In the interpretation of this "Table of Nations" certain facts and principles are to be borne in mind. 1. It is _incomplete_; not undertaking to name all the races of mankind, but only those in the Hebrew, Egyptian, and Assyrian sphere of interest. Neither the yellow, the brown, or the black races are represented upon it, and only a portion of the ruddy or white race. 2. It is _popular_ and not scientific. The Orientals never wrote with the precision of modern students. Hence find in this document terms employed in a general and indefinite manner. 3. It is, in reality, _geographical_ rather than racial. For example, when it says "the sons of Canaan," we are not always to infer a literal descent, but a location in the land of Canaan. The names upon this table are generally not those of individuals, but of tribes. In some instances relationship may be indicated; but generally propinquity of settlement is all that can positively be affirmed. 4. It arranges the nations _according to zones_, in a general direction from northwest to southeast; not by continents, as was formerly supposed. The nations of the Japhetic family are found in Asia and Europe; the Shemites, or Semites, in Asia; the so-called Hamitic races, in Asia and Africa. After the deluge an instinct of migration took possession of the human family. From the original home (long supposed to be near the Caspian Sea, but now uncertain as to locality) clans moved in all directions, and nations arose, occupying different lands. I. THE JAPHETIC NATIONS. These belonged to seven families, who are called "sons of Japheth" in Gen. 10:2; and seven others, who are spoken of as his grandsons in Gen. 10:3, 4. These statements are not necessarily to be understood literally. There may have been other sons and grandsons of Japheth; but these were the ones whose names are remembered as the founders of nations. The peoples descended from Japheth belong to what is called the Aryan or Indo-European race. 1. =Gomer= is named, in Ezek. 38:2-6, as a race opposed to Israel after the captivity. They were probably the people whom the Assyrians called _Gimirrai_, and the Greeks _Kimmerioi_. Their name is perpetuated in the _Crimea_, their early home. A branch of this race moving westward became the _Cimbri_, who were formidable enemies of Rome; and probably another, the _Cymry_, settled in the British Isles, and were the ancestors of the Welsh and the Irish. The Celtic races, to which the French partly belong, are descended from this family. Three of the families descended from Gomer formed separate tribes, named, in the table of nations in Gen. 10:3, after Ashkenaz, Riphath and Togarmah. All of these had homes around or near the Black Sea.