ASIATIC SEMITES.
Divisions.—The Asiatic Semites are divided into two great branches— the northern and the southern. To the southern belong the remnants of the ancient people, the Malira, Achdam, etc. ; furthermore, the Hingariles, the South Arabians or Joktauides, whose language, the Himyaritic, now extinct, bears the closest relation to the Ethiopian. It is more distantly related to Arabic, which is spoken by the Central Arabians (Ishmaclites), and is divided into different idioms according to place and time. In the most ancient shape in which it has come down to us it exhibits more original forms than all the northern languages of the Asiatic Semites; and Eb. Schrader is correct in seeing in these South Semites the original stock of the Semites, which from the oldest condition, as shown in the Mahra tribes, developed first to Hiniyaritic, and later on to Arabian, cul ture. The Arabian is not a filial language of the Himyaritic; both are only related.
Among the northern Semitic nations we must mention— (t) The Aramaic stock, to which belong the Old Babylonians and Assyrians, also the Chaldeans, the descendants of the Old Babylonians, and the Syrians.
(2) The Hebrews, with all their tribes, to whom belong also the Samaritans, the Phernicians, and the Carthaginians, who are separated from the Phoenicians only by idiom, but whom we of course do not num ber among the African Semites, as they always remained strangers to the African character.
We shall adopt in the following description the plan pursued hereto fore; that is, we shall treat of both divisions together. In this manner the similarities and dissimilarities of both become more apparent.
Physical Characteristics of lire African Son ites.—The Berbers are gener ally of middle though slender stature, lean yet muscular. Their color is a light brown, but also varies from black to European white: throughout the entire Western Sahara the inhabitants of the mountains are of a light color—those of the lowlands dark (Duveyrier); and this light color also belongs to the Kabyles of the high points of the Atlas. As they have also light hair, it has been supposed, without reason, that they might be of Vandal origin; and the explanation of the dark complexion by inter mixture with Negroes is equally unfounded. These interminglings occur
frequently in the south, perhaps also in the east: in other parts they have been attributed to imported female slaves, but certainly their influence could not affect the whole tribe. Otherwise, the hair is black, mostly long and frizzy, sometimes short, and the hair of the body and beard is scant.
The features are frequently those of Negroes, but modified—lips thick, the month large, the nose broad and rather flat (pl. 105, fig. S). A more European or Arabian physique is also found—oblong faces, aquiline nose, thin lips (pl. 105, fig. 5); which type principally prevails in the north (Morocco, Tripoli).
The Tuaricl• are of this latter type; they are generally of a bronze color, and are distinguished by graceful hands and feet. Among the Ber ber tribes an unpleasant odor (see p. 44) of the skin is perceptible, said to be similar to the exhalation of the Negroes, but much worse; the same is stated about the Fellahs in Egypt; and to the Jews also a specific unpleas ant odor of the skin is ascribed.
The Egyptians varied in type from European to Negro fea tures. Their build was slender, of middle height; the color generally of a light copper-red, but also from honey-yellow to blackish; the forehead lofty, but generally retreating; the eyes almond-shaped, sometimes a little slanted; the nose not projecting much, with broad nostrils, but generally curved and aquiline; the lips full and projecting; beard scant; the hair of the head black, long, and straight (p1. 1o3, jig. 9; fig. 5, extreme figure to the right). That this type bears close relation to the Semitic is shown by Figure 5 of the same plate, where an Egyptian leader conducts a party of Jewish prisoners: the captives have flatter foreheads, lower vertexes, more prominent and more curved noses, and the men have a more abun dant beard. The Copts (p1. 103, fig. 3) and the Fellahs have faithfully retained the old Egyptian type up to the present day.