries, we may enumerate the alphabets which most put on the garb of original inventions, and most appear to invalidate the doctrine that _alphabetic writing was but once, and once for all, invented_.

1. 2. _The hieroglyphic and arrow-headed[184] modes of writing_--Subject to Rule 2.

[Illustration: Fig. 16.]

3. _The Runes of the Gothic nations._--Deficient in proof of antiquity, not remarkably unlike the older Greek characters, and not originating in either an age or country where alphabets that might serve as models were inaccessible.

[Illustration: Fig. 17.]

4. _The Irish Ogham._--Shown to be of a very limited antiquity--_See two papers of Professor C. Graves on the subject._

5. 6. _Georgian and Armenian._--Not generally considered to be derivations from the Syriac, only from the differences of their characters; a ground of separation subject to the application of Rule 1.

7. _The alphabets of Southern India._--Subject to Rule 1;

8. _The alphabets of Northern India._--Subject to Rule 1; except so far as they rest upon the two following assumptions:--1st, That portions of the Hindu literature (the Vedas) are of an antiquity so remote as to be previous to either the invention or the diffusion of the first Semitic alphabet. 2d, That an Indian alphabet of equal antiquity, was necessary to embody them.

Admitting the latter of these two assumptions, I agree with those who doubt the first; and so far from inferring the existence of an ancient alphabet from the Vedaic writings, am inclined to infer a recent date for the Vedaic writings from the absence of an undeniably old and original alphabet.

9. _The original alphabets of the Malays of Sumatra, Celebes, the Philippines_, &c.--Subject to Rules 1 and 4.

10. _The Tuarick alphabet of Oudney and Richardson._--So deficient in signs of antiquity as to come under Rule 3.[185]

11. 12. _The[186]Cherokee and Vei Alphabets._--Manifestly subject to Rule 3.

[Illustration: Fig. 18.]

14. _The Chinese and its derivatives._--It is chiefly on the strength of Rule 4, taken along with the general unsatisfactory character of the evidence as to the antiquity of the Chinese civilization, that I allow no greater claims to originality to this than to any of the preceding alphabets.

Upon the whole, it may safely be said that no known alphabet, except the Semitic, has any very strong claims to be considered as an original and independent invention, by any one who admits the validity of the four foregoing rules, and recognizes the full difficulty and complexity of the notation of sounds addressed to the ear, by lines and points addressed to the eye.

* * * * *

_The accumulation of climatologic influences, and the angle of the line of migration._--Other conditions being equal, why do two tribes under the same degree of latitude differ? _e.g._ Why are not all tribes under the equator like the Negro of the Niger, and _vice versâ_?

Without venturing upon the enumeration of _all_ the elements of this difference, I will indicate _one_, assuming only that the climatological influences of a certain degree of latitude have _some_ effect, and that _some_ effect must be the result of the force in question. I call it _the accumulation of climatologic influences_.

Let a certain locality under a given degree of latitude (say the west-coast of Africa, under the equator) be peopled by a line of population migrating from Denmark, under one supposition, and from Bombay, under another, the line of migration being, for convenience sake, supposed to be a straight one.

From Denmark, such a line, at its junction with the point in question (say the mouth of the Gaboon River), would form with the equinoctial line, and with each intermediate degree of latitude, a right one.

From Denmark, the angle would be, a very acute one.

Now, just as the angle formed by the line of latitude and the line of migration is acute, the approach made by a moving population towards any particular point under that line (of latitude) is gradual, and in proportion as such an approach is gradual, the number of generations over which a condition of climate, like that of the final point, has been acting is increased; and in this way its influences become _accumulated_.

Thus, assuming Bombay to be the original cradle of our species--

The Gaboon Negro is the descendant of ancestors who, before they reached their present abode, had moved in a line lying almost wholly within the tropics; whereas--

The American of Quito, is the descendant of ancestors who passed through the tropics by the shortest cut (_i. e._ at nearly a right angle with the equator), themselves descended from progenitors upon whom the influences of the several North-American, Arctic, and Siberian climates had been at work.

In the latter case how great have been the changes and how rapid the transitions from the conditions of one latitude to another; how different, too, the effects upon a series of generations moving along a line a thousand miles long, from north to south, from those upon a stream of population propagated along an equal distance east and west.

The former takes them through half the latitudes of the world. The latter keeps them within a single zone--Arctic, Equatorial, or temperate, as the case may be, the climatologic influences seconding, instead of counteracting those of blood, and that in a ratio progressing geometrically.

FOOTNOTES:

[184] For the meaning of this, see the note at the end of the volume.

[185] For the powers of this alphabet, see the note at the end of the volume.

[186] For the meaning of this, see the note at the end of the volume.

IAPETIDÆ.

DIVISIONS.

A.--OCCIDENTAL IAPETIDÆ. B.--INDO-GERMANIC IAPETIDÆ.

This is the section of our species which is the best known, and which has been the earliest described. Preeminently lying within the department of the historian and archæologist, the natural historical questions connected with it, are those of the _minute_ rather than the systematic ethnographist.

Thus--the information, which would be so valuable in Africa or America, as to the _general_ relations of a particular population, is useless here. All such facts are known; and in dealing with areas like Britain, or Italy, we ask--not to what great primary class the Englishman or the Italian belongs, but the subtler questions as to the _differentiæ_ of their mental and physical characteristics, or the amount of foreign intermixture which in one case traverses the original Saxon, and in the other the primitive Roman stock--each stock itself being a complex product.

Ethnology of this sort has its proper exposition in a series of monographs, rather than in a work like the present.

