and she lives among the Israelites to this day, , Hebrews 11:31 By faith the prostitute Rahab, because she welcomed the spies, was not killed with those who were disobedient, , James 2:25 In the same way, was not even Rahab the prostitute considered righteous for what she did when she gave lodging to the spies and sent them off in a different direction, , Judges 11:1 Jephthah the Gileadite was a mighty warrior, His father was Gilead; his mother was a prostitute, , Judges 16:1 One day Samson went to Gaza, where he saw a prostitute, He went in to spend the night with her, , Matthew 1:1, 5 1A record of the genealogy of Jesus Christ the son of David, the son of Abraham: 5Salmon the father of Boaz, whose mother was Rahab, Boaz the father of Obed, whose mother was Ruth, Obed the father of Jesse (the father of King David), , Matthew 13:55 "Isn't this the carpenter's son, Isn't his mother's name Mary, and aren't his brothers James, Joseph, Simon and Judas, , ================================== , The Quran , In the entire Quran, the term "foreign woman" is not mentioned therein; all women are equal in respect to their rights and responsibilities regardless of race, color, location etc, To avoid repetition, the interested reader can read the previous six articles of this series: "The Foreigner woman in Bible versus Quran", , ================================== , Back to my question to the smart and interested reader: Are the Scholars honest when they claim that the Quran is quoted from the Bible, Ancient Immigration Control System in Indus Valley Today many countries like the United States have immigration policies and quota systems, Only educated people with a certain minimum qualification are allowed for immigration; obviously, no country would like to have illiterate people streaming into its borders, The immigrants should be conversant in a certain language - English in United States for example, Also, only a certain fixed number of immigrants are allowed per year, In some theocratic nations, bringing in idols of other faiths is prohibited, So, the extent and type of immigration is strictly regulated by a certain set of erudite policies that are formulated with a view to ensure that the socio-economic and cultural balance of the country accepting the immigrants is not disturbed,Suppose for a minute that it is not possible to control immigration to the extent that it is being done today, The country's borders are hill terrained with a large number of immigrants streaming into your society in an uncontrolled manner, Large number of migrants speaking all sorts of languages descend on to your society - you might need to converse in an extra-ordinarily large number of languages in order to be able to function, Huge number of people of different races come and descend on to your society and construct temples and shrines of a large number of denominations to an extra-ordinarily large number of uggs uk Gods - your own religion and god is lost in the mire, Illiterate people, not possessing a single valuable skill, come and swamp your society, expecting their needs to be taken care of, Can you imagine the chaos and utter confusion that would result from such an uncontrolled migration,Such chaos and confusion formed part and parcel of one civilization for more than ten thousand years! That civilization is that of Indus Valley - comprising of present day India, Pakistan, Sri Lanka, Bangladesh, and Nepal,Ever since ice age peak ended about fifteen to twenty thousand years ago, deglaciaton started all uggs uk across the planet, especially so on the Indian subcontinent, The mighty Himalayan mountain ranges on the north of India started disgorging enormous amounts of waters into the sea, Huge and gargantuan river systems started wetting and inundating the northern plains of India, While most of the rest of world was still covered with ice, places like Egypt, India, Sri Lanka, and Indonesia were the chosen places for civilization, India, especially, with its mighty river systems, was the chosen land for civilization - an immigrant's haven, Large number of immigrants migrated from all over the world onto the Indian subcontinent every now and then in droves,And, there was no country of India then! There were only a large number of small small societies and kingdoms scattered all over, So they did not have any immigration policies and quota systems to control immigration, Each small society and kingdom had to deal with this menace of uncontrolled immigration in its own manner, Large number of tribes, many of them illiterate, with all sorts of languages, gods, customs and what not descended onto Indian subcontinent, threatening to destabilize the socio-economic and cultural balance of the natives, Some sort of a regulatory system was necessary in order to provide a semblance of sanity against on the onslaught of this unfettered immigration,One of the main constraints of forming an efficient society is the language, One needs a common language across the society to function properly and efficiently, When a society faces a huge amount of migration from outside, with several races bringing in scores of languages by the day, a society needs to ensure that its language does not get destroyed by the deluge of outside languages that descend upon it, We cannot have a community with a hundred languages in operation and with many more to descend; it would result in complete chaos and would lead to a highly dysfunctional arrangement, So, when outsiders are incorporated into the society, it becomes mandatory to ensure that each and every intruder speaks the language of the existing society, In case of India, it was Sanskrit, So it becomes mandatory that all those who come in should forsake their own language and adapt to the common language of the community, They are free to speak their language inside their homes, but outside, they are strictly to speak the common language,The next most important thing is religion, After thousands of years of religious development taking the religion to quite an advanced form, a civilized society cannot have tribal deities in dozens and scores swamping their temples, with the idols of those tribal gods sitting alongside their own gods, If the incoming religions are not more than handful, it is fine; But, in the case of hundreds of them coming in, one can understand the problem that this would bring, That would simply not be acceptable and would even be repulsive to any civilized society, The civilized society would then enforce strict religious laws to safeguard its own religion, The incoming people who would be accepted into the society would have to give up their religion and their customs outside the gates and would have to adapt to the religion of the society they were entering, Would this always be possible, Maybe not always be, The tribal, who would start slapping his/her cheeks and murmuring sweet nothings when he/she sees figures like triangles, cannot be made to forget his/her deity as soon as he/she comes in, It would be too difficult to implement such a task, Moreover, the society itself might consist of a couple of competing sects, and it would not be easy to decide as to which incoming tribal should join which sect, The best way to enforce sanity from the religious perspective would be to have a separate sub-community that would have the exclusive right to religious practices at the places of worship, That sub-community, from generation to generation, would be