Meigs County telegraph. [volume] (Pomeroy [Ohio]) 1848-1859, 1858-11-30
From the New..York Post
n HyaHR-

II -
lis AmtigUity and ioitization--A Cozona
] # Whte Afeas--7Aucient Libraries
! tile Interior Commercial Stations ON
l The Niger,
| Africa, according to Hamilton Smith, is
IN civilization, the Oldest ofthe continents,
her soil having been "worn out" and ex
hausted by civilization. ages long lost out
4 of memory. 1t is a high table land, al
most destitute of mountains, with an
equabie climate, and few of the pconve
| niencies incident to the other divisions OF
die globes Hence this snpposition5is, il,
1 nesibiy eorraet. = cerininips l;apofed
by ancient, historical and NEUROLOGICAL
writer's. Herodotus assures us that Ethi-
opia was the most distant region of the
earth, and that its inhabitants were .'the
tallest, most beautiful and longest lived of
the human race Homer terms them a
blameless nation, and tells us that the gods
were once their guests. Diodorus goes so
far as to state that the "sacred language
employed by the priests of Egypt was the
common tongue of Ethiopia. a "Tbe trav-
eler, as heasends the Nile, finds the monu-
ments of antiquity Increase in number and
and Sn cge, as he proceeds, until hundreds
Of miles beyond the utmost limit of the
kingdom of the Pharoahs. he arrives at
the Meroe, acknowledged to be the vener-
able mother of Thebes and Memphis. Yet
even the priests Of Merce considered them
selves colony froma people beyond the
Mountains of the Moon" aa. E~ .r.I,..
Rev. Mr. Bowen, in his course of lee
lures recently delivered at Clinton Hall,
countenanced this theory of the antiquity
of African civilization. After declaring
that in that continent were no mountain
ranges, but only isolated peaks, he stated
that in the middle of the prairies, many
miles remote from human habiiations, the
granite rocks were full of grooves scooped
or worn out by the grinding of corn; the
multitude of which could be accounted for
only by assuming that the country was.
once densely peopled. He also observed
high mounds, which were constructed en-
tirely from the accumulated sweepings of
the houses, yards and streets of the an
cient cities, the African women being the
most cleanly of the sex. The cities have
since perished, but those mounds remain.
Mr.. Bowen found that the traditions of
that part of Africa in the county of the
Niger assigned TO the people an eastern
origin. lie does not seem 10 be clear,
how' yer, in assignipg such origin to ALL
the inhabitants Of that portion of the con-
tinent, but only to certain races. We un-
derstand him to intimate that the negro ofI
the coast is different in character, origin
and blood from the Fellatah and other ma
tons of the interior; an idea which GER
tainly is plausible. 1t is certain that the !
ancient Egyptian was no sable woolly- !
headed parsonage, and there may be other |
people on that continent, that in all proba-
bili;y were also Asiatic colonies
There is a history OF the Fellatah people
extant, written by y king of Sackator.
This may seem almost incredible, but Mr..
Brown goes on to declare that there are
several libraries among them, and that they
have books containing information
Of our own customs. The names of A bra
ham and David, Mary and Susannah, are
among them--lhey have tradi-
tions of Nimrod, and trace their origin
from Yahrouba, the son of Kahtau (Jok-
tan, in Yehmen (A,abia). He supposcs
that the army of Cambyses, said by Hero
dotus to have perished in tle sands of the
desert, met no such fate, the sand never
being moved, or undulaled by the wind,
is has been stated but had migrated west
ward and become the progenitors of some
IF these nations. a tradition exists among
several tribes that their ancestors came
rom Persia. -.....
The stories of armies and caravans over
by pillows of sand in the desert
ire very old---older than Herodotus, and
'ery false. Every part of the Sahara Is
Inhabited. Two republics exist there, con
ederations of tribes; and there exists
mong them a literature, as old, perhaps,
s any other. The soil of the desert is
onstituted of lime, sand and clay; water
Ilters through its substrala, and Artesiani
gells can be constructed everywhere. 1t
) not improbable, therefore, that it may
'ct be rendered sufficiently fertile and be-
ONE the abode of large population.
Mr.. Bowen suggests that the inhabitants 5
f Central Africa came from India, and in !!
81 mixet, with a white race in the Sahara.
nd with Malays on the eastern coast, while {
theirs had proceeded to the Senegal 4
ountry. he found, wherever be Went, !
II shades of color. Some of the Fellatah '
eople were almost white, having Roman j
oses and other Caucasian characteristics. |
hey were fne-looking race, and their F
'nguage was not African. They had
onquered the greater part Of tile conti-
ent. The traditions ofLhe country called
Iem ''white men, and gave them for T
gn origin. Their language contains a 1
II greater number of abstract nouns than {,
,e English, showing that they are re-
ective people. They preserved the litera- d
ire which they had Obtained from the G
aracens. and the arts and sciences which h
leY had possessed themselves from re- d
ote antiquity, in as advanced stage of O
ariection as when first received. Indeed, a
ley have already advanced to such state G.
civilization. That they must continue A.
iey cann9t retrogade. They work iron, b
melting it with charcoal; and, long before Il
liny was born, manufactured glass upon te