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644 EARLY MIGRATION
That colour is Jiot alone dependant upon, or caused by climate,
however much it may be altered by exposure to sun and
wind, or by seclusion, no person can doubt who has at all
attended to tbe subject, and read the opinions of men who have
made it their study : but that its various liues may be derived
from iiitennarriage, without any change of climate, this table
goes far to prove,*
Having seen how all the varieties of colour may be produced
from white, red, and black, we pause, because at fault,
and so we should remain, did we rely on our own unassisted
reason. But, turning to the Bible, we find in the history of those
by whom the eartli was peopled, after tbe flood, a curse pronounced
on Ham and bis descendants ; and it is curious that
the name Ham should mean “ heat—brown—scorched,” while
that of Cush bisson, means “ black that Japlieth should imply
“ handsome,” and that Shem, from whose line our Saviour was
descended, should mean “ name—renown—he who is put or
placed.” I cannot myself read this explanation of Cush, and the
denunciation “ Cursed be Canaan—a servant of servants shall he
be unto his brethren,” without believing that Cush was a negro,
and that from the intermarriages of his descendants with those
of Shem and Japheth, came hosts of mulatto, copper, or dark-
coloured men who peopled a great part of Asia, Polynesia,
America, parts of Africa, and part of Australia. According to
this view the black descendants of Cush overspread part of
Africa, Australia, and Van Diemen’s Land, New' Guinea, and
portions of other islands : while wbite families, children of
Japheth and Shem, spread over Asia Minor, the Caucasian
district, great part of Northern Asia, and the whole of Europe.
We read, in another place, that Abraham gave gifts to the
sons of his concubines, and sent them away eastward from
Canaan, unto the east country ; many years before this separation,
Ishmael, the son of Hagar, an Egyptian slave belonging
to Abraham, was established in the country next to the
• It (lid, not, liowever, satisfy me as to the production of a bright red
copper colour ; but of that I afterwards saw an excellent example at the
Keeling Islands. See page 636.
OF THF. HUMAN RACE. 645
eastward of Canaan ; and as his descendants were “ not to be
numbered for multitude,” it follows that those of some of the
sons above mentioned must have migrated to a great distance.*
It is likely that some of Abraham’s bond-women were either
black or mulatto, being descendants of Ham ; perhaps of Cush :
and it is hardly possible that Plagar sliould not have been dark,
even black, considering her parentage ;# in which case Ishmael
would have been copper-coloured, or mulatto,] and some, if not
all of Abraham’s sons by concubines, would have been of those
colours. If this be assuming too much, there can be no
doubt that in tbe next generation Esau, or Edom, was a red
man, and that his descendants, tbe numerous Edomites, or
Idumeans, were also red : now as Esau married the daughter of
Ishmael, we have, in this case, distinct evidence of the origin
of a race of red, or copper-coloured men. Had the common
colour of the human race been at that time red, Esau’s colour
w'ould not have been remarked ; had it been black, Cush would
have been no distinctive appellation. I t must then have been
originally fair, as no colours are mentioned in the Scripture,
with reference to the human race, except fair, red, and black.
A rapid increase of flocks and herds, as well as population ;
a consequent diminution of vegetable food ; jealousies and disputes
between the children of bond-women and those of the
free, and the comparative indift'erence of fathers to the oft*-
spriiig of their slaves, must have stimulated migration in every
direction; and, when once begun, no doubt the love of novelty,
and desire of finding countries still better than those yet
explored, increased, and eventually perpetuated that passion
for wandering which we see to this day in the Arab, the
migratory Malay, the roving Tartar, and the ever-restless
South American Indian.
• See Genesis, Chap. xiii. for evidence of the necessity there was to
emigrate in those early times. t Herodotus, lib. ii.
Î The Arabs, next to the Jews the most marked people on earth, who
have preserved their genealogies in an unbroken line, assert that they
are descended from Ishmael; their colour is the same as that of the
Malays, the Polynesian islanders, and the Americans.
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