responsible for taking care of the conduct of religious rituals and other related practices, So, as long as the ritualistic practices are saved from being tampered with, it does not matter who worships whom, For example, a tribal might take a small seal out of his pocket and worship it at his home, As long as he is not allowed to install an idol of that tribal deity at a formal public worship place, he can continue to worship whoever he wants, Since the rights over religious practices are given over to a certain priestly community, and as long as that community does not entertain common worship places for new tribal deities, the religion is saved,We save language, we save religion, What else is required, Well, law and order has to be maintained, And just as we have in today's business organizations, some code of conduct, and some customs and traditions need to be maintained; there needs to be a code of conduct that does not change as more and more outsiders get incorporated into the society, And to maintain all of these, a ruling class is required,So, we see that we have come up with the requirement of having two classes: a priestly class and a ruling class, And the most important requirement is that this class of people should not be tinkered with; otherwise, the purpose of incorporating the classes is lost, For example, if some new intruder coming from outside with a different language is made part of the ruling class, he then might want to change the language of the society, and this would destroy the very purpose of having such a class, So, we need to have a fixed set of people who act as ruling class or priestly class, and whose position is not to be tinkered with, Only a descendant of a priest becomes a priest, and only the son of a ruler becomes a ruler or an administrator,With two classes in tow, and with a few rules and regulations in place, we then come to the issue that is at the core of all of this discussion, How to distribute the incoming migrators, Well, create two more classes-one class for incoming people who are to some extent civilized, and another class for those who are uncivilized, Civilized intruders who come in are allowed to occupy themselves with various trade and agricultural activities that contribute to the wealth of the society, And uncivilized people who come in are taken in as a servant class of people, All the rules are strictly enforced, All newcomers into society have to learn the language of the society; they are not supposed to start any public places of worship of their own but are supposed to get their religious activities performed by the priestly class, and have to abide by other rules of the society, A society can only take in a certain limited number of people - for example, most countries today allow only a fixed number of immigrants per year, So, excess number of migrators, especially the uncivilized people, are left out as untouchables, These untouchables are not allowed inside the boundary walls of community, contact and interaction with them is prohibited,This is how the much defamed and vilified Indian four-caste system, along with untouchability, originated, Members of the priestly class are called Brahmins; those of the ruling class are called Kshatriyas; those of the trading class are called Vaishyas; and those of the servant class are called Sudras,As per Indian scriptures, India was made up of four castes - Kshatriyas, Brahmins, Vaishyas, and Sudras, Add the class of untouchables to this, Normally, any class system is frowned upon by liberal minded people as it bestows certain undue advantages for some people over others, Since this class system is mentioned in important scriptures of Indian religion, the ills of Indian class and caste system are normally attributed to Indian religion, Indian religion is attributed with certain amount of characteristic bestiality that gave rise this sort of class system, where the arrangement of the society favored certain upper castes over the lower castes, However, I think that the real significance of this Indian four-class caste system along with untouchability has never been understood by historians,The Indian four-class caste system has arisen out of the need to control thousands and thousands of years of migration onto the Indian subcontinent! India has been an immigrant's haven ever since the snow fed rivers started wetting the Indian lands, It has ceased to be so only in the last couple of millennia, Since most of the scriptures that talk about this four-class caste system, including Vedas, are Sanskrit based, it means that Indian language of Sanskrit and Indian scriptures of Vedas are extremely ancient, and are a byproduct of ice age fluctuations, The history of the civilized man can be traced back to the ice age peak, 100 Years Of Civil Aviation In India Indian Civil Aviation is completing 100 glorious years on 18th February, 2011, The year 2011-12 will be declared as the Civil Aviation Centenary Year, starting from the 18th February, 2011 and ending on the same date in 2012, On this date in 1911, the first commercial plane flew in India between Allahabad and Naini, Since then the aviation in India has grown from strength to strength, Today India is the 9th largest civil aviation market in t he world and this forward march is likely to culminate in India becoming one of the three largest markets in the world by 2020, Let us look back and review the glorious history of the Indian Civil Aviation and also see what it has in store for the future,In 1929 JRD Tata got the first pilot license issued in India, and became known as the Father of Indian Civil Aviation, He founded India's first commercial airlines, Tata Airlines in 1932 which in 1946 became Air India, After the Second World War as many as eleven private domestic airlines operated in India, The supply-demand was not in balance as the Indian aviation market was still in a fledgling state, Many of these airlines were making heavy losses as a result of which the government decided to nationalize the airlines by forming one domestic carrier and one international carrier, In 1953 Air-India International became a public sector corporation along with the Indian Airlines Corporation (catering to domestic routes) enjoying a monopoly in the domestic market,Eight erstwhile private airlines were merged to form the Indian airlines Corporation, namely Deccan Airways, Airways India, Bharat Airways, Himalayan Aviation, Air India, Kalinga Airlines, Indian National Airways and Air Services of India, The consequence of this liberalization was that by March 1995, 35,65% of the market was being catered by private carriers, The number of passengers carried by private air carriers had increased from 15,000 in 1990 to 3,6 million in 1994, In the early nineties, soon after deregulation, many of the new established airlines went bust, including Gujarat Airways, East West, UBAir and VIF, Passenger service had improved, Less than adequate airports and traffic control infrastructure, which was the main obstacle to future growth, needed to be improved and expanded for the industry to sustain long term growth, Increasing fare rates appeared to have a negative impact on growth as rock bottom fares were no longer sustainable to run a profitable airline, Aviation fuel in India was much higher compared to comparable costs elsewhere,In 2003, Captain Gopinath, pioneer of the concept of Low Cost Carriers (LCCs) in India, started Air Deccan; which became