only know that by the dawn of history its various clans and tribes,
whencesoever they may have come, had distributed themselves over the
greater part of Southwestern Asia.

It is interesting to note that the three great historic religions of the
world,--the Hebrew, the Christian, and the Mohammedan,--the three
religions that alone (if we except that of Zoroaster) teach a belief in
one God, arose among peoples belonging to the Semitic family.

The Aryan, or Indo-European, though probably the youngest, is the most
widely scattered family of the White Race. It includes among its members
the ancient Hindus, Medes, and Persians, the classic Greeks and Romans,
and the modern descendants of all these nations; also almost all the
peoples of Europe, and their colonists that have peopled the New World,
and taken possession of other parts of the earth.

MIGRATIONS OF THE ARYANS.--The original seat of the Aryan peoples was, it
is conjectured [Footnote: Some scholars seek the primitive home in
Europe], somewhere in Asia. At a period that cannot be placed later than
3000 B.C., the Aryan household began to break up and scatter, and the
different clans to set out in search of new dwelling-places. Some tribes
of the family spread themselves over the table-lands of Iran and the
plains of India, and became the progenitors of the Medes, the Persians,
and the Hindus. Other clans entering Europe probably by the way of the
Hellespont, pushed themselves into the peninsulas of Greece and Italy, and
founded the Greek and Italian states. Still other tribes seem to have
poured in successive waves into Central Europe. The vanguard of these
peoples are known as the Celts. After them came the Teutonic tribes, who
crowded the former out on the westernmost edge of Europe--into Gaul and
Spain, and out upon the British Isles. These hard-pressed Celts are