Dingo the Dissident

THE BLOG OF DISQUIET : Qweir Notions, an uncommonplace-book from the Armpit of Diogenes, binge-thinker jottings since 2008 .

Monday, 2 September 2024

The Ites : Not a History of Humanity


According to Isidore of Seville
and (long before him) Moses,


the Peoples of the World
were three: out of the wives
of the three sons of the nameless spouse
of bibulous navigator Noah:

sharp Semites in Asia,
Hamites with lovely hair in Africa,
and wan Japhetites in Europe,
some of them with frightening blue eyes. 

The descendants of Shem
included Arabs, Persians, Jews
and inhabitants of India, Afghanistan, Ceylon.

(No mention of the Berbers or the Basques.)

Arabs, incited by Islam, moved into Africa,
displacing many northern Hamites
and some of the Japhetites of Spain.

Jews were expelled (some having hurled
themselves from the battlements of Masada)

from Judæa, Galilee...
and (in due course) everywhere in Europe
except (it's said) Albania...

The Japhetites eventually took over
and destroyed the world.


Tissot:
Shem, Japheth and Ham making merry
while Noah 'sleeps it off'.





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