At that time the various wandering groups had already made considerable progress both in physical and mental respects, as is seen in the Neanderthal skull, which is the oldest yet found in Europe, standing about midway between the Javanese ape-man and the present low races. All were still very much alike, presenting a sort of generalized human type which may be called Pleistocene man, a common undeveloped form, which did not begin to specialize—that is, to evolve the existing varieties until the several primitive groups had reached their respective homes as disclosed at the dawn of history.
From human remains, weapons, tools and other vestiges of human activity, found in the more recent deposits on the earth’s surface, the presence of man in these far off ages is made increasingly certain. The Pleistocene or Quaternary epoch, as represented by these objects of primitive culture, ranged over a vast period of time which has been conveniently divided into two great epochs, the Paleolithic or Old Stone, and the Neolithic or New Stone Age, these being so named from the material chiefly used by primitive peoples in the manufacture of their weapons and other implements. The distinction between the two periods, which are not to be taken as chronological, since they overlap in many places, is based essentially on the different treatment of the material, which during the immeasurably longer Old Stone Age was at first merely chipped, flaked, or otherwise rudely fashioned, but in the New more carefully worked and polished.
Evidence is, however, that it is not always possible to draw any clear line between the Old and New Stone Ages. In one respect the former was towards its close even in advance of the latter, and quite a “Paleolithic School of Art” was developed during a long period of steady progress in the sheltered Vézère valley, of South France. Here were produced some of those remarkable stone, horn, and even ivory scrapers, gravers, harpoons, ornaments and statuettes with carvings on the round, and skilful etchings of seals, fishes, reindeer, harnessed horses, mammoths, snakes, and man himself, which also occur in other districts.
In Tunisia many implements lie under a thick bed of Pleistocene limestone deposited by a river which has since disappeared. The now absolutely lifeless Libyan plateau is strewn with innumerable worked flints, showing that early man inhabited this formerly fertile region before it was reduced by the slowly changing climate to a waste of sands. The same story of man’s great age is told by discoveries in Burma, India, North and especially South America, and now also in Great Britain.
Outstanding features of the New Stone Age are the Swiss and other lake-dwellings, the Danish peat-beds with their varied contents, the shell-mounds occurring on the seaboard in many parts of the world.
In the more civilized regions, such as Egypt, Babylonia, parts of Asia Minor, and the Ægean lands, the Stone Ages were at an early date followed by a period vaguely designated as “prehistoric,” during which stone as the materialof human implements was gradually replaced by the metals, first copper, then various copper alloys (arsenic, sulphur, nickel, cobalt, zinc, and especially tin) generally called bronze, lastly iron.
1 to 29.—Implements of the Stone Age. 30 to 48.—Implements of the Bronze and Early Iron Ages. 49 to 60.— Implements of the Late Iron Age.
1 to 29.—Implements of the Stone Age. 30 to 48.—Implements of the Bronze and Early Iron Ages. 49 to 60.— Implements of the Late Iron Age.
Large illustration(273 kB)
Thus were constituted the so-called Metal Ages, during which, however, overlappings were everywhere so frequent that in many localities it is quite impossible to draw any well-marked dividing lines between the successive metal periods. Indeed a direct transition from Stone to Iron may be suspected in some places, and in any case the pure copper period appears to have nowhere been of long duration except in America, where there was no iron and little bronze.
Besides the metals, letters also, or at least pictorial writings such as the old rock carvings of Upper Egypt, were introduced in the Prehistoric Age, which comprises that transitional period dim memories of which lingered on far into historic times. It was an age of popular myths, folklore, demi-gods, heroes, traditions of real events, and even philosophic theories on man and his surroundings, which supplied ready to hand the copious materials afterwards worked up by the early poets, founders of new religions, and later lawgivers.
So also in China the early historians still remembered the still earlier “Age of the Three Rulers,” when people lived in caves, ate wild fruits and uncooked food, drank the blood of animals, and wore the skins of wild beasts (our Old Stone Age). Later they became less rude, learned to obtain fire by friction, and built themselves habitations of wood and foliage (our New Stone Age).
