Note 309 — EARLY HISTORY OF MANKIND.

Of this we have perhaps an illustration in the peculiarities which distinguish the Arabs residing in the valley of the Jordan. They have flatter features, darker skins, and coarser hair than other tribes of their nation; and we have seen one instance of a thoroughly Negro family being born to an ordinary couple. It may be presumed that the conditions of the life of these people tend to arrest development. We thus see how an offshoot of the human family migrating at an early period into Africa, might in time, from subjection to similar influences, become Negroes.