THE MUTE RACE. The white inhabitants indigenous to Asia, as opposed to white Euro peans who have but recently entered the conti nent, constitute about one-tenth of the total population, and are found in Arabia, Asia Minor, the region of the Caucasus and Siberia. Persia, Afghanistan, Baluchistan, the great Indian Pen insula. Though it is possible that the Semite branch of the great white race came originally from Northern Africa and the Aryan branch from Europe, it nevertheless is true that from remote antiquity these families have been found on Asi atic soil, and that it was in Asia they acquired those physical characteristics and developed the peculiar form of genius which mark them to the present day. This race presents within itself a wonderful diversity of type, both mental and physical; in color of skin, in shape of the head, and in the general structure of the body, there is a great difference between the Arabians, for in stance, and the inhabitants of the Caucasus region. So, too, the race embraces peoples in various stages of civilization, ranging from the agricultural Hindus, with their great cities and highly developed political institutions, down to the nomad tribes of the Arabian deserts or the mountain-dwellers of Afghanistan. Of the three subdivisions of the white race, the Aryans, the Caucasians in the narrow sense, and the Semites, the two former seem to have been the original occupants of Asia Minor, and of the two, the Ary ans seem by far the more important. Indeed, the influence of the Caucasian population, com prising the Georgians and the Mingrelians, with their related tribes, the Lesghians and the Cir eassians, upon the Aryo-Semitic culture of Asia :\linor, must have been exerted in prehistoric times. Both Aryan and Caucasian yielded before the Semite peoples, who advanced from the in terior of the Arabian Peninsula and spread over the region from Mesopotamia to the Mediterranean. The Semitic tribes became differentiated into three groups, the Aramaic, including the ancient Babylonians, Assyrians, and Chaldeans: the Canaanite, including the Philistines, the Hebrews, and the original in habitants of Palestine; and the pure Arabian group, which comprised those who remained in the Southern Peninsula. Of the three stocks, only the Jews, as representatives of the second, and the Arabs, have survived. Farther to the
east, on the plateau of Iran, the highlands of Pamir, and in the plains of India, lived and still lives the third branch of the white race—the Aryan or Indo-Germanic, which may be sub divided into the two great groups of Indians and Iranians. The former would include the ancient peoples whose tongue still survives in literature as the and Prnkrit, and the modern Indian stocks of the Bengali, Sindhs, Ilindustani, Marathi. Gujerati, Punjabi, and Nepali. The Iranian group would emnprise the old and new Persians with their related stems, the Kurds and the Beluchis, the peoples of Afghanistan, and, lastly, the Armenians. In addition to the definitely determined memhers of the white race sonic ethnologists are inclined to find Caucasian elements in such peoples as the Khmers of Cam bodia, the Miao-tse of sowthern China, and the .Nino of Japan ; these, however, for lack of au thoritative information must be relegated to the category of unclassified breeds. Finally, there has umloatedly been a considerable infusion of Aryan blood into the Mongolian hordes in some parts of Tibet, China, Farther India, and per haps some of the neighboring islands.
In the history of civilization the part played by the white race of Asia is of surpassing im portance. The great empires of antiquity arose among the Semites of Mesopotamia and the Ary ans of Iran and The art of writing, literature, the sciences, political institutions, were developed here to a higher degree of per fection than even in ancient Egypt. Above all, the white race in Asia has been the promulgator of the world's great religions. From the Asiatic Semites came Judaism, Christianity, and Mo hammedanism—three faiths which embrace the whole western world. From the Asiatic Aryans came Zoroastrianism with its great principle of the conflict between good and evil. destined sub sequently to influence the Jew and the Chris tian; Brahmanism, which is the ritualistic and sacerdotal expression of the Aryan nature; and Buddhism. which may be considered as the Aryan anticipation of Christianity. From the last developed Jainism and Lamaism. The spread of Aryan Buddhism in Eastern Asia, with its influence on the social life of the people cor responds to the expansion of Semitic religions in the West.