Of strictly historic times the most characteristic feature is the general use of letters, most fruitful of human inventions, since by its means everything worth preserving was perpetuated, andall useful knowledge thus tended to become accumulative. Writing systems, as we understand them, were not suddenly introduced, but gradually evolved from pictures representing things and ideas to conventional signs or symbols which first represent words, as in the Chinese script and our ciphers, and then articulate sounds, as in our alphabet. Between the two extremes—the pictograph and the letter—there are various intermediate forms, such as the rebus and the full syllable, and these transitional forms are largely preserved both in the Egyptian and Babylonian systems, which thus help to show how the pure phonetic symbols were finally reached. That was probably six thousand years ago, since we find various ancient scripts widely diffused over the Greek Archipelago (Crete, Cyprus, Asia Minor) in very early times. The hieroglyphic and cuneiform systems whence they originated were very much older, since the rock inscriptions of Upper Egypt are prior to all historic records, while the Mesopotamian city of Nippur already possessed half-pictorial, half-phonetic documents some six thousand years before the New Era.
This is an inscription in hieroglyphic writing found at Meidum, Egypt. It records the life events of King Rahotep and his Queen Nefert.Here is an Egyptian pictograph representing the Nubians bearing gifts to the King of Egypt.
This is an inscription in hieroglyphic writing found at Meidum, Egypt. It records the life events of King Rahotep and his Queen Nefert.
Here is an Egyptian pictograph representing the Nubians bearing gifts to the King of Egypt.
Large illustrations:Top(233 kB)Bottom(232 kB)
DEVELOPMENT OF THE HUMAN RACE THROUGH THE AGES
This chart falls within theCenozoic(sē´no-zō´ik), or “Recent life,” Period of the Earth and should be compared with it. Estimated Age of the Cenozoic Period, 3,000,000 years.
Geological Epochsof the EarthSuccessive Upward Stages in the Development of Civilized ManEstimated Time and Duration of PeriodsQuaternary(Kwä-ter´na-rĭ) or “Fourth” Sedimentary System of the Earth. Age of Man.Recentor Alluvial Epoch; called by GeologistsHolocene(ho´lo-sen)Historic Period.—Rise of Civilization through the gradual organization of mankind into social groups and nations, for the protection of life, liberty and property and the advancement of the arts, sciences and religion.Age of Lettersor Pictorial WritingThisperiod offers an unbroken record of events from the first dated monuments and documents down to the present day. With the discoveries of archæologists in Babylonia, Egypt, Southern Arabia, and the Ægean lands, the beginnings of historic times are constantly receding farther into the background, and to the Mesopotamian city of Nippur is already ascribed an antiquity of about eight thousand years.800 B.C. to Present Time.Late Iron AgeInthis age man begins to bestir himself towards discovery and invention. He organizes into tribes, makes laws, records observations—in fact, develops into nations such as manifest themselves on the earliest monuments of Egypt and Babylonia. In Europe it is characterized by forms of implements, weapons, personal ornaments, and pottery, and also by systems of decorative design, which are altogether different from those of the Bronze Age.In Europe, 500 B.C. to Roman times.Early Iron Age, or Hallstatt PeriodTheearliest evidence of this age was found near Hallstatt, in Upper Austria, in a famous Celtic burial-ground. The excavations here yielded swords, daggers, javelins, spears, helmets, axes, shields, and various forms of jewelry, also amber and glass beads; silver was apparently not known. Most of the weapons were of iron, only a few being of bronze.In Europe, 1000 to 500 B.C. In Orient 1800 to 1000 B.C.Bronze AgeHereflint is cast aside, and gold as an ornament begins to attract him. This was the stage reached by the Aztecs and the aborigines of Peru when discovered by Europeans in the early sixteenth century. The implements and weapons include knives, saws, sickles, awls, gouges, hammers, anvils, axes, swords, daggers, spears, arrows, shields. The forms of each class differ in different areas, and vary with advancing time. The workmanship is always of a very high order, the shapes graceful, and the finish fine.In Europe, 2000 to 1000 B.C. In Orient 4000 to 1800 B.C.Pleistocene(plis´to-sēn) or Glacial EpochNew Stone Ageor Neolithic (Gr.,neos, new;lithos, stone)TheNeolithic implements occur in river-terraces, alluvial deposits, lake dwellings and caves. The weapons and tools were made of highly polished stone. With the relics of Neolithic man are found remains of the Irish elk, the reindeer, beaver, brown bear, etc. Besides these were the remains of domesticated forms such as the cat, horse, sheep, dog, and goat. The tribes were acquainted with agriculture, and were advanced in the arts of weaving and pottery-making.In Europe, about 12,000 to 3000 B.C.Cro-Magnon, and Grimaldi Races(about 10,000 B.C.)Pre-historic Period.