A General History for Colleges and High Schools | Page 4

into Europe
during historic times] while in the New World, the Esquimaux and the
Indians still represent the race that once held undisputed possession of
the land.
The polished stone implements found in the caves and river-gravels of
Western Europe, the shell-mounds, or kitchen-middens, upon the
shores of the Baltic, the Swiss lake habitations, and the barrows, or
grave-mounds, found in all parts of Europe, are supposed to be relics of
a prehistoric Turanian people.
Although some of the Turanian peoples, as for instance the Chinese,
have made considerable advance in civilization, still as a rule the
peoples of this race have made but little progress in the arts or in
general culture. Even their languages have remained undeveloped.
These seem immature, or stunted in their growth. They have no
declensions or conjugations, like those of the languages of the
Caucasian peoples.
THE WHITE RACE AND ITS THREE FAMILIES.--The White Race
embraces the historic nations. This type divides into three families,--the
Hamitic, the Semitic, and the Aryan, or Indo-European (formerly called
the Japhetic).
The ancient Egyptians were the chief people of the Hamitic branch. In
the gray dawn of history we discover them already settled in the Valley
of the Nile, and there erecting great monuments so faultless in
construction as to render it certain that those who planned them had had
a very long previous training in the art of building.
The Semitic family includes among its chief peoples the ancient
Babylonians and Assyrians, the Hebrews, the Phoenicians, and the
Arabians. We are not certain what region was the original abode of this
family. We only know that by the dawn of history its various clans and
tribes, whencesoever they may have come, had distributed themselves
over the greater part of Southwestern Asia.

It is interesting to note that the three great historic religions of the
world,--the Hebrew, the Christian, and the Mohammedan,--the three
religions that alone (if we except that of Zoroaster) teach a belief in one
God, arose among peoples belonging to the Semitic family.
The Aryan, or Indo-European, though probably the youngest, is the
most widely scattered family of the White Race. It includes among its
members the ancient Hindus, Medes, and Persians, the classic Greeks
and Romans, and the modern descendants of all these nations; also
almost all the peoples of Europe, and their colonists that have peopled
the New World, and taken possession of other parts of the earth.
MIGRATIONS OF THE ARYANS.--The original seat of the Aryan
peoples was, it is conjectured [Footnote: Some scholars seek the
primitive home in Europe], somewhere in Asia. At a period that cannot
be placed later than 3000 B.C., the Aryan household began to break up
and scatter, and the different clans to set out in search of new
dwelling-places. Some tribes of the family spread themselves over the
table-lands of Iran and the plains of India, and became the progenitors
of the Medes, the Persians, and the Hindus. Other clans entering
Europe probably by the way of the Hellespont, pushed themselves into
the peninsulas of Greece and Italy, and founded the Greek and Italian
states. Still other tribes seem to have poured in successive waves into
Central Europe. The vanguard of these peoples are known as the Celts.
After them came the Teutonic tribes, who crowded the former out on
the westernmost edge of Europe--into Gaul and Spain, and out upon the
British Isles. These hard-pressed Celts are represented to-day by the
Welsh, the Irish, and the Highland Scots. Behind the Teutonic peoples
were the Slavonic folk, who pushed the former hard against the Celts,
and, when they could urge them no farther to the west, finally settled
down and became the ancestors of the Russians and other kindred
nations.
Although these migratory movements of the various clans and tribes of
this wonderful Aryan family began in the early morning of history,
some five thousand or more years ago, still we must not think of them
as something past and unrelated to the present. These movements,
begun in those remote times, are still going on. The overflow of the
population of Europe into the different regions of the New World, is
simply a continuation of the prehistoric migrations of the members of

the primitive Aryan household.
Everywhere the other races and families have given way before the
advance of the Aryan peoples, who have assumed the position of
leaders and teachers among the families of mankind, and are rapidly
spreading their arts and sciences and culture over the earth.
EARLY CULTURE OF THE ARYANS.--One of the most fascinating
studies of recent growth is that which reveals to us the customs, beliefs,
and mode of life of the early Aryans, while they were yet living
together as a single household. Upon comparing the myths, legends,
and ballads of the