the turning point of the scene of Civil Aviation of India, This was soon followed by a number of operators like Spicejet, IndiGo, Go Air, Kingfisher Airlines, Paramout Airways and MDLR Airlines, Subsequently, the Indian Civil Aviation Witnessed three major mergers: Jet Airways and Sahara (Jetlite), Air India and Indian Airlines; and Kingfisher and Deccan (Kingfisher Red), The rapid growth of aviation market, however, was arrested by the economic recession and got revived only after the recession got over,The Indian Civil Aviation industry has witnessed 20 to 30 per cent growth rates during the last few years, Growth has now slowed down considerably due to ever increasing cost of the ATF (especially in India where ATF is heavily taxed), A slew in low-cost airlines now competes with the more established operators, Aviation infrastructure has not kept pace with the increased traffic and passenger volumes, India's main airports are currently facing capacity constrains but are in the process of being modernized and expanded with additional capacity, Privatization of the two major airports at Mumbai and Delhi has been completed, Two new greenfield airports have opened at Banglore and Hyderabad, Another major change as a result of deregulation of commercial aviation sector in India has been the option for private airlines to fly overseas after completing five years of operations in the domestic market, Jet Airways and Kingfisher Airlines already enjoy substantial international traffic,Airbus, a leading aircraft maker in the world, predicted that India will be the fastest growing country for air travel for the next ten years with the domestic traffic increasing by an average of 12,2 percent per year, Traffic growth will also be amongst the world's highest, averaging 7,3 percent over the next 20 years compared to the world average of 4,7 percent, By 2028, Indian passenger fleet will increase four-fold to 1,163 aircrafts, Airbus said that by 2028, 14 of the top 20 airports in the world will be the Asia-Pacific region and they will include Mumbai and Delhi, With 10 percent growth, domestic India will be the second biggest growth market after domestic Turkey,There is strength and resilience in India's commercial aviation sector both in the near and long term, If we take a realistic and a broad look at the Indian market, what resonates is that the future growth of air travel is among the greatest in the world, Let us hope while all operators are gearing up for increasing their fleet size (for example, the world record order of 180 more A-320 aircraft by LCC IndiGo), the infrastructure and manpower keeps pace with the expected growth, If it does, the benefits will surely accrue to the air traveler, around whom the whole business is built, Unlike most Chinese immigrants of his time, Gin Lin found respect and a mountain of gold The last thing Chinese were generally despised, discriminated against and performing dangerous, backbreaking work for 60 to 75 cents a day in the American West, Gin Lin stood out in the crowd, He not only gained the respect of the business and civic leaders of southern Oregon but also became wealthy beyond most men's wildest dreams, Fast clipper ships carried the news of the 1848 gold strike at Sutter's Mill across the Pacific, Peasants toiling in China's rice paddies heard that gold had been discovered in California almost as soon as factory workers in Boston and New York did, Soon the Chinese were calling America's West Coast Gum Shan, or the "Mountain of Gold," By February 1849, the first of the Far Eastern gold-seekers had landed in San Francisco, Hordes would followLike thousands of his countrymen, Gin Lin fled crushing poverty, war, overcrowding, disease and civil unrest in his homeland to seek his fortune in the gold fields of America,Living conditions in mid- 19th-century China were almost unbearable, particularly in Kwangtung (Canton) province, For thousands of years the fertile delta of the Pearl River in southeast China had been the country's rice basket, but farms that once flourished had been subdivided and parceled out to generations of descendants, leaving plots too small to support a family, Squalor and filth along the teeming waterfronts caused typhoid, malaria, cholera and plague to run rampant, Social unrest and civil war added to the misery The Taiping Rebellion, which lasted from 1851 to 1864, claimed more than 20 million lives,Young men who could only hope to make 10 cents a day in China, if they could find employment, jumped at the chance to earn 60 to 75 cents a day as miners or railroad workers in the New World, Not even the dangers of a Pacific voyage or the uncertainties of living in a foreign land could deter them,Unlike most European emigrants, who came to America seeking freedom and hoping to build a new life, the Chinese came as temporary residents intent upon improving their economic plight and returning to China, Known as sojourners, they were strangers in a strange land, About half the men were married, but very few brought their wives, They sent much of their earnings home, Only 5 percent of the Chinese who came to America in the mid-1800s were women, most of those having been orphaned or sold by their families,Ill-clad and unprepared for cold weather, some of the early sojourners froze to death, Their standard wardrobe consisted of loose-fitting light-blue denim pants, blue tuniclike shirts, white stockings, skull caps and cloth shoes with paper soles, Many wore the large conical straw, or "coolie," hats that provided some protection from sun and rain as well as storage space, Later arrivals added coats and boots to their attire, The queue, or long pigtail, which hung down the middle of the back from an otherwise shaven head, was not a fashion statement but considered a necessity, Manchu dictators forbid returning workers to re-enter China without them,The main staple of the Oriental diet was rice supplemented by a few fresh vegetables and dried fruit when available, Because they boiled their water to make tea, the Chinese often avoided the diseases that swept through the mining camps,The clannish ways and strange customs of the sojourners caused the white population to mistrust and resent them, One Chinese practice the whites found especially disgusting was that of exhuming their dead so the bones could be transported back to China, Father Francis Xavier Blanchet, an early resident of the gold-rush town of Jacksonville, Ore,, wrote: "Whenever a child of the deceased leaves for China to visit or on business, they dig up the body, scrape the bones, and carefully transplant them in China so that their souls will go to Paradise,"Violence was commonplace in the mining camps, and the sojourners were often blamed for anything that went wrong, Since nonwhites were not allowed to testify against whites until 1862, and often did not get fair treatment in the courts even after that time, Chinese were frequently beaten, robbed and even killed with impunity, In some mining camps, shootings were almost a nightly occurrence,Following the gold rush north, the first Chinese began trickling into southern Oregon shortly after the 1852 strikes were made on Jackson Creek, where the rowdy town of Jacksonville mushroomed almost overnight, More strikes quickly followed in the Siskiyou Mountains, as well as along the Applegate and Rogue rivers and their tributaries, By 1870 there were between 2,500 and 4,000 Chinese miners in southern Oregon,The