—Dawn of mind, industry and art. This period merged imperceptibly into the more strictly historic period when letters were introduced.Old Stone Ageor Paleolithic (Gr.,palaios, ancient;lithos, stone)Themen of this age were hunters, and the remains of successive hunting races have been found in the deposits of caves, river gravels, and other sediments. They used rude hatchets and other implements of rough, unpolished stone which occur in association with relics of northern (mammoth, reindeer, cave-bear) and southern mammalia (lion, leopard, hippopotamus). The walls of their caves are covered with rough sketches of animals belonging to that period. The men who inhabited the caves of Europe in Paleolithic time were very similar to the modern Eskimo.In Europe, about 125,000 to 12,000 B.C.Neanderthal Man(about 25,000 B.C.)Piltdown Man(about 110,000 B.C.)Dawn Stone Age, or EolithicPrimitiveman existed even earlier than paleolithic man. It is certain that, in order that man possess the necessary skill exhibited in the flint implements, he must have passed through a previous and necessarily less skillful stage. Evidences of this period have been claimed to exist in the Plateau-gravels of Kent, Belgium and Egypt.About 525,000 to 125,000 B.C.Heidelberg Man(about 250,000 B.C.)Pithecanthropus(about 475,000 B.C.)Tertiary(ter-shi-a-ri), or “third.” Age of mammals.Pliocene(plī´ō-sēn), or “more recent.”Period of the probable appearance of the Human Races....Miocene(mī´ō-sēn), or “less recent.”Gradual formation of man-like types....
Geological Epochsof the EarthSuccessive Upward Stages in the Development of Civilized ManEstimated Time and Duration of PeriodsQuaternary(Kwä-ter´na-rĭ) or “Fourth” Sedimentary System of the Earth. Age of Man.Recentor Alluvial Epoch; called by GeologistsHolocene(ho´lo-sen)Historic Period.—Rise of Civilization through the gradual organization of mankind into social groups and nations, for the protection of life, liberty and property and the advancement of the arts, sciences and religion.Age of Lettersor Pictorial WritingThisperiod offers an unbroken record of events from the first dated monuments and documents down to the present day. With the discoveries of archæologists in Babylonia, Egypt, Southern Arabia, and the Ægean lands, the beginnings of historic times are constantly receding farther into the background, and to the Mesopotamian city of Nippur is already ascribed an antiquity of about eight thousand years.800 B.C. to Present Time.Late Iron AgeInthis age man begins to bestir himself towards discovery and invention. He organizes into tribes, makes laws, records observations—in fact, develops into nations such as manifest themselves on the earliest monuments of Egypt and Babylonia. In Europe it is characterized by forms of implements, weapons, personal ornaments, and pottery, and also by systems of decorative design, which are altogether different from those of the Bronze Age.In Europe, 500 B.C. to Roman times.Early Iron Age, or Hallstatt PeriodTheearliest evidence of this age was found near Hallstatt, in Upper Austria, in a famous Celtic burial-ground. The excavations here yielded swords, daggers, javelins, spears, helmets, axes, shields, and various forms of jewelry, also amber and glass beads; silver was apparently not known. Most of the weapons were of iron, only a few being of bronze.In Europe, 1000 to 500 B.C. In Orient 1800 to 1000 B.C.Bronze AgeHereflint is cast aside, and gold as an ornament begins to attract him. This was the stage reached by the Aztecs and the aborigines of Peru when discovered by Europeans in the early sixteenth century. The implements and weapons include knives, saws, sickles, awls, gouges, hammers, anvils, axes, swords, daggers, spears, arrows, shields. The forms of each class differ in different areas, and vary with advancing time. The workmanship is always of a very high order, the shapes graceful, and the finish fine.In Europe, 2000 to 1000 B.C. In Orient 4000 to 1800 B.C.Pleistocene(plis´to-sēn) or Glacial EpochNew Stone Ageor Neolithic (Gr.,neos, new;lithos, stone)TheNeolithic implements occur in river-terraces, alluvial deposits, lake dwellings and caves. The weapons and tools were made of highly polished stone. With the relics of Neolithic man are found remains of the Irish elk, the reindeer, beaver, brown bear, etc. Besides these were the remains of domesticated forms such as the cat, horse, sheep, dog, and goat. The tribes were acquainted with agriculture, and were advanced in the arts of weaving and pottery-making.In Europe, about 12,000 to 3000 B.C.Cro-Magnon, and Grimaldi Races(about 10,000 B.C.)Pre-historic Period.