new epoch in painting and are of
the utmost interest to the world. The colors are almost as brilliant
as when laid down more than three thousand years ago. Among these
frescoes are numerous representations of the race whose civilization
they represent. It was a race neither Aryan nor Semitic, but African.
The portraitures follow the Egyptian precedent and for the first time
the mysterious Minoan and Mycenean people rise before us. The tint of
the flesh is of a deep reddish brown and the limbs finely moulded. The
profile of the face is pure and almost classically Greek. The hair is
black and curling and the lips somewhat full, giving the entire
physiognomy a distinct African cast. In the women's quarters the
frescoes show them to be much fairer, the difference in complexion
being due, probably, to the seclusion of harem life. But in their
countenances, too, remain those distinguishable features which link
with the African race.

You will pardon me, I trust, if occasion is taken here to impress upon
you the value of genuine archeological evidence. Historians may write
anything to reflect their vanity or their prejudices, but when the
remains of ancient civilizations rise out of the dust and sands and
give the lie to their assertions there is nothing more to be said.
Egypt, Mesopotamia, Phoenecia, Greece, and Rome, have all been claimed
for the Aryan, but the spade has unearthed stone that bears sentient
witness to the fact that Africa has been the pioneer in the field of
civilization. We wonder, then, why the historians continue to ignore
these remains and persist in continuing falsehood. There can be but
one answer and that is racial vanity prefers falsehood to truth and
prejudice demands suppression rather than expression.

Yet these frescoes of Crete need not be such a surprise to scholars
and public after all. The very classics themselves have more than
hinted of the great part played by Africa in the development of
Grecian civilization. Let us revert to the myths and trace the descent
of Minos and his progeny. You will recollect that the ancient heroes
of Greece were divided into the older and younger branches, the former
belonging to the house of Inachus, distinctly Hamitic, while the
latter belonged to the race of Japotus, distinctly a mixture.

The Pelasgic races of the south traced their descent from Inachus, the
river god and son of Oceanus. The son of Inachus, Phoroneus, lived in
the Peloponnesus and founded