sojourners were welcomed to Jackson County with a $2-per-month head tax in 1857, and it was doubled in 1858, In addition, the state adopted a law in 1862 that directed every Negro, Chinaman, Kanaka (Hawaiian), and Mulatto" living in Oregon to pay an annual $5 poll tax, As if that were not enough, any Chinese engaged in any kind of trading was charged a $50-per-month fee, An article that appeared in the September 1, 1866, issue of The Oregon Sentinel, Jacksonville's Republican newspaper, expressed the resentment and open hostility directed toward the Chinese: We hope that during the present legislative session, the very important question of taxing the Chinese miners will not be overlooked,,,, It seems an unwise policy to allow a race of brutish heathens who have nothing in common with us, to exhaust our mineral lands without paying a heavy tax for their occupation, These people bring nothing with them to our shores, they add nothing to the permanent wealth of this country and so strong is their attachment to their own country, they will not let their filthy carcasses lie in our soil, Could this people be taxed as to exclude them entirely, it would be a blessing,"Those whites who put aside their prejudices long enough to get to know the Chinese found them, on the whole, to be peaceable, respectful, friendly dependable, generous and very hard-working, Celebration of the Chinese New Year was always observed with fireworks and candy that the sojourners happily shared with their non-Oriental neighbors, Although the mining camps and "shanty towns" in Oregon were filthy, Chinese miners practiced better personal hygiene than most of their white counterparts, taking daily baths with soap and warm water and changing their clothes before dinner,Some may have drifted in from California on their own, but most sojourners arrived in Oregon under contract to a Chinese boss who farmed them out to work for white mine owners, The mine owner paid the boss in a lump sum and he, in turn, deducted any amount the worker still owed on his transportation across the ocean, All purchases of food and supplies were also made through the Chinese boss,Gin Lin was such a boss, His arrival in southern Oregon went unnoticed and unrecorded, but it was soon apparent that he was different from most of his countrymen, Elmira McKee Thurman, an earlyday Oregon resident, remembered him as dark, heavy-set and rather youthful looking, Instead of the usual queue, he sported a full head of bushy hair,Oregon did not allow Chinese to stake mining claims or own mining property yet by 1864 Gin Lin managed to buy mining property from John Wilson near the settlement of Buncom at the confluence of Sterling Creek and the Little Applegate River for $900,White men were frequently eager to sell what they considered "played out" mines to Chinese, "The white man's philosophy was to get as much gold as he could and then move on," says Marjorie Edens of the Southern Oregon Historical Society, The industrious Chinese seemed happy to take over "played out" mines, and when they moved on to richer diggings, the claims they left behind were truly worthless,Soon many of the laborers Gin had formerly contracted out to other mine owners were working for him on the Little Applegate River, He treated his men with honesty and fairness, even helping some of them purchase their own claims, He made sure the claims were legally recorded by Jacksonville attorney Charles Wesley Kahler and that the proper taxes were paid,Gin's crew worked hard for him, Rich veins of gold were uncovered at his mining operation, and the Gin Lin Mining Company began to play an important role in southern Oregon's economy,Gin continued to work his Little Applegate mine through the 1870s until the deposits waned, In 1881, he purchased more claims in the Palmer Creek and Flumet Flat area farther up the Applegate River,As Gin Lin's wealth grew, so did his status among Jacksonville's citizenry, The sight of him driving a handsome buggy pulled by a high-stepping horse around town became a familiar one, He became friends with several of the area's most prominent business leaders, including pioneer photographer Peter Britt, who took several photographs of him; banker C,C, Beekman; attorney Wes Kahler; and cabinetmaker David Linn,David Linn's son, Fletcher, described the Chinese miner in his book Memories: "Gin Lin was a large, robust character, not at all like the 'Coolie' or laboring Chinese who constituted the laboring force in his operations; and on one of his visits to 'China Town,' he came across the street to meet father, and introduced himself as 'Gin Lin alle same Dave Linn's cousin,' and he and father became quite good friends,"Gold deposits found along the Applegate River and its tributaries were soon depleted; new mining methods had to be developed to excavate the yellow metal buried in ancient streambeds along the hillsides, Hydraulic mining was the answer, and Gin Lin was the innovator of this type of mining in southern Oregon, He had the equipment he needed hauled in by pack train from Crescent City Calif, and set his Chinese crew to digging water ditches,Hydraulic mining used pressurized water to loosen the packed gravel of the slopes, The success of hydraulic mining depended upon a reliable source of water, In order to divert water from the larger streams to the mining operations, the Chinese used picks and mattocks to dig hundreds of miles of ditches through the dense brush and rocky slopes of the upper Applegate Valley Many of these ditches can still be seen,Water from the ditch flowed into a large wooden structure called a"headbox" From the headbox it was diverted into a penstock made of riveted steel pipes that lined a trench leading downslope, The abrupt drop in elevation increased the water pressure, The penstock pipe delivered the water to a large nozzle the miners called a "giant," Water blasted from it into the exposed hillsides, Loosened material was washed through a series of sluice boxes, or wooden troughs, which separated the gold-bearing silt from the gravel, Worthless gravel and cobbles were cast aside into tailing piles,Fletcher Linn told about visiting Gin Lin's hydraulic mining operation: "When I was home from college for a brief visit on Christmas in 1887, father suggested that I join him on a Sunday trip to visit Gin, as he had often asked father to do, We hitched a horse to the light buggy, and started very early as the mine was ten or twelve miles from Jacksonville, over the hills into the Applegate Valley When we arrived, the operation was closed down for a 'clean-up'; so we missed seeing the operation, but 'Gin' surely entertained us in showing us some of the results of his week or ten days run, I had seen several other hydraulic operations, but never one to equal this one of 'Gins,' The work done, and earth removed by those huge Hydraulic Giants, was really amazing, The 'clean up' was the largest of its kind that I ever saw; and the Chinese workers were carrying out the gold in small buckets full, under the protection of a couple of armed guards pacing the upper ledge or rim of the mine, All 'Gin' would say as he glanced at the buckets and then to father, was 'Putty good, Cousin, Putty good,' We had a fine visit with 'Gin' and a mighty interesting day"As a result of his mining activities in the Applegate Valley Gin Lin deposited between $1 million and $2 million worth of gold dust and nuggets in the Beekman Bank in Jacksonville, He