—Dawn of mind, industry and art. This period merged imperceptibly into the more strictly historic period when letters were introduced.Old Stone Ageor Paleolithic (Gr.,palaios, ancient;lithos, stone)Themen of this age were hunters, and the remains of successive hunting races have been found in the deposits of caves, river gravels, and other sediments. They used rude hatchets and other implements of rough, unpolished stone which occur in association with relics of northern (mammoth, reindeer, cave-bear) and southern mammalia (lion, leopard, hippopotamus). The walls of their caves are covered with rough sketches of animals belonging to that period. The men who inhabited the caves of Europe in Paleolithic time were very similar to the modern Eskimo.In Europe, about 125,000 to 12,000 B.C.Neanderthal Man(about 25,000 B.C.)Piltdown Man(about 110,000 B.C.)Dawn Stone Age, or EolithicPrimitiveman existed even earlier than paleolithic man. It is certain that, in order that man possess the necessary skill exhibited in the flint implements, he must have passed through a previous and necessarily less skillful stage. Evidences of this period have been claimed to exist in the Plateau-gravels of Kent, Belgium and Egypt.About 525,000 to 125,000 B.C.Heidelberg Man(about 250,000 B.C.)Pithecanthropus(about 475,000 B.C.)Tertiary(ter-shi-a-ri), or “third.” Age of mammals.Pliocene(plī´ō-sēn), or “more recent.”Period of the probable appearance of the Human Races....Miocene(mī´ō-sēn), or “less recent.”Gradual formation of man-like types....
From the pictorial and plastic remains recovered from these two earliest seats of the higher cultures it is now placed beyond doubt that all the great divisions of the human family had at that time already been fully developed. Even in the New Stone Age, the present European type had been thoroughly established, as shown by the remains of the “Cro-Magnon Race,” so called from the cave of that name in Perigord, France, where the first specimens were discovered. In Egypt, where a well-developed social and political organization may be traced back to the seventh century B. C., Professor Petrie discovered in 1897 the portrait statue of a prince of the fifth dynasty (3700 B. C.) showing regular Caucasic features. Still older is the portrait of the Babylonian King Sargon (3800 B. C.), also with handsome features which might be either Semitic or even Aryan. Thus the Caucasic, that is, the highest human type, had already been not only evolved but spread over a wide area (Europe, Egypt, Mesopotamia) some thousands of years before the New Era. The other chief types (Mongol, Negro, and even Negrito) are also clearly portrayed on early Egyptian monuments, so that all the primary groups had already reached maturity probably before the close of the Old Stone Age.
Early picture writing of the Chippewa (Ojibwa) Indians.
Early picture writing of the Chippewa (Ojibwa) Indians.
But these primary groups did not remain stationary in their several original homes; on the contrary they have been subject to great and continual fluctuations throughout historic times. Armed with a general knowledge of letters and other cultural appliances, the higher races soon took a foremost place in the general progress of mankind, and gradually acquired a marked ascendency, not only over the less cultured peoples, but to a great extent over the forces of nature herself. With the development of navigation, and improved methods of locomotion, inland seas, barren wastes, and mountain ranges ceased to present insurmountable obstacles to their movements, which have never been completely arrested, and are still going on.
On the basis of bodily characteristics, including form, color and features, modern ethnologists have divided mankind into four primary groups, or families: the Caucasian, Mongolian (or Tartar), Negro and American; or, according to color, thewhite,yellow,blackandredraces. It must not be supposed that these types were sharply marked off from one another; indeed, there must have been a great range of varieties then, as now, due to the conditions under which man lived, as well as to actual race mixtures.
It is probable, however, that all these primary groups had reached definite characteristics before the close of the Stone Age.
The term Caucasian is taken from the mountain-range between the Black and Caspian seas, near which region the finest physical specimens of man have always been found. Mongolian is derived from the wandering races that inhabited the plateaus of central Asia. Negro is the Spanish word for “black.” American is applied to the red, or copper-colored, race found in this continent when it was discovered.
The sub-joined table brings into parallel columns the chief distinguishing characteristics of the races:
PHYSICAL AND MENTAL CHARACTERS OF THE PRIMARY HUMAN GROUPS
Original Home.—North Africa between Sahara and the Mediterranean.
Early Expansion.—To Europe, the Eurasian Steppes between the Carpathians and the Pamir, Asia Minor, Syria and Palestine, Arabia, Mesopotamia, Iran, or Persia, India, Northeast Asia, Southeast Asia, Malaysia, Polynesia.
