The name "Semites," which was coined in 1781 by A. L. Schlozer with reference to the so-called "tabie of nations" (Genesis, Chap. X), stands in itself for a linguistic unit only. Whether there was a cultural as well as a racial unit originally corresponding to this linguistic unit is a problem of its own. For more than a century various theories have been evolved as to the geographic area in which the group of people speaking the hypothetical Semitic, respectively "Hamito-Semitic" common language was living: Ara bia, Mesopotamia, areas situated more to the north-east or north-west, North...