Alma record. (Alma, Mich.) 1878-1928, 1894-06-15
The South Mediterranean
Branch of the White Race-Hamitic and
Semitic Stocks.

ObOChS'
To this south Mediterranean branch
Of the white race civilization owes a
debt which is great; how great no man
can tell The earliest civilization which
history records was of peoples belong
ing to this branch; and they, doubtless,
were the first to communicate thought
by written characters, which have de
veloped into our system of writing
The two stocks-the Hamitic and Sc
mitic-are closely related, as indicated
by the similarties of their languages
and of physical and mental traits of
character.
The Hamitic Stock.
OF this stock there are several
groups-three according to Brinton,
who names them: The Libyan, the
Egyptian, and East African.
The Libyan include those peoples
who have possessed the northern ard
northwestern portions of Africa from
time immemorial Even in the earliest
mention made of Libyans they are de-
scribed essentially as they are today,
which fact shows them to be of a pure
and unmixed blood. The Greek poet
Callimachus, who was librarian OF
Alexandria $50 b. c., describes them
as a blonde or auburn people, similarly
to the characterization given by Strabo
to the Goth and blonde Celts of Ger
many. Other descriptions given by
both ancient and modern writers show
that their type has been preserved.
They have always been of wandering
disposition, intelligent. skiltul, war
like. "The Phunicians and Canaanites,
the Amorites (who were blonde Berbers
of the true Libyan type the Hitites'
and old AsSyrians (who were the build
ers of Babylon and Ninevah) were OF
Hamitic stock, as shown by the ac-
COIuiuCc Ol inc duClcHl blV'lN"i 'N'''N
ment with modern linguistic and archie
illogical research"
From these culture centers Of the
Hamitic stock flowed the mighty stream
of human progress back along the
southern shores of the Mediterranean
TO Cyrene and Carthage, and along It's
northern shores to Cyprus, Greece,
Italy, and beyond; while the Accadian
and Summerian learning, preserved for
all time in the cuneiform writing, made
its benifcent influence felt far into
India and China, and reacted benit
clally on the older wisdom of Egypt,
from which it had at first largely drawn
its inspiration
The Egyptian group of peoples is the
most ancient in civilization and learn
ing of any in all history. 1t is esti-
mated that they had wandered east
ward from the primal seat of the race
at least ten thousand years before our
era, and that they were then civilized
people The similarites of their lam
guage and their physical resemblanceS
show their kinship to the Libyans.
The ancient Egyptian is represented to-
day by his lineal descendent, the Eel
lah or field laborer of the Nile. The
type has been well preserved though
the richness of the valley of the Nile has
attracted invaders to it for plumber
through all historic time. The Egyptian
priests claim %, 900 years of occupation
by gods and demigods prior to Mena
$4,000 B. c., and there is evidence of
a high state of civilization for thousands
of years before Mena. The ancient
stone implements found in the Nile val
ley indicate the occupancy of this cOun-
try by an uncivilized people during the
stone age, which were possibly, and
probably, the progenitors of the Egyp-
tan known to history. Brinton says:
"From all that arch geology has yet
taught us, we must place the begin
nings of Egyptian civilization earlier
than that in the valley of the Yang tse
Kiang, earlier by far than any other on
the globe. Its streams have permeated
all the lands to which the European
race have extended; fecund as the
waters of its own Nile, its elements
have nourished and developed the best
intellectual powers of the race through
all subsequent ages; to it we owe the
seeds of our arts, the germs of our
sciences, the forms of our religion, the
schemes of our literatures, and the in
estimable boon of our written language.
Look where you will among the most
ancient remains, of the Old World cul-
ture, you find the impress of Egypt's
hand and mind--its Etruscan ton, hS