Later Expansions.—The Caucasian race has now spread, through colonization, over the whole world, but its proper region is Europe, western Asia, and the northern strip of Africa Nine-tenths of the people of Europe belong to the Caucasian family, the other tenth consisting of the Turks, the Magyars (in Hungary), the Finns, the Laplanders, and the tribe called Samoieds in the extreme northeast of European[276]Russia. In Asia, the Caucasians include the Arabs, the Persians, the Afghans, and the Hindus. In Africa, the Caucasians are spread over the whole north, from the Mediterranean to the south of the Sahara Desert, and to the farthest border of Abyssinia as well as to the greater portion of South Africa. In North and South America three-fourths of the people are now Caucasian. In Australia and New Zealand the Caucasian colonists have almost extinguished the native races.
Religion.—The Caucasian race now supports various forms of Christianity in Europe, America, and their Colonies; Buddhism in India; Mohammedanism in Central Asia, Siberia, Turkey, Arabia, North Africa, Irania, India, Malaysia. Originally nature-worship was more pronounced than the cult of ancestor-worship. The Egyptians did not worship but embalmed the dead. The chief gods of the Semites were those of the sun and moon; and those of the Aryans were Dyaus, Indra, Zeus, Jupiter, Apollo, Saturn, etc., all personified elements of the upper regions which later became the basis of extensive systems of mythology. Later these forces were symbolized in wood or stone, which led to idolatry—that is, the worship of the image itself, which still persists among the uneducated in some parts of Christendom. The belief in magic, demons, witchcraft, omens, ghosts and allied superstitions was also very prevalent.
Out of the general polytheism were slowly evolved various shades of monotheism, whence arose the historical religions of the West, such as Judaism, Christianity and Mohammedanism, while crass polytheism persisted in the East—Brahmanism in India, degraded forms of Buddhism in Ceylon and elsewhere. Intermediate between monotheism and polytheism was the Persian religion, which refers light and all good to Ormuzd and his host of angels, night and all evil to Ahriman and his host of demons. Although already denounced by Isaiah, whose Jehovah is the one source of all things, this twofold principle no doubt found its way into the early Christian teachings.
Original Domain.—Probably the Tibetan tableland.
Early Expansion.—Mongolia, Siberia, China, Indo-China, Malaysia, Mesopotamia (?). The earlier Mongolians were extremely migratory, but the more settled tribes developed into the later Japanese, Chinese. Burmese, Siamese, and other peoples in the southeast and east of Asia; and the native tribes of the Siberian plains. The wandering tribes developed into the Turks, Magyars (Hungarians), Finns, Laplanders, and Samoeids, of Europe, and the Esquimaux of America.
Religion.—Animism in the widest sense is the dominant note of Mongolian religions. The worship of spirits extended both to the disembodied human soul (ancestor-worship, which is now perhaps the most prevalent form) and to the innumerable spirits, bad and good, which people earth, air, water, the celestial and underground regions. Although nominal Buddhists, the Chinese, Indo-Chinese, and Mongols live in terror of malevolent spirits, and the Annamese scrupulously observe “Roast-pig Day,” as they call their All-Souls Day, by littering the graves of the dead with scraps of victuals. Among the Siberians this spirit-cult takes the form of Shamanism, in which the Shaman (wizard or medicine man) is the “paid medium” of communication between his dupes and the invisible good or evil genii. In Tibet demonology still survives beneath the official Lamaism; the Eastern Siberians are Bear-worshipers; and the Polynesians have deified both the living and dead members of their dynasties.
The historical religions are largely a question of race, the Mongols proper, Manchus, Koreans, Japanese, Chinese, Indo-Chinese, and Tibetans being at least nominal Buddhists. The Turks, Tartars, and most Malays are Mohammedans; and the Finns, Lapps, and Magyars now Christians. Other so-called state religions—Confucianism and Taoism in China, Shintoism and Bushidoism in Japan are other ethical codes fostered and upheld for political purposes.
Original Domain.—The Eastern, or Oceanic, Section had its home in Malaysia, Andamans, Philippines, New Guinea, Melanesia, Australia, Tasmania; with no later expansion. The Western, or African, Section lived in Africa south of the Sahara.
Later Expansion.—Subsequently the Africans spread, either voluntarily or were taken as slaves to Madagascar, north Africa, southern United States, West Indies, and Latin America.
