LESSON XIII.
There are circumstances in evidence that the descendants of Ham were black, more properly referable to the whole family than to either particular branch.
Among this class of circumstances, we might mention the tradition so universal through the world, that we know no age of time or portion of the globe that can be named in exception, that the descendants of Ham were black; and that the fact announced by that tradition is made exceedingly more probable by the corresponding tradition, that the descendants of Japheth and Shem were white.
The holy books provide proof that Abraham and Sarah, Isaac and Rebecca, Jacob, Leah, and Rachel, were white. Their descendants sojourned in Egypt in a state of bondage about four hundred years, in the course of which time there was a law that all the male Hebrew children should be put to death at their birth. When the mother of Moses put him in the ark of bulrushes, she would have disguised his birth as much as possible, for the safety of his life. Yet no sooner had the daughter of Pharaoh beheld the infant than she proclaimed it to be a Hebrew child. If there was no difference of colour, from whence this quick decision as to the nationality of an infant three months old?
But during the residence of the Israelites in Egypt, it is to be apprehended there was more or less commixture between the two races; and, if the two races were of different colour, that there would have been left us some allusion to such offspring; and so we find the fact.
“And the children of Israel journeyed from Rameses to Succoth, about six hundred thousand on foot, that were men, besides children. And a mixed multitude went up also with them.” Exod. xii. 37, 38. The word “mixed” is translated from עָרָבʿārāb ereb, arab. The word means of mixed-blood, that is, the mixture of the white man with the black; and in consequence thereof is often used to mean black itself, and is universally applied as the appellative, and has become the established name of the mixed-blooded people of Arabia, the Arabs; and because it became a common term to express the idea black, a dark colour, &c., it was applied to the raven; and even at this day, who can tell whether Elijah was fed by the ravens or the Arabs, because the one word was used to mean both or either. And a multitude of persons of colour, of Hebrew and black parentage, went up also with them.
This word is used to express the idea of a mulatto race, in Num. xi. 4, and the “mixed multitude;” also Neh. xiii. 3, “They separated from Israel all the mixed multitude;” also Jer. xxv. 20, 24, thus: “And all the mingled people,” mixed-blooded, “and all the kings of Arabia, and all the kings of the mingled people,” mixed-blooded people. By the expression mixed multitude, it is clear Moses included the offspring of the Hebrew with the race of Ham. But would there have been such distinction if there was no difference of colour? It will be recollected that the children of Ishmael were three-fourths of Misraimitish blood, consequently quite dark. It will also be recollected that when Esau perceived how extremely offensive to his father and mother was his connection with the Canaanitish women, that he took wives of the house of Ishmael. It should also be recollected that Ishmael named one of his sons Kedar. As we shall hereafter refer to this word, we propose to examine its meaning and formation. It is of Arabic derivation, Arab. درࣨdura, Hebrew דַּרdar dar, and in this form is used Esth. i. 6, and translated black marble. With the prefix of the Hebrew koph it becomes קֵדָרqēdār Kedar, and is equivalent to “the black.” It is used in Hebrew to mean black, in 1 Kings xviii. 45; Job vi. 16, 30, 28; Isa lx. 3; Jer. iv. 28; Ezek. xxxii. 7, 8, and many other places. The very name of the son of Ishmael was tantamount to “the black.”
In the poem called Solomon’s Song, the female whose praises are therein celebrated, says, “I am black, but comely, O ye daughters of Jerusalem, as the tents of Kedar, as the curtains of Solomon. Look not upon me because I am black; because the sun hath looked upon me: my mother’s children were angry with me, they made me the keeper of the vineyards, but mine own vineyards have I not kept.” Cant. i. 5, 6.
The word black, which twice occurred in the text, is translated from שָחַרšāḥar shahar, with many variations. The words mean abstractly the idea black. Examples of its use will be found in Lev. xiii. 31, 37, thus: “And there is no black hair in it.” “And there is black hair grown up therein.” Job xxx. 30: “My skin is black upon me.” Zech. vi. 2, 6: “And in the second chariots black horses. The black horses that are therein.” Lam. iv. 8: “Their visage is blacker than a coal.” Cant. v. 11: “His locks are bushy and black as a raven.” There is no mistake about the meaning of this word; she was surely black, and she says that she is as black as the tents of Kedar.
The inquiry, then, now is, who was she? When we take into consideration the Asiatic mode of expression, from the term “because the sun hath looked upon me,” we are forced to understand that she was from a more southern region. That she was not a native of Palestine, or especially of Jerusalem. Figures of somewhat analogous import are occasionally found among the Roman poets. But we suppose, no one will undertake the argument that she was black, merely because she had been exposed to the sun!