st the mulatto Egyptians were in the Nile valley below the
First Cataract. The Negroes were in the Nile valley down as far as the
Second Cataract and between the First and Second Cataracts were Negroes
into whose veins Semitic blood had penetrated more or less. These mixed
elements became the ancestors of the modern Somali, Gala, Bishari, and
Beja and spread Negro blood into Arabia beyond the Red Sea. The Nilotic
Negroes to the south early became great traders in ivory, gold, leopard
skins, gums, beasts, birds, and slaves, and they opened up systematic
trade between Egypt and the Great Lakes.

The result was endless movement and migration both in ancient and modern
days, which makes the cultural history of the Great Lakes region very
difficult to understand. Three great elements are, however, clear: first,
the Egyptian element, by the northward migration of the Negro ancestors of
predynastic Egypt and the southern conquests and trade of dynastic Egypt;
second, the Semitic influence from Arabia and Persia; third, the Negro
influences from western and central Africa.

The migration of the Bantu is the first clearly defined movement of modern
times. As we have shown, they began to move southward at least a thousand
years before Christ, skirting the Congo forests and wandering along the
Great Lakes and down to the Zambesi. What did they find in this land?

We do not know certainly, but from what we do know we may reconstruct the
situation in this way: the primitive culture of the Hottentots of Punt had
been further developed by them and by other stronger Negro stocks until it
reached a highly developed culture. Widespread agriculture, and mining of
gold, silver, and precious stones started a trade that penetrated to Asia
and North Africa. This may have been the source of the gold of the Ophir.

The state that thus arose became in time strongly organized; it employed
slave labor in crushing the hard quartz, sinking pits, and carrying
underground galleries; it carried out a system of irrigation and built
stone buildings and fortifications. There exists to-day many remains of
these building operations in the Kalahari desert and in northern Rhodesia.
Five hundred groups, covering over an area of one hundred and fifty
thousand square miles, lie between the Limpopo and Zambesi rivers. Mining
operations have been carried on in these plains for generations, and one
estimate is that at least three hundred and seventy-five million d