became a familiar face in town,Gin Lin went to great lengths to keep good relations with the white people of the community even employing several white men in his mines, He was known to shut down operations periodically through the summer months so farmers could use the water from his ditches to irrigate, It is also said that when an Indian burial was exposed, he ordered that the area be left undisturbed,It is known that Gin Lin had at least four different wives while in southern Oregon, He made several return trips to China, each time bringing back a delicately featured, almond-eyed beauty dressed in fine silks and brocades and younger than her predecessor, He would then simply sell his former spouse to one of his men, Gin Wye, born in Jacksonville, was the son of Gin Lin's youngest and last wife, Gen Shen,When the gold grew scarce in southern Oregon as in other parts of the West, most of the Chinese went to work on the railroads, They provided the railroad bosses with a reliable yet inexpensive source of labor,Of the several thousand sojourners residing in southern Oregon during the height of the gold-mining era, only a handful remained by the turn of the century The 1900 census counted a mere 43 Chinese residents in Jackson CountyNo one is exactly certain of Gin Lin's fate, but he disappeared from southern Oregon in the late 1800s, He may have left because of racism or simply because he had made enough money and wanted to return to his homeland, or, as Marjorie Edens says, "all of the above," One story says that he sold his Oregon holdings, withdrew his money from the Jacksonville bank (hiding it on his person) and sailed in 1894 for China, where he was robbed and fatally beaten as he stepped off the ship onto the wharf at Canton, Another version of the story says he lived in China three years with his wife and son before his death in 1897,Although Gin Lin's fate may never be known, his legend lives on in southern Oregon, Today the U,S, Forest Service maintains the Gin Lin Trail above the Applegate River where visitors can take a self-guided tour of Gin Lin's Palmer Creek operation, Part of his story is etched on the moss-covered tailing piles, the overgrown water ditches and the hydraulic cuts in the "mountain of gold" that made him rich,ds-dom,ru Bengali/Indian Race Vs Aryan Race Bengali/Indian Race Vs Aryan RaceBy Dr, K,K, Debnath (drkkdebnath@gmail )Abstract: In this article an attempt has been made to find out who are Indians and in particular Bengalis, Are they outsiders and descendents of certain Aryan Rishis,, Who are Aryans,The author has only tried to compile the opinions and findings of modern historians and researchers, Based on these findings, an analytical study has been made and co-relation has been established among all the various issues pertaining to Indian/Bengali race,Introduction: The history of a society or a community of people at a certain place is identified by the general features of the people, their language, religion, culture and its social and political system, This cannot be identified in isolation by language only or by religion only or by its culture independently, Therefore, the history of India will remain incomplete, if certain conclusion is made and drawn based on certain issue independently, Hence, all the issues as stated above (viz, Location of the place, feature of the people Language, culture, religion, social system, political system, food habits etc) are necessary to be studied in a integrated way and analyzed together to arrive at a certain inference,If the outcomes of an analysis on all ,the issues are found to be different, contrary on many accounts and in such case no definite conclusion can be made,, In case, some issues converge and some diverges, the conclusion becomes contradictory, But if the result of analysis of all the issue converges to a certain point logically, then the outcome becomes conclusive,Keeping these points in mind, a study has been made on the history of India/Bengal from the ancient period to Islamic period, All these issues have been described and analyzed in this article, The study has been made based on various historical information and records as described by prominent historians, researchers and other intellectuals,In this article, author has not brought out any new findings, The author has only tried to compile the opinions and findings of modern historians and researchers, Based on these findings an analytical study has been made and co-relation has been established among all the various issues pertaining to Indian/Bengali civilization,Present Popular Theory: Various historical elaboration and indications in script and archival evidences point to some startling revelations about the original inhabitants of Bengal and their status in the then distinctive social community status, These references colossally indicate that the original inhabitants of India/Bengal belonged to Kol, Sabar, Hari, Dom, Pulind, and Chandal tribe who were addressed en masse as Dravidians, This clan of Dravidians in the larger division of the then Community based caste system was recognized or rather positioned in the lower stratum of the society or commonly inferred as low caste, Present day they all belong to schedule caste category as per the Laws of Hinduism,Taking further cue from the subject, the documented archives mention about the other mass that attribute themselves to the higher caste, referred as the descendent of Noble Aryans, who migrated around 15th century BC from Central Asia to India, The corroboration of this facts are further impressed upon, if one connects it through ancient practices or birth legacies such as Gotra, where Clan/lineages are attached with birth of a person that identifies the descendence of a person, since time immemorial ,In the subject under discussion above, the Gotras clearly link certain race/clan of people to the Aryan Sage, on whose name the Gotras are defined,From the beginning of our childhood, we were told and studied that Indians were of Aryan origin and we were taught to believe the above theory, We were also taught to believe that our ancestors' i,e, Aryans were a great noble race, who migrated to India from central Asia, The archival scripts trace the origin of the north Indians language including Hindi/Bengali which they affirm as derivative of Aryan Language Samaskrita, supporting the basis of origin as proclaimed aboveWhile some historians are of the opinion that they actually migrated from Caucasian region around Danube River via Northwest frontier country like, Iran and Afghanistan, Their initial settlement in India was around Sindhu river valley, This migration and settlements took place around 1500 BC,These Aryans were not believers of idol worship and used to invoke various Gods through yagnas, Their religion was known as Vedic religion and the society was administered by the scriptures (Smrities) of Vedas,Physically they were very fair, tall and of good features, Their males were very handsome and female were extremely beautiful, Their Language was Deva-Bhasha Samaskrita and the Script was Deva-Nagari script,It narrate further that the high caste Indians are referred to a different race from the aboriginal inhabitants of India, The document teaches that they are mixed race of Aryan male and Non-Aryan or aboriginal Indian Dravidian female, These high caste people use "Gotra", which identifies their original ancestor, Out of the many Gotras in vogue, the