seems probable now that from the primitive Negroid stock evolved in Asia
the Semites either by local variation or intermingling with other stocks;
later there developed the Mediterranean race, with Negroid
characteristics, and the modern Negroes. The blue-eyed, light-haired
Germanic people may have arisen as a modern variation of the mixed peoples
produced by the mingling of Asiatic and African elements. The last word on
this development has not yet been said, and there is still much to learn
and explain; but it is certainly proved to-day beyond doubt that the
so-called Hamites of Africa, the brown and black curly and frizzly-haired
inhabitants of North and East Africa, are not "white" men if we draw the
line between white and black in any logical way.

The primitive Negroid race of men developed in Asia wandered eastward as
well as westward. They entered on the one hand Burmah and the South Sea
Islands, and on the other hand they came through Mesopotamia and gave
curly hair and a Negroid type to Jew, Syrian, and Assyrian. Ancient
statues of Indian divinities show the Negro type with black face and
close-curled hair, and early Babylonian culture was Negroid. In Arabia the
Negroes may have divided, and one stream perhaps wandered into Europe by
way of Syria. Traces of these Negroes are manifest not only in skeletons,
but in the brunette type of all South Europe. The other branch proceeded
to Egypt and tropical Africa. Another, but perhaps less probable, theory
is that ancient Negroes may have entered Africa from Europe, since the
most ancient skulls of Algeria are Negroid.

The primitive African was not an extreme type. One may judge from modern
pygmy and Bushmen that his color was reddish or yellow, and his skull was
sometimes round like the Mongolian. He entered Africa not less than fifty
thousand years ago and settled eventually in the broad region between Lake
Chad and the Great Lakes and remained there long stretches of years.