pictures of Africans bringing iron from the South to Egypt; that at a time
considerably later than this iron implements began to appear in Asia; that
there is no iron ore in Egypt; and that in Negro Africa iron ore is
abundant. In many places it is found on top of the ground and in some
parts it can be melted by simply placing a piece of ore in the fire very
much as you would a potato to be roasted.

Studies in the fields of ancient and medieval history are also showing
that in the past there were in Negro Africa civilizations of probable
indigenous origin which attained importance enough to be mentioned in the
writings of the historians and poets of those periods. The seat of one of
the highest of these civilizations was Ethiopia. Here the Negro nation
attained the greatest fame. As early as 2,500 years before the birth of
Christ the Ethiopians appeared to have had a considerable civilization. It
was well known to the writers of the Bible and is referred to therein some
forty-nine times. In Genesis we read of Cush, the eldest son of Ham. Cush
is the Hebrew word for black and means the same as Ethiopia. One of the
most famous sons of Cush was Nimrod, whom the Bible mentions as being "a
mighty hunter before the Lord; whereof it is said, like Nimrod, a mighty
hunter before the Lord." The Bible refers to Ethiopia as being far distant
from Palestine. In the book of Isaiah we read "the land of the rustling of
wings which is beyond the rivers of Ethiopia that sendeth ambassadors by
the sea." The rivers of Ethiopia mentioned in Isaiah are the upper
tributaries of the Nile, the Atbara, the Blue Nile and the Sobat.

The later capital of Ethiopia was Meroe. Recent excavations have shown
Meroe to have been a city larger than Memphis. The Temple of Ammon, where
kings were crowned, was one of the largest in the valley of the Nile. The
great walls of cut stones were 15 feet thick and 30 feet high. Heaps of
iron-slag and furnaces for smelting iron were discovered, and there were