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tions of Chiuen-hiuh, Hoang-ti, Shinnung, Fuh-hi, etc., but they can not have been rulers of China. They are children of the mist of tradition, if we should not rather place them in the land of phantasy."

CHAPTER VII.

THE ARGUMENT FROM ETHNOLOGY.

"Descent of all known Nations from Noah. The Tenth Chapter

of Genesis. — Importance of this Statement.—The Posterity of Shem; of Japheth; of Ham. — Agreement of this Account with History. The so-called Aboriginal Races. — Scripture Language not to be pressed too literally. — Earlier and later Departures from the original Seats of Population. — Opinion of Rawlinson. — Alleged Aborigines of Egypt; of India; of Western Europe.

IN the preceding chapters we have shown at length that there is nothing in the known history or antiquities of the most ancient nations that is inconsistent with the Mosaic records. No authentic date goes back so far as the Noachian deluge; no event of which any memorial has been preserved in written annals or monumental inscriptions can be assigned to a period so remote.

We are now prepared to show, on the other hand, that all human history, so far as it speaks on the subject, confirms those sacred records. It testifies

race.

both that all the nations of the earth whose history is known, or can be traced back to their origin, are descended from the family of Noah, and that this has taken place since the period at which, according to the Septuagint chronology, he and his sons went forth from the ark to be the new heads of the human At the same time it may be shown that there is nothing in the condition or known facts of any nation inconsistent with the same origin. In other words, it may be proved beyond reasonable doubt, from the traces which man himself has left in the world, that all the known races and families which have peopled the earth sprung from a common source, on the continent of Asia, at a period not exceeding 5000 years ago, while there is no evidence as to any other race or people that is not reconcilable with that conclusion.

The Scripture account of the origin and descent of the various nations of men is given in the tenth chapter of Genesis. This chapter has always been considered a document of great interest to students of ethnology, and that, too, to whatever school of biblical interpretation they may belong, whether they accept or reject the Mosaic authorship of the Pentateuch, whether they assign the date of its composition to the reputed time of Moses, or a thousand years later. This is justly due to its subject-matter,

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and the place it occupies in the sacred narrative. It occurs just at that point where the account ceases to be general, and is thenceforth devoted more especially to a single branch of the human family. The first five chapters are occupied with the creation and the history of the antediluvian generations, the next three to the deluge, the ninth to the new laws and instructions given to Noah as the second founder of the race, and to the birth and conduct of his sons. Then follows, in the tenth chapter, a more detailed account of "the generations of the sons of Noah," giving the descendants of each, in some instances, to the third or fourth generation, and, in other cases, pointing out the geographical localities occupied by particular families.

This account is as follows, beginning with SHEM, who was probably the oldest of the three sons:

1. "The children of Shem, Elam, and Asshur, and Arphaxad, and Lud, and Aram." (Ver. 22.)

Elam was the father of the Elamites, who dwelt around the northern shore of the Persian Gulf, in the province of Susiana, a part of ancient Babylonia.

Asshur is identical with the Assyrians in the upper valleys of the Tigris. After the Cushite invasion under Nimrod, this became a great Shemitic monarchy, whose capital, Nineveh, was one of the most splendid cities of ancient times.

Arphaxad, the eldest son of Shem, born two years after the flood, is believed to have settled the southern part of the Armenian highlands, near the sources of the Tigris. He was the ancestor of the Hebrews, so named from Eber, his grandson. Through Joktan, one of the sons of Eber, he is also the ancestor of numerous tribes of Semitic Arabs, the heads of whose families are given in ver. 26-30, and whose abode was " from Mesha as thou goest unto Sephar, a mount of the east," the modern Zafari or Dhafar, in the southern part of the Arabian peninsula.

Lud was the progenitor of the Lydians, in Asia Minor.

Aram, from a word signifying high, was the ancestor of the people occupying the highlands of Syria, and spreading thence into the vast plains of Mesopotamia. One of his sons, Uz, seems to have given his name to a district in the latter region, distinguished as the residence of the patriarch Job.

2. The second son of Noah was JAPHETH, а name signifying "enlargement," and denoting the wide extent of country which was to be occupied by his descendants. It is intimated, also, that this was to be the dominant race among the families of mankind (chap. ix. 27), both of which predictions have been signally verified in their subsequent history.

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