These separate racial groups have made very unequal progress in culture. The peoples belonging to the Black, Red, and Brown races are still either savages or barbarians, as were the men of prehistoric times. The Chinese and Japanese are the only representatives of the Yellow race

The White race

that have been able to form civilized states. In the present, as in the past, it is chiefly the members of the White race who are developing civilization and making history.

Because of differences in language, scholars have divided the White or

Semites. This classification is often helpful, but the student should remember that Indo-European and Semitic peoples are not always to be sharply distinguished because they have different types of language. There is no very clear distinction in physical characteristics between the two groups. A clear skin, an oval face, wavy or curly hair, and regular features separate them from both the Negro and the Mongolian.

Principal Indo-European peoples

The Indo-Europeans in antiquity included the Hindus of India, the Medes and Persians dwelling on the plateau of Iran, the Greeks and Italians, and most of the inhabitants of central and western Europe. All these peoples spoke related languages which are believed to be offshoots from one common tongue. Likeness in language does not imply that all Indo-Europeans were

1 The Old Testament (Genesis, x. 21-22) represents Shem (or Sem), son of Noah, as the ancestor of the Semitic peoples. The title "Indo-Europeans" tells us that the members of that group now dwell in India and in Europe. Indo-European peoples are popularly called "Aryans," from a word in Sanskrit (the old Hindu language) meaning "noble."

closely related in blood. Men often adopt a foreign tongue and pass it on to their children.

The various Semitic nations dwelling in western Asia and Arabia were more closely connected with one another. They spoke much the same type of language, and in Principal physical traits and habits of life they appear to Semitic have been akin. The Semites in antiquity included peoples the Babylonians and Assyrians, the Hebrews, Phoenicians, and Arabs.

RACE PORTRAITURE OF THE EGYPTIANS

Paintings on the walls of royal tombs. The Egyptians were painted red, the Semites yellow, the Negroes black, and the Libyans white, with blue eyes and fair beards. Each racial type is distinguished by peculiar dress and characteristic features.

Peoples of uncertain relationship

At the opening of the historic period still other parts of the world were the homes of various peoples who cannot be classed with certainty as either Indo-Europeans or Semites. Among these were the Egyptians and some of the inhabitants of Asia Minor. We must remember that, during the long prehistoric ages, repeated conquests and migrations mingled the blood of many different communities. History, in fact, deals with no unmixed peoples.

1. On an outline map indicate the areas occupied in antiquity by Semites and Indo-Europeans. 2. Find definitions for the following terms: society, nation, state, government, institution, culture, and civilization. 3. Explain the abbreviations B.C. and A.D. In what century was the year 1917 B.C.? the year 1917 A.D.? 4. Look up the derivation of the words "paper" and "Bible." 5. Distinguish between the three stages of savagery, barbarism, and civilization, and give examples of existing peoples in each stage. 6. Can you name any savages still living in the Stone Age? 7. What stone implements have you ever seen? Who made them? Where were they? 8. Why should the discovery of fire be regarded as of more significance than the discovery of steam? 9. Why has the invention of the bowand-arrow been of greater importance than the invention of gunpowder? 10. How does the presence of few tamable animals in the New World help to account for its tardier development as compared with the Old World? II. What examples of pastoral and agricultural life among the North American Indians are familiar to you? 12. Give examples of peoples widely different in blood who nevertheless speak the same language. 13. In the classification of mankind, where do the Arabs belong? the Persians? the Germans? the inhabitants of the United States? 14. Enumerate the most important contributions to civilization made in prehistoric times.

CHAPTER II

THE LANDS AND PEOPLES OF THE EAST TO ABOUT 500 B.C.1

7. Physical Asia

ANCIENT history begins in the East - in Asia and in that part of Africa called Egypt, which the peoples of antiquity always regarded as belonging to Asia. If we look at a Grand diviphysical map of Asia, we see at once that it consists sions of Asia of two very unequal divisions separated by an almost continuous mass of mountains and deserts. These two divisions are

Farther and Nearer, or Eastern and Western, Asia.

Farther Asia begins at the center of the continent with a series of elevated table-lands which rise into the lofty plateaus known as the "Roof of the World." Here two

Farther Asia

tremendous mountain chains diverge. The Altai range runs out to the northeast and reaches the shores of the Pacific near Bering Strait. The Himalaya range extends southeast to the Malay peninsula. In the angle formed by their intersection lies the cold and barren region of East Turkestan and Tibet, the height of which, in some places, is ten thousand feet above the sea. From these mountains and plateaus the ground sinks gradually toward the north into the lowlands of West Turkestan and Siberia, toward the east and south into the plains of China and India.

The fertile territory of central China, watered by the two streams, Yangtse and Hoangho, was settled at a remote period by barbarous tribes. The civilization which they China slowly developed in antiquity has endured with

little change until the present day. The inhabitants of neighboring countries, Korea, Japan, and Indo-China, owe much to

1 Webster, Readings in Ancient History, chapter ii, "The Founders of the Persian Empire: Cyrus, Cambyses, and Darius."

this civilization. It has exerted slight influence on the other peoples of Asia because the Chinese have always occupied a distant corner of the continent, cut off by deserts and mountains from the lands on the west. As if these barriers were not enough, they raised the Great Wall to protect their country from inva

The wall extends for about fifteen hundred miles along the northern frontier of China. In 1908 A.D. it was traversed for its entire length by an American, Mr. W. E. Geil. He found many parts of the fortification still in good repair, though built twenty-one centuries ago.

sion. Behind this mighty rampart the Chinese have lived secluded and aloof from the progress of our western world. In ancient times China was a land of mystery.

India

India was better known than China, especially its two great rivers, the Indus and the Ganges, which flow to the southwest and southeast, respectively, and make this part of the peninsula one of the most fertile territories on the globe. Such a land attracted immigrants. The region now known as the Punjab, where the Indus receives the waters of five great streams, was settled by light-skinned Indo-Europeans1 perhaps as early as 2000 B.C. Then they occupied the valley of the Ganges and so brought all northern India under their control.

1 See page 16.