pravara is found only seven, The pravara is nothing but the name of Rishi (origin), These seven Rishis are of Aryan stock, and entire Indian populations of higher caste are the descendent of them, through non-Aryan females,These were some of the important points we were taught to believe from our child hood days,,Who are Aryans,The credit to bring the race "Aryan" in to history of civilization of mankind goes to Prof, Max Mauler, A German by blood, he was appointed as professor to teach the English officers, who were to be posted to India, during Christian rule of Europeans in India,Until 18th century AD, Europeans were of the belief that the origin of entire European civilization was Greece, However, during 18th century it was proved by historians that Greece was originally a colony of "Blacks", This gave a very big blow to their belief on the origin of their civilization,This discovery was not easily palpable for admission by Europeans, as they never dreamt that Greece was a colony of Blacks, This forced them to find out a suitable theory to trace their origin,Finally, Prof Max Mauler came out with the theory that Central Asia was the inhabitant of Aryans, While migrating from there, one group came towards India, while other groups migrated to Europe, through Iran and Arabian countries and the pure Aryan settled at German and Nordic countries, During this migration they killed the entire population of the countries, through which the moved, Thus the entire populations of blacks in those countries were perished,When Prof, Maxmular was asked; who are original Aryans are, And his reply was "we the Nordic Aryans", This theory also instigated the feelings of Hitler of Germany, which motivated him to establish the Aryan rule throughout the world, The present nemeses are that they were very cruel, and known as the destroyer of civilization, They are also termed as Barbarian,It is well known that Egyptian civilization is the oldest civilization, The Egyptians used to call these new emigrants as Aryans, In course of time, some of them became the followers of Sun God like Egyptians, they became to be known as "Sun Aryans" and later on only as "Su Arian" and finally as "Saurian", The others were used to be called as "Assyrians", The place of their settlements became to be known as "Asia", In course of time the entire land mass including east of their settlement (present Arabian/Iranian countries) also were known as "Asia",The same way "Hindustan" or "India" was defined, The original Hindustan is present Pakistan and part of Afghanistan (Sara Swat river Valley), However, the entire land mass east of original Hindustan was also named as "Hindustan",Exactly the same way, the ancient "Bengal/Banga Desha" was defined, The original Bengal started from Dwar Banga/Mithila, Dwar Banga means gate way of Bangadesha and thus entire plane land mass at the east of Mithila was named as Bengal, The ancient Jain Literature says "there was a city by name Mithila of Banga Desha, where Lord Nemi Nath (22nd Tirthamkar of Jains) was born",Let us look at the theory of Max Mauler of language of Sanskrit, According to him, Sanskrit is the mother of all language of Indian Language, All the words of other languages are a derivative of Sanskrit words,Therefore, Krishna became Kanha and finally to Kanai,Chandra became Chanda and finally to Chand, Hasta become Hattha and finally become Haath,Now let us use the same methodology of Prof, Max Mauler with the word "Aryan",The word "Aryana" came from "Aryan", Aryana was the ancient name of Afghanistan, Others are shown bellow:Aryan >> Airan >> Iran (present Iran),Aryan >> Airan >> Airav >> Arab,Aryan >> Airan >> Airav >> Airaq >> Iraq,Aryan >> Airav >> Airap >> Airop >> Airope >> Europe and Sun Arian >> Su nArya >> Su arya >> Souria >> Syria etc,Iranian Kings used to call themselves as "Aryan',These Aryans used to call the mountain which divides their place of settlements with further eastern countries as "Sindhu Kush Mountain" and the great river that flows in the valley was named as "Sindhu River", And the people were called as "Sindhu", Their society was male dominated and the mightiness of the river Sindhu made it named as Male River, However, The Iranians of later date were pronouncing Sindhu as Hindu, so all, names were pronounced as "Hindu Kush Mountain", "Hindu, River", "Hindustan"," Hindu Bag" etc, All these are now part of present Pakistan,From the above, it is clear that Hindustan could not become "Aryastan", due to the obvious reason of inconsistency/discontinuity in naming, Historical FactsI) Invasions from Outside:As far as Indian history is concerned, the North West part of Hindustan (Punjab area) was a province of Iranian Kingdom from 558 BC,The north western part of India (Punjab and further western part) was a part of Iran and was ruled by various Iranian kings; e,g, Cyrus (Kurush, 558 BC to 530 BC; Cambyses I (Kaambujiya I), Cyrus II (Kurush II), Cambyses II (Kaambujiya II), from 530 BC to 522 BC; Darius I (Daaraayavaush) from 522 BC to 486 BC; Xerxes (Khshayaarshaa) from 486 BC to 465 BC,, and, at last under Darius, III Kondomannos, ,until the fall of Iranian empire due to, invasion of Greek King Alexander,Greek occupied the area by 326 BC and ruled up to 321 BC and thereafter these areas were ruled by Mouryas from 321 BC from Magadha,Later on, the area consisting of Afghanistan and Punjab were ruled by Bacterian (Balkan area) Greeks, Sakas, Scythians, Parthians, Pallavas, Kushans (Mongols/Tartars) , Huns (Mongols), Shahiyas/Sahis (Afghanis), etc, These people used to claim that they were the rulers of Ariana (Afghanistan and adjoin parts of Iran, Uzbekistan etc)) and Hindustan, All these people settled at Ariana and Hindustan but Hindustan was separately mentioned,In due course they all embraced Buddhism and assimilated with the local/previous settlers leaving their Aryan Faith (what is that,,,),At a later date, Hindustan was invaded by the next generation people from central Asian countries and other Asian countries of Aryan settlements, but this time the religion of those Aryans became Islam, Thus the North West part of Hindustan was ruled by Aryans from 558 BC until the arrival of Aryans from Europe, having Christian faith, And the same continued up to 14th August, 1947, except periods of Mouryas and Guptas of Pataliputra,II) Migrations of outsiders When a group of people peacefully come and get settled in another country, the situation becomes different, as can be seen form following facts,The Jews had migrated to India during 1st century AD at Cochin, Kerala; but so far one can hardly find a mixed blood of Keralite mother and Jews father, The religion of Jews is Judaism, and neither have they embraced Islam nor any Indian religion in spite of living in India for more than 2000 yrs,The Persians/Iranians migrated to India during 5th century AD, and now they are spread all over India, They are known as Parsi, Even today they are living in India as a separate community with their religion as Parsi, They have neither converted nor embraced Islam nor any Indian religion, even though they are living in India for more than 1500 years,When such is the case, is it believable that an Aryan boy, who was fair and handsome, would marry a dark complexioned Dravidian girl,All the above are established facts and prove beyond doubt that it would not have been easy to change the blood and faith of Indians, contrary to what Max Mauler had advocated,Even