Types of mankind, or, Ethnological researches, based upon the ancient monuments, paintings, sculptures, and crania of races, and upon their natural, geographical, philological and Biblical history / illustrated by selections from the inedited papers of Samuel George Morton and by additional contributions from L. Agassiz, W. Usher, and H.S. Patterson ; by J.C. Nott and Geo. R. Gliddon.

  • Nott, Josiah C. (Josiah Clark), 1804-1873.
Date:
1860
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Types of mankind, or, Ethnological researches, based upon the ancient monuments, paintings, sculptures, and crania of races, and upon their natural, geographical, philological and Biblical history / illustrated by selections from the inedited papers of Samuel George Morton and by additional contributions from L. Agassiz, W. Usher, and H.S. Patterson ; by J.C. Nott and Geo. R. Gliddon. Source: Wellcome Collection.

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    striking instances of this use of the number 40 is 2 Sam. xv. 7, where, during the 40 years of David’s reign it is said: ‘And after 40 years it happened that Absalom went to the king and said, Let me go to Hebron, that I may fulfil the vow which I have made to Jehovah.’ “ The Apocryphic books go still farther. According to them, Adam entered the Para- dise when he was 40 days old—’Eve 40 days later. Seth was carried away by angels at the age of 40 years, and was not seen during the same number of days. Joseph was 40 years old when Jacob came to Egypt; Moses had the same age when he went to Midian, where he remained during 40 years. The same use of this number is also made by the Phoeni- cians and Arabs. [See Dissertatio Bredovii de Georgii Syncelli Chronographia (second part of the edition of Bonn) Syncellus, p. 33, sey.] We must not forget hereby the Arbaindt (the forties) in Arabian literature; a sort of books which relate none but stories of 40 years, or give a series of 40, or 4 times 40 traditions. They have a similar kind of books, which they call Sebaydt (sevens). Their calendar has 40 rainy and 40 windy days. Also in their laws the numbers of 4, 40, 44, occur very often. In Syria the graves of Seth, Noah and Abel are still shown. They are built in the usual Arabian style. Their length is recorded to be 40 ells, and thus I have found them by my own measuring. This may also account for the tradition that the antediluvian men were 40 ells high, that is, not 4 about 40 ells,’ but * very lull.' Only afterwards was this expression so naively misunder- stood. The Arabs give, in the conversational language, the same sense to sittln, 60, and m'ieh, 100. I have already observed, in an earlier writing \_Zwd Sprachergleichende Ab- handlungen (Two lectures upon the Analogy of Languages), Berlin, 1836, pp. 104, 139], that of all the Semitic numerical words, arba, 4, is the sole one which has no connexion whatever with the Indo-Germanic, and seems rather to be derived from rab, 31, ‘much,’ H33N, ‘the locust.’ This would account for its undetermined use.’(544) The historical spuriousness of the numeral 40, in its application to human chronology, may be illustrated by another example out of many. It is said, “ Israel walked 40 years in the wilderness,” (545) after the Exode. On which Cahen: — “It is probable that this itinerary contains but the principal stations: they are in number 42. In the first year they count 14 stations; in the last, or 40th, they count 8 stations; thus the 20 other stations occupied 38 years (Jar’hi, in the name of Moses the preacher). According to the ingenious remark of St. Jerome, the number 40 seems to be consecrated to tribulation: the Hebrew people sojourned in Egypt 10 times 40 years; Moses, Elias, and Jesus, fasted 40 days; the Hebrew people remained 40 years in the desert; the prophet Ezekiel lay for 40 days on his right side. This accordance shows us that Goethe had some reasons for conjecturing that the 40 years in the desert might very well possess no historical certitude.” (546) Again — “Thus, during these 40 years, notwithstanding the miserable life which the Israelites had led in the desert, maugre the plagues, the maladies, and the wars, there was but a diminution of 1820 Israelites and an augmentation of [just!] 1000 Levites. Such results exist not within the domain of natural things, and consequently possess nothing historical.” . . . “ Savage tribes sing of their petty quarrels, their conquests and their disasters, upon the lofty tone of, and even loftier tone than, the greatest nations. Thus the septs along the river Jordan had their poets, their national ballads; these songs, there, as everywhere else, have preceded history. We have just read extracts from these productions, perhaps the most ancient that have reached us. It is probable that to them were afterwards added some events of a date much later than the political existence of Moabites, Edomites, &c.” (547) Finally, speaking of the “ 40 years ” in the Sinaic desert, Cahen observes: — “One finds in the Pentateuch only those events that occurred during the first two and the last or fortieth year. The history of the intermediary 37 years is totally unknown to us.” (548) All theological conjectures about this unhistoric interval are merely conjectures tneo- logical; because the Jews used the expression “forty,” as we do “a hundred,” for a vague number of anything uncounted. To Lepsius’s numerous illustrations of the utter impos- sibility that uneducated nations or individuals can possess any clear ideas about dates for circumstances that may have happened during their respective lifetimes, we might add two parallels — the first (or Oriental) is that, in Egypt, if you ask an intelligent but illiterate (544) Lepsius: ChranoUxjie. der JEgypltr: i. pp. 15,16, note. (545) Josh. v. 6. (546) Cahen : iv. p. 158; note on Numb, xxiii. 1. (547) Cahen: Op. cit.; p. 134; note on the two oensuses in the Desert: and p. 124, on Bn,am am! Baiai. (64S) Op. cit.; p. 96.