So thoroughly are the Iapetidæ, populations who have encroached upon the frontiers of others rather than admitted encroachments on their own, that, with the exception of the Arab dominion in Spain, which has _not_, and the Turk and Majiar in Rumelia and Hungary, which _have_ lasted till our own times, there is no instance of their permanent displacement by either Mongolidæ or Atlantidæ of any sort.

Within their own pale, the Celts were the encroaching family of the oldest, the Romans of the next oldest, and the Anglo-Saxons and Slavonians of the recent periods of history.

A.

OCCIDENTAL IAPETIDÆ.

_Languages._--Separated from the common mother-tongue subsequent to the evolution of the persons of verbs, but anterior to the evolution of the cases of nouns. Evidently agglutinate.

Here, as with the Atlantidæ, we begin with an extreme, rather than a transitional division of the stock.

CELTS (KELTS).

_Name._--Either native, Ligurian, or Iberian. In its limited sense confined to the southern Gauls. Possibly to some of the Iberians as well. At present, a _general_ term comprizing populations very different from the original Keltæ (Κέλται). And adopted by the Greeks rather than the Romans.

_Present area._--Brittany, Wales, the Highlands of Scotland, the Isle of Man, Ireland.--In Brittany it is doubtful whether the Keltic occupancy represent original distribution or immigration.

_Original area._--_a._ _Undoubted._--The _present_ the Scottish Low-lands, England, Gaul north of the Loire (there or thereabouts), and parts of Switzerland.

_b._ _Probable._--Parts of Baden, and Bavaria, Northern Italy. In this latter case it is doubtful whether the Keltic occupancy represent original distribution or immigration.

_c._ _Accredited_ (either in way of original distribution or migration).--The Tyrol (Taurisci), Illyria (Scordisci), Asia Minor (the Galatians), Spain (the Celt-Iberians), Jutland (Cimbri).

_Frontier._--Preeminently receding; the encroaching populations being (1st) Roman, (2nd) Gothic.

_Conterminous with_--_a._ in the original area; Iberians, Italians, German Goths. _b._ in the present; English Goths, and French.

_Chief divisions._--1. Kelts of Gaul, falling into, _a._ The proper Celtæ. _b._ The Belgæ. Extinct(?) or incorporate.

2. British Kelts, falling into, _a._ The Cambrians. _b._ The Picts. The latter either extinct or incorporate.

3. Gaels. _a._ Scotch Gaels. _b._ Irish Gaels. _c._ Manxmen, or Gaelic Kelts of the Isle of Man.

4. The Cisalpine Kelts of Northern Italy.

5. The Ligurians(?) extended from the Etruscan to the Iberian frontier.

_Sub-divisions (more or less artificial) of the Cambrian Kelts._--_a._ Cumbrians of the kingdom of Strath-Clyde. _b._ Cymry of North Wales. _c._ Cymry of South Wales. _d._ Cornish Kelts.

_Philological Classification of the known Keltic languages._--

Keltic Stock. | ----------------------------------------- | | Cambrian (British) Branch. Gaelic Branch. | | ------------------------------- ------------------------------------ | | | | Welsh. Cornish. Armorican. Scotch Gaelic. Irish Gaelic. Manx.

_Descent._--From the ancient tribes of Ireland, Scotland, England, Gaul (north of the Loire, and west of the Rhine), Helvetia, and the Agri Decumates(?). The Cimbri[187] and Teutones.

_Physical conformation._--Preeminently (according to Retzius) dolikhokephalic. Cheek-bones, prominent; complexion, referable to--

_a._ _The Silurian type._--Eyes and hair, black; complexion, dark, with a ruddy tinge; chiefly found in South Wales.

_b._ _The Hibernian type._--Eyes, grey; hair, yellowish, red, or sandy; complexion, light.

_Pantheon._--Teutates, Taranis, Hesus, Belenus (Belis), Abellio, Belatucadrus, Attis, Aufaniæ (Goddesses), Aventia, Bacurdus, Camulus, Onuava, Ogmius, Nehalunnia, Dusius (the Deuce), Salivæ (Sylphs)--_Mithridates_ vol. iii.

To this, add the phænomena involved in the system of _a._ The Druids. _b._ The Bards. _c._ The monumental remains of the character of Stonehenge=_Máenhír_=_long stones_.

_Antiquities._--Coins, images, tumuli, and their contents, _Máenhír_.

_Habits._--In southern and central Gaul, and in southern and central England, at least, agricultural and industrial. On the coast, maritime.

_Probable line of population._--To Ireland from the nearest part of Scotland, to Scotland from England, to England from the parts about Calais and Dunkirk.

This last observation has been made in order to guard against any false impression arising from the statement of Bede that the Scots came from Ireland. The evidence of this is, at best, but a tradition, apparently founded upon an inaccurate etymology. Even if true, it would apply only to some secondary migration, and be subject to the criticism applied to the relations between the Island of Sumatra, and the Peninsula of Malacca, as Malay areas.

FOOTNOTES:

[187] Reasons in favour of the Cimbri and Teutones, being simply Gauls of Gallia, have been published by the present writer in the Transactions of the Philological Society.

B.

INDO-GERMANIC IAPETIDÆ.

_Languages._--Separated from the common mother-tongue subsequent to the evolution of the cases of nouns. Less evidently agglutinate than the Keltic.

The previous and the forthcoming groups are generally placed in one and the same class--that class being called Indo-European. The material fact of the Kelts having broken-off from the mother-stock at an appreciably early stage in the evolution of the common language, has led the present writer to refine upon the usual arrangement. To prove that the Kelts and Goths are related, is a very different matter from proving that their relationship is within a certain degree.

The Indo-Germanic Iapetidæ fall into two classes--

1. The European; 2. The Iranian Indo-Germans.