Religion.—Spirit-worship very prevalent among native Negro races, and totemism in Australia. The Melanesian system is distinctly animistic, distinguishing between pure spirits, that is, supernatural beings that never were in a human body, and ghosts—that is, men’s disembodied spirits revisiting their former abodes. There are prayer, sacrifice, divination, omens, death and burial rites, a Hades too, with trees and houses, as on earth, also a ghostly ruler, but no supreme being. There is little or nothing of all this in Australia or New Guinea, where the religious sentiment is so little developed that many close observers have failed to detect it.
Among African tribes, though religion is animistic, ancestor-worship seems much more prevalent than nature-worship. There is no supreme being anywhere. The chief deities areMunkulunkulu, with many variants along the eastern seaboard, andNzambi, also with many variants on the west side, both intermingling in the interior. Witchcraft, omens, and ordeals are very prevalent; pure fetishism and human sacrifices prevail in Upper Guinea, in Uganda and other parts.
Original Domain.—The New World. The chief sub-divisions were as follows:
(1)North American:Eskimo,Athabascan(Chippewaian, Taculli, Hupa, Apache, Navajo);Algonquian(Cree, Chippewa, Mohican, Delaware, Shawnee, Cheyenne, Illinois, etc.);Iroquoian(Erie, Huron, Mohawk, Tuscarora, Cherokee, etc.);Siouan(Dakota, Assinaboin, Missouri, Iowa, Winnebago, Mandan, Tutelo, Catawba);Muskhogean(Seminole, Choktaw, Creek, Chickasaw, Alibamu, Apalachi);Salish;Shoshone;Pawnee;Pueblo(Zuñi, Hopi, Tegua).
(2)Central American:Opata-Pima(Yuma, Cora, Tarahumara, Tepeguana);Nahuan(Aztec, Huichol, Pipil, Niquiran);Maya-Quiché(Huaxtec, Maya, Lacandon, Quiché, Pocoman, Zendal, Chol, Zotzil, Cachiquel, Mamé);Zapotec;Mixtec(Mixé);Lencan(Chontal, Wulwa, Rama, Guatusa);Bribri;Cuna.
(3)South American:Chibcha;Choco;Quichua(Inca, Chanca);Aymara(Colla, Calchaqui);Antisuyu;Jivaro;Zaparo;Pano;Ticuna;Chuncho;Carib(Macusi, Akawai, Bakairi, Arecuna);Arawak; (Atorai, Wapisiana, Naypure, Parexi);Warrau;Chiquito;Bororo;Botocudo;Tupi-Guarani(Chiriguana, Caribuna, Goajira, Omogua, Mundrucu);[277]Payagua;Mataco;Toba;Araucan;Puelche,Tehuelche(Patagonian);Fuegian(Ona, Yahgan, Alakaluf.)
Present Restricted Domain.—The Arctic seaboard, Greenland, Alaska; numerous reservations and some unsettled parts of the United States and Canada; most tribes of Mexico, Central and South America are partly intermingled with the whites and blacks and still partly in the tribal state. By far the greater part of the native tribes never progressed beyond the savage state, except in the United States and Canada, where during the past quarter century, and particularly during the last decade, the Indians have rapidly advanced in civilization.
Religion.—Shamanism was widely diffused among the North America aborigines. But still more prevalent is the cult of the aërial gods, who support the four quarters of the heavens, and of animals (bear, wolf, raven, jaguar) which has given rise to strange wehrwolf superstitions, and to totemistic systems similar to those of the Australian natives.
Solar worship prevailed in Peru, while the cultured peoples of Mexico (Aztecs, Mayas, Zapotecs and others) had developed a complete pantheon of ferocious deities, such asTezcatlipoca,QuetzalcoatlandTlaloc, whose thirst for human blood was insatiable. Thus arose an established order of priests, who sacrificed human victims on solemn occasions, and presided over other sanguinary rites often accompanied by unutterable horrors. Aztec women cast their infants into the Mexican lagoons to propitiate the Rain-godTlaloc.
Some modern races, like the Zuñis, have an elaborate and highly mystical ritual, to the exhibitions of which none but the initiated are admissible. The snake-dance of the Moquis of Arizona is a most curious ceremonial and attracts many visitors. The ritual of the Roman Catholic Church has strong attractions for the Indian; and the less elaborate service of the Episcopalians has in several instances helped to win over to Christianity tribes which had long rejected the teachings of missionaries of other denominations.
