They were peoples of
sedentary and peaceful pursuits. Their skin was dark, the hair short
and thick, the lips strong. Nobody knows their origin with exactness
and scholars are not agreed on the name to give them (some terming
them Cushites, others Hamites). Later, between the twentieth and
twenty-fifth centuries B.C. came bands of martial shepherds who had
spread over all Europe and the west of Asia--the Aryans and the
Semites.
=The Aryans and the Semites.=--There is no clearly marked external
difference between the Aryans and the Semites. Both are of the white
race, having the oval face, regular features, clear skin, abundant
hair, large eyes, thin lips, and straight nose. Both peoples were
originally nomad shepherds, fond of war. We do not know whence they
came, nor is there agreement whether the Aryans came from the mountain
region in the northwest of the Himalayas or from the plains of
Russia. What distinguishes them is their spiritual bent and especially
their language, sometimes also their religion. Scholars by common
consent call those peoples Aryan who speak an Aryan language: in Asia,
the Hindoos and Persians; in Europe, the Greeks, Italians, Spaniards,
Germans, Scandinavians, Slavs (Russians, Poles, Serfs), and Celts.
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