today, the discrimination in South Africa between Blacks and Whites are noticeable, The same features are seen in United States of America, the most liberal country in the World,Further to this, if we look at Indian society, we find a word by name "GOTRAM", All the people of higher caste will have some Gotra (lineage), Gotra is identification, that the person is a descendent of that particular Rishi, Marriage is also prohibited in the same Gotra, as in such case bride and grooms are treated as brother and sister, because they both are the descendent of same person, There are various Gotras available; however pravara or origin is from seven Risis, They are honored as "Saptarshi",If there were Aryan settlements in Hindustan by marriage, then there would be many more Aryans, they must be in more than thousands, Besides this, where are the descendents of those Aryan kings and other common Aryans,Next, these seven Rishis were great sages, and greatest intellectuals of their time, Hence, they would have concentrated on the development of policies for the society and other spiritual activities,Did they travel all over Hindustan to create their descendents instead of intellectual work and every family offered their womenfolk for this purpose, Is it believable, It should be treated as a sin, if we even dream of it; because it can not be true as they are our greatest intellectuals and people of Hindustan are being guided even today through their great thoughts,Under such circumstances, how it is possible,, Do the Gotra system was used for different purpose,III) Vedic Cultural centers in India:In Vedic society, Brahmins occupy the highest position in the social structure from the Vedic era, The Brahmins are classified under five categories according to their place of origins, These five categories are Utkal Brahmins, Goudia Brahmins, Maithili Brahmins, Kanauji Brahmins and Sara Swat Brahmins, The places of domicile of these Brahmins were at Puri, located at Orissa (eastern India); Gouda/Gouda, ancient capital of Bangadesha (eastern India); Mithila of ancient Banga desh (presently in Bihar, eastern India); Kanauj between Allahabad and Kanpur of UP (central India) and Sara Swat of Punjab,, There is no mention of domicile of these Brahmins either in, ,Ariana (Afghanistan) or in any where outside India,/Hindu Kush Mountain,Analyses On Above>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>I) Invasions from AryansWhy Aryan invaders/settlers embraced Buddhism,Possibilities are as follows:1),,, They might not have a superior civilization,2),,, They had embraced Buddhism and encouraged the society to be governed in Buddhist way in place of Vedic religion, However, these Aryans did not embrace Vedic religion, as Vedic religion, even though a pre-Zorathrustian religion was the prevailing religion of Iran and surrounding areas at that time,3),,, At a later date, during the fall of Buddhism, they were migrated to Vedic religion, Towards this a big Yagna was made at Mount Abu and they were brought under Vedic religion, Their caste was named as "Rajput", and five clans were established, and they are Pratihar, Chouhan, Solanki/Sisodia, Tomar, and Parmer, Thus a new caste "Rajput" was introduced in Vedic social system, This was done to fight against the next generation invaders from central Asian/Iranian belts, who had got converted in to Islam by that time, Buddhists were non-believers and they were called by Islamic invaders as "Kaffir", meaning-non believer, So all the non believers (Buddhists) were converted to Islam after their defeat at the hands of Islamic Invaders under Arab Khalifas,The Rajput before conversion probably found Vedic religion being closer to Buddhist religion (since by that time ritual wise e,g, Tantra, Mantra and Yantra were practiced by Buddhist as well as by Vedic people), Thus they probably chose to embrace Vedic religion, to avoid the conversion into Islam and to fight unitedly against invasion of believers of Islamic faith, However, by that time all the Buddhists people of Present Pakistan and Afghanistan were converted into Muslims, Few Vedic people were left out,Thus for a period from 558 BC to 1947 AD, Ariana and part of north western Hindustan were ruled partly/fully by Aryans, if we believe Max Mauler, The total number of years ruled by known Aryans is almost 2605 years,The interesting part is that during this known period of 2605 years; the Indian blood did not get polluted by these Aryans, Prior to that, history is unknown and there could be possibility of pilferation / recording of hypothetical facts by anyone based on assumption or intention that would have found a place in documented history, One such probability could point to Max Mauler theory that Aryans came to India as an invader and settled in India after defeating them, Indian education/history was at very infancy stage during the Christian Aryan rules, and therefore, Indians were easily impressed and got convinced by them, whatever they said,It is very unfortunate that, we Indians/Hindus are yet to get into the depth of the nemesis of Max Mauler and views other Western Scholars and have widely seem to have accepted it,Further to this, there is a natural phenomenon and the logic is simple to prove ,without going to any historical evidences that Indians are not of Aryan stock explained as under:,We are experiencing on our day to day life that, usually a handsome boy of elite family do not get married to girl of black complexion of non-elite family,However the reverse is traceable in plenty, A boy of non-elite family, when becomes influential/rich/powerful can get a girl in marriage from elite family, We can see this set of example throughout the World,If we look back to our Indian history, we find Chandragupta Mourya married to the sister of Greek General Selukas, and his son later on married to the daughter of Selukas, Innumerable historical narrations are available that in ancient period, during a battle, the first target of winning side was looting of beautiful women folk of the defeated side, There are many historical facts are available in Indian history, when Indians expanded their kingdom towards north and north western side,II) Analysis on Migrations of outsidersCase I: The Jews had migrated to India during 1st century AD at Cochin, Kerala; and their religion is known as Judaism, They are living in India for more than 2000 yrs, However, they neither could pollute the blood of Keralites nor they have embraced Islam nor of any Indian religion,Case II: The Persians/Iranians migrated to India during 5th century AD, and now they have been spread all over India, They are known as Parsi, Even today they are living in India as a separate community with their religion as Parsi, They have neither converted nor embraced Islam nor any Indian religion, even though they are living more than 1500 years,These migrated settlers to India also did not pollute the blood of Indians,When such is the case, is it believable that an Aryan boy, who was very fair and handsome, would marry a dark complexioned Dravidian girl,Even today, the discrimination in South Africa between Blacks and Whites are noticeable, The same features are seen in United States of America, the most liberal country in the World,Further to this, if we look at Indian society, we find a word by name "GOTRAM", All the people of higher caste will have some Gotra (linage), Gotra is identification, that the person is a descendent of that