Of all these races the only one whose history is important for us is the Caucasian or white race, to which we ourselves belong. This race is “historical” because it displays the most highly civilized type of mankind,—that type whose progress and achievements are the true province of history.
This grand stock—the Caucasian race—has been classified into three main branches,—(1) the Aryan or Indo-European; (2) the Semitic; (3) the Hamitic.
The Hamitic branch is named from Ham, the son of Noah, and ancestor of some of its peoples, most notable of which was the ancient empire in Egypt. Accounts of their conquests, under great dynasties of kings, have come down to us in hieroglyphic inscriptions. The Egyptians became highly civilized at a very early time, and exerted a marked influence on the civilization of succeeding ages.
The Semitic branch is so called from Shem, also a son of Noah, described in the Bible as ancestor of some of the nations which it includes. Its chief historical representatives are the Hebrews, Phœnicians, Assyrians, Arabs, and Babylonians. The early Semitic race conquered Chaldea, united Sumer and Accad, and have similarly left us records of their early civilization in cuneiform inscriptions and tablets. It is distinguished in religious history, because from it originated the three faiths whose main doctrine is that there is but one God; namely, the Jewish, the Christian, and the Mohammedan. Apart from this, and with the special exception of the ancient Phœnicians and Carthaginians, the Semitic nations have not been generally distinguished for progress and enterprise, but have mainly kept to their old home between the Mediterranean, the river Tigris, and the Red Sea.
The leading part in the history of the world has been, and is still, played by the Aryan nations. The Caucasian presents us with the highest type among the five families of man; the Aryan branch of the Caucasian family presents us with the noblest pattern of that highest type.
The Aryan branch includes nearly all the present and past nations of Europe, the Greeks, Latins, Teutons or Germans, Celts and Slavonians; as well as three Asiatic peoples,—the Hindus, the Persians, and the Afghans and the modern Americans. It is the Aryans that have been the parents of new nations, and that have reached the highest point of intellectual development, as shown in their political freedom, and in their science, literature, and art.
The term Aryan is derived either from one ancient word implying that they were “cultivators of the soil,” or from another meaning “worthy, noble.” There was a time when these ancestors of the Celts, the Germans, the Slavonians, the Greeks and Italians, the Persians, the Hindus, and of nearly all the European nations, were living together, separate from the ancestors of the Semitic race. Their earliest known home was the high tableland of central Asia, north and northwest of the Himalaya Mountains, near the sources of the Oxus and Jaxartes rivers.
Through pressure of numbers, and spurred on by their own enterprising nature, these Aryan peoples for ages moved mainly westward, from their ancestral seats. A branch went southward across the Himalayas, and peopled Hindustan, Persia, and the intervening lands; another branch at different times and long intervals moved westward into Europe.
The Celts were the first European emigrants and spread themselves over a great part of the continent; as a distinct people they are now only found in parts of the British Isles and France. Later came the Italic (Latin) tribes who possessed the peninsula now known as Italy; the Hellenic (orGrecian) tribes, who occupied the peninsula of Greece; the Teutonic tribes, who replaced the Celts in central Europe, and finally also occupied Denmark and the Scandinavian peninsula (Sweden and Norway). The last of the Aryans were the Slavonians,[278]now spread over Russia, Poland, and Bohemia, and the Lithuanians, settled on the Baltic coast, partly in Prussia, partly in Russia. Thus was Europe gradually overspread by successive waves of Aryan settlement.
The study of the early Aryan languages tells us what progress had been made by this race, before the time arrived for starting south and west, to possess the Western world. Whatever words are alike in these Aryan tongues must be the names of implements, or institutions, or ideas, used or conceived before the first wave of migration made its way. We thus learn that, at that far distant time, the Aryans had houses, plowed the earth, and ground their corn in mills. The family life was settled—basis as it is of all society and law—and had risen far above the savage state. The Aryans had sheep, cattle, horses, dogs, goats, and bees; drank a beverage made of honey; could work in copper, silver, gold; fought with the sword and bow; and had the beginnings of kingly rule which subsequently became the central element of the state.
Albanian(al-bā´ni-an).—The native and aboriginal race or people of Albania, unlike most of the so-called European “races,” is a distinct race physically and not merely in language. It resembles most the Celtic race, but the type is taller: the northern Albanians, like the Montenegrins, rival the Scotch and the Norwegians in stature.
