Races and Peoples: Lectures on the Science of Ethnography

by Daniel G. Brinton

The Abyssinians proper have always been an agricultural, pastoral and manufacturing people. The soil is fertile and the climate temperate, but there are no large rivers, and communication is difficult. The crops are barley, dates, millet, sugar-cane, etc. Formerly the country was under one ruler, who was called the Grand Negus. The late “Negus,” Theodoras, could put in the field over fifty thousand fighting men, and made himself so obnoxious to Europeans that the English sent an expedition against him in 1868, and he perished under the ruins of his capital, Magdala.

From the fourth century the principal religion in Abyssinia has been Christianity, but in a corrupt form, mixed with the ancient heathen observances, such as ceremonies at the rise of certain stars, and veneration of holy stones and springs. The clergy are numerous, estimated at about 72,000, and exert a leading influence in the state. There are many monks and nuns living in cloisters, and possessing extensive holdings. The church service is conducted with an effort at pomp, and there is a considerable sacred literature, of very little value. The influence of the religious teaching on the people is scarcely visible except in making them fanatical, superstitious and averse to enlightenment. Abyssinia thus presents the picture of a country which for more than 1500 years has been a Christian state, and where Christianity has wholly failed to render the people moral, intelligent or pure.

3. The Chaldean Group.

The third group of the Semites was the Chaldean, including the Syrians and Arameans, the later Assyrians and Babylonians, the Israelites, Samaritans and Jews. All these were from early times deeply tinged with other blood. The Syrians and Chaldeans removed first from the Arabian peninsula, and their dialects depart the furthest from the pure stock. Abraham, the traditional ancestor of the Israelites, left northeastern Arabia for Mesopotamia about 2000 B. C., to dwell in “Ur of the Chaldees,” a city near the mouth of the Euphrates. Already the Chaldees had secured from the older Hamitic settlers a portion of Mesopotamia, and gradually extended their conquests.

Many of the Syrians united with the Hamitic residents on the coast, so that the Phœnicians became largely Semitized. All these nations were in constant intercourse with the highly developed civilization of Egypt, as is shown by the Mosaic books, and from that source derived most of the germs of their intellectual growth. In spite of their love of travel and commerce, in spite of their dispersion over the earth, this group has retained a striking individuality. Many ethnographers charge it against the Jews that the presence of blondes among them, and of brachycephalic heads, proves a crossing of the blood. This is not the case. The Semitic stock is a markedly white type of the race, and in all ages fair complexion, light eyes and hair, have been admired as especially beautiful. This is repeatedly referred to in the Hebrew Scriptures, and is shown by observation among these people at the present day.[84]

The physical type of the Jew is well known and unmistakable; wavy hair, dark or blonde, full beard, eyes soft, nose prominent, rather heavy, with an accentuated and peculiar outline, lips full, face oval, skull medium or long. Nor are his mental traits less familiar; a pliant, supple disposition, a distaste for physical labor or the toil of the pioneer or soldier; deficiency in personal courage; subtlety in monetary transactions; quickness in applying social or individual weaknesses to his own benefit; industry in intellectual pursuits; love of display and of position; strong devotion to family ties.

This is the Jew as we know him in the tussle of modern life, a character prominent in all European and American cities, without a nationality, in conflict with the prevailing religion, suspected and disliked, but wielding an influence out of all proportion to the numerical strength of his people. It may be regarded as continuing in his person that remarkable intellectual superiority which the South Mediterranean Branch of the white race has from the earliest time exerted on the history of man.

Scheme of the Eurafrican Race.—North Mediterranean Branch.

(Tribes in italics are extinct.)

I. Euscaric Stock.	1. Euscaric group.	Euscaldonac, Basques, Sards, Siculi, Aquitanians, Picts (?), Ligurians (?), Cantabrians.
II. Aryac Stock.	1. Celtic group.	Gauls, Highland Scotch, Irish, Welsh, Manx, Bretons, Celtiberians, Cymri.
	2. Italic group.	Latins, Umbrians, Oscans, Sabines, Italians, French, Spanish, Portuguese, Roumanians, Wallachians.
	3. Illyric group.	Illyrians, Albanians, Thracians,Japyges (?).
	4. Hellenic group.	Pelasgi, Phrygians, Lydians, Macedonians, Greeks.
	5. Lettic group.	Letts, Lithuanians, Old Prussians.
	6. Teutonic group.	Goths, Vandals, Franks, Angles, Saxons, Suevi, Scandinavians, Germans, Danes, Dutch, English, Anglo-Americans.
	7. Slavonic group.	Russians, Poles, Czechs, Servians, Croatians, Wends, Bulgarians, Montenegrins.
	8. Indo-Eranic group.	Armenians, Persians, Bactrians, Hindoos, Kafirs, Dards, Beluchis, Hunzas, Gypsies.
III. Caucasic Stock.	1. Lesghic group.	Avars, Laks, Udes, Kurins.
	2. Circassic group.	Circassians, Abkhasians.
	3. Kistic group.	Tush, Karaboulaks.
	4. Georgic group.	Georgians, Mingrelians, Lazs.