Hamites

a term employed by writers to denote the white people of Africa prior to the inroads of the Arabs. The subdivisions are recognized as:

1. The Berbers, originally a blonde race inhabiting what became known as the Barbary States. The natives of the Canary Islands are probably Berbers.

2. The inhabitants of the valley of the Nile. These were a red-headed people, still represented among the peasant Egyptians.

3. A brown or black haired people, the inhabitants of ancient Ethiopia. Modern representatives are the Galla and the Somali tribes.

There has been much intermingling of Arabic and particularly of negro blood.