WAS ADAM A NEGRO?

Thames Star, Volume X, Issue 3168, 15 April 1879, Page 2

WAS ADAM A NEGRO?

Mr Oonway, in, a recent letter from London to the Cincinnatti Commercial, discourses as.follows on one of the recent discoveries made from the Babylon Cylinders:—lt is now a pretty general 'African version of the fall of man that Adam and Eve were negroes, and only when they had sinned and heard the the Creator' calling were their faces stricken with that pale hue which has continued among the more sinful race. It now appears from the earliest tables' on the subject that there is more ground for this tradition than it has hitherto been credited with—at least, so far aa the color of the first • pair. is concerned. The tablet is ; in the British Mußeum, brought .by the late George Smith* An inscription • marked "E, 3464," contains in it an : account of the creation of.'; man : by ; the ■ Gt i ; Mir-ku {noble;; crown). 'VTo i fear them-(the gods) he made man ; the breath of life was in him. May he (the god Mir-ku) be established, and may his will fall in the aaouth of the dark: races which his hand has 'made," ; This> is the earliest allusion in-existence to- the Biblical account of tb~e creation, and it distinctly joints -to the first v race}'being dark. This confirms what Sir Henry KawlinBoh Bftidilong ago, that Adam meant " datftfirace,'?'j in distinction i from. i " Sar-

ku,"" light' race ; . and George. Smith thought that the; account i (Gen. vi.) i of the iiontfof Godimarryingj'the; daughters of men, 'meant; the Sarku intermarrying with' the' Adam. -It appears, therefore, ■that ?when • this '. Adam, (not a.: proper * name, but meaning: "dark :man'') had tinned (the tablet does:'.not say in what "way), the good Hea's liver wis angry, the father Elu pronounced man's curses, which the'said history of' African race: renders curious." Wisdom -and; knowledge hostilely : may they t inj are him -. . . :inaj",he be conquered -.. •..-. . his land, may it -bring; forth- and he not; ■touch/it .: .. his desire' shall be out off and his will, unanswered . ; . >; ... 'the opening of his 'mouth ao good shall "take notice of . . *' his back shall be broken and not. healed . • .at his uigent trouble no good shall receive •'him.-:: 1 ";- ■-'■:. v ■•■ ■■ ■ '' .-: : ' -