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16 this division of mankind fall into three groups,—the Hamitic, the Semitic, and the Aryan or Indo-European. The members forming any one of these groups must not be looked upon as kindred in blood; the only certain bond uniting the peoples of each group is the bond of language.

The ancient Egyptians were the chief people of the Hamitic branch. In the gray dawn of history we discover them already settled in the valley of the Nile, and there erecting great monuments so faultless in construction as to render it certain that those who planned them had had long previous training in the art of building.

The Semitic family includes among its chief peoples the ancient Babylonians and Assyrians, the Hebrews, the Phoenicians, the Aramaeans, the Arabians, and the Ethiopians. Most scholars regard Arabia as the original home of this family, and this peninsula certainly seems to have been the great distributing center.

It is interesting to note that three great monotheistic religions—the Hebrew, the Christian, and the Mohammedan—arose among peoples belonging to the Semitic family.

The Aryan-speaking peoples form the most widely dispersed group of the White Race. They include the ancient Greeks and