The Albanians are today a mixed race, as is every European people. They are brave, but turbulent in spirit—warriors rather than workers. Even their own tribes are at enmity among themselves and tribal and family feuds are common. It is the most backward in cultivation of all; and therefore not surprising that the rate of illiteracy is one of the highest in Europe.
In religion the Albanians are about equally divided among the Mohammedan, the Catholic, and the Greek faiths.
The Albanians go under many different names. Skipetar and Arnaut are equivalents of Albanian. All mean “highlander.” Until about the fifteenth century they were called Illyrians, or Macedonians. From them came the name of the ancient Roman province of Illyricum, embracing Epirus and parts of Macedonia. All the Slavs of the Balkan Peninsula made their settlements during the middle ages. The Albanians, or Illyrians proper, previously occupied the entire country north to the Danube.
Arabian(a-rā´bi-än).—One of the three great groups of the Semitic branch of the Caucasian race. The Arabians are related to the Hebrews and include Arabs proper and the wandering Bedouin tribes of the desert. They have long since spread out from the country that bears their name and settled in distant portions of Africa and Asia, as well as penetrated into Europe. They have given their language, through the Koran, to the vaster populations of Mohammedan faith. They are not to be confounded with the Turks who are Mongolian, Tartar, in origin and speech, rather than Caucasian. Neither are they closely related to the Syrians who are Christians and Aryans, not Semites; nor even to the Berbers and the modern Moors of north Africa, who are Hamitic rather than Semitic in origin. Yet Syrians and Moors alike have long used the Arabic tongue.
Armenian(är-mē´ni-an) orHaik.—The Aryan race, or people of Armenia, in Asiatic Turkey. In language they are more European than are the Magyars, the Finns, or the Basques of Europe. The nearest relatives of the Armenic tongue are the Persian, the Hindu, and the Gypsy. In religion the Armenians differ from all the above-named peoples excepting the Syrians in that they are Christian. They boast a church as old as that of Rome.
Only a fraction of the Armenians are found in their own country, Armenia; perhaps one-eighth. Over 1,000,000 live in Russia; 400,000 in European Turkey; 100,000 in Persia; about 15,000 in or near Hungary; and 6000 in India and Africa. About half their number still live in different parts of the Turkish dominions. Large numbers have migrated because of the persecutions of the Turks and Kurds directed against them.
Assyrians(a-sir´i-äns).—The Assyrian is an ancient language extinct for at least two thousand years. No people today can claim pure physical descent from this stock. The arid region occupied by the early Assyrian empire has been swept by one civilization after another. Their ancient Hamitic speech was largely replaced by that of conquering Medes and Persians and, later, of Mohammedan hosts. It finally disappeared after the Babylonians and Chaldeans, who used a Semitic tongue replaced the Assyrians in Mesopotamia. Turkish, Persian, Kurdish, and Arabian blood has been added to the ancestral stock of the modern Assyrians. Reclus says: “The Assyrians and Chaldeans were either exterminated or else absorbed in the victorious races, forfeiting name, speech, and the very consciousness of their race.”
Babylonians(bab-i-lō´ni-äns).—Babylonia has always been a land of mixed races and tongues. The earliest of the inscriptions has revealed that the first population was a people belonging to the Mongolian family. The linguistic connection was afterwards confirmed by the discovery by de Sarzec of statues of these primitive inhabitants which present an undoubted Tartar type of features. The skull is that of the Mongolian race with high cheek-bones, curly black hair, the eyes oblique and bright; the type being ethnically related to the Elamites of Susiana and the first Medean stock to which we find this early race linguistically related.
These people were not aboriginal to the plains of Chaldea, but came, as their traditions indicate, from the mountains to the northeast, and brought with them the already fairly advanced elements of civilization which they planted in Chaldea. At a very early period in the history of Babylonia the Semites appear as an element in the population, their type being clearly indicated in the sculptures connecting them with the Hebrew and northern Arabs, while the same relationship is linguistically established. From time to time, by war or commerce, other elements were introduced into the population, until almost every nation finds its representative in the “mixed crowd of nations” inhabiting the plains of Chaldea.
The Semites, having once obtained a footing in Babylonia, soon assimilated themselves to the more advanced culture of their Sumero-Accadian masters. They borrowed the cuneiform mode of writing, the religion, mythology, and much of the science of that inventive people, and so rapidly increased in numbers and power, that as early as about 3800 B. C. we find a dynasty of Semitic kings under Sargon of Accad and his son Naram-Sin, ruling in northern Babylonia.
THE WANDERING ARAB LOVES THE DESERT SANDS