particular Rishi, Marriage is also prohibited in the same Gotra, as in such case bride and grooms are treated as brother and sister, because they both are the descendent of same person, There are various Gotras available; however pravara or origin is from seven Risis, They are honored as "Saptarshi",Now question arises that, are described bellow:1) If there were Aryan settlements in Hindustan by marriage, then there would be many more Aryans, they must be in more than thousands, Being such a case, where are the descendents of others (Aryan kings and other common Aryans),2) These seven Rishis were great sages, and greatest intellectuals of their time, Hence, they would have concentrated on the development of policies for the society and other spiritual activities,Did they travel all over Hindustan to create their descendents instead of intellectual work and every family offered their womenfolk for this purpose, Is it believable,With due respect, definitely they were not, We respect them as our greatest intellectuals and who guided the people of Hindustan, Even today we are being guided through their great thoughts, It should be treated as a sin, if we even dream of it,Under such circumstances, how it is possible,, Do the Gotra system was used for different purpose,,III) Analysis on the locations of the origins of,, Intellectual IndiansIt is seen that out of five categories of Brahmins (highest category among Indians), three categories were originated in eastern part of India and one at central part while the last one was from Punjab belt of undivided India,We should remember that the spiritual part of Veda is called as "Sruti" and temporal part of Veda is called as "Smriti", This is due to the fact that scripts were not invented and Brahmins used to memorize by chanting in a particular way (known as Chandas) through listening to their Gurus, as script was not invented in India because Vedic people were not familiar on scripts, Contrary to this theory, historians have found evidences that Aryans were familiar with the script earlier to the compilation of Vedas, Therefore, if Indians/Bengalis are the off shoots of Aryans, Sruti and Smriti procedure would not be used to remember Vedas,We should not forget Valmiki of Ramayana is the "Adi Kavi" was from east India, Next Mahabharata compiled by Veda Vaysa and written by Ganesha and both were native Indians belonging to Ganga Yamuna River Valley,A classic example of Aryan phobia in IndiaReligion of the, Royal family and commoners of, Cooch Bihar : During the British period,, while modern Indian education system was at very infancy stage, the Aryan theory was injected so much to Indian people, that Indian intellectuals actually started believing the British theory, and all higher caste people not only accepted their theory but they become their propaganda officials, It had affected our religious thoughts in such a manner that, all religious leaders believed and accepted that Aryans were the originators of Vedas, However, to prove that Indians were superior to Europeans, many of the Indian thinkers propagated that India was the native land of Aryans and from here only they migrated to other countries, They started calling India as "Aryavarta", In fact there is no mention of the name "ARYAVARTA" in entire Vedic literatures,This phobia made Indians to link themselves with Aryan race by hook or by crook, A classic case is the history of Cooch tribe of North eastern part of present India, The ancient Cooch country was consisting of present north Bengal, Northern part of present Bangladesh and western part of present Assam from Guwahati, Their physical characteristics are close to Bengalis, Bhutanese and Nepalese, They look like Mongoloid origin,During this British period, one of Cooch literator Panchanan Pandit invited Bramhins from Varanasi and other places of India and performed a very big Yagna on the bank of river "Torsa", At that Yagna the Brahmins declared that Cooch race was of Aryan stock, their society and castes were defined in accordance with Vedic Sastras, From that day the Cooch people stated wearing of Yogna-Upabita, in line with Bramhins, Their Gotra was defined as "Kashyap Gotra", To concretize their theory, a beautiful story was compiled ,According to that story, Coochs are the descendents of King Dasarath, father of Rama of Solar dynasty, They fled from their original inhabitant place to Cooch Bihar in order to escape from the wrath of Lord Parasuram,The fact is that, there was no casteism among Cooch prior to that event prior to the introduction of Vedic religion to them, The historical facts says that their earliest known religion is Buddhism and the existence of huge, numbers of Mathas/Vihars in that country, made the Aryans of Islamic faith, to name the place as "Cooch Vihar",Their next royal religion was "Saivaism", during those periods they built a lot of Saiva/Ishwara temples (viz, Baneshwar temple, Jalpeshwar temple etc),Their next religion was "Saktism", and became worshipper of Kali/Chandika/Durga etc, During this period, the built lot of Sakti/Kalika temples, The most famous among them was "Kamakhya Temple" of Guwahati of present Assam, This temple was renovated and built by them and priests from Nadia district of West Bengal were brought to administer the temple, They are known as "Parvatia Gosain", Even today they are the priests of this temple,In next phase, they embraced Vaishnavism and became devotees of Lord Krishna, During this period they established "Madan Mohon Temple" complex at Cooch Bihar town, Every year the "Raas Mela" in honour of Lord Krishna is being celebrated after Durga Puja or Dushera to commemorate the conversion from Saktism to Vaishnavism is celebrated there for a month,A very peculiar thing can be observed (Hidden Clue) which is unique to Cooch Bihar, A very large chakra/wheel in the shape of a temple is made, and the opening of the grand festival is to be inaugurated by King by rotating that Chakra in a circular way, Now the district magistrate performs this ceremony in ugg boots sale uk absence of the King, The interesting part is that, this chakra is being made by a Muslim family from the very beginning of ancient time, Though the Cooch people are no longer Buddhists, but they could not leave their glorious days of Buddhism and carrying their old tradition in a different way, The poor peasants of the state embraced Islam from Buddhism; however the kings did not change the carpenter family of that Chakra, The practice is in continuance even today,The Last three generations were the followers of "Bramha religion", founded by Maharaja Keshab Chandra Sen, Raja Ram Mohon Roy, Maharshi Devendra Nath Thakur (Father of Rabindra Nath Tagore), The Cooch King embraced Brahma religion after the marriage of Suniti Devi daughter of Maharaja Keshab Chandra Sen and Grand mother of Rajmata Gayatri Devi of Jaipur of Rajasthan, The royal family built a Bramha temple also at Cooch Bihar, However their western way of living and in their long absence at Cooch Bihar could not make the religion as the religion of common people, The present Cooch peoples are part of modern Hinduism with regular caste systemThe same can be noticed among Assamese people, A similar thing was done at Rajasthan and whole lot of Rajasthanis was brought under Brahmanism (Vedic) fold from Buddhism,This is the effect of Aryanization of Indians by intellectual Europeans,Conclusion In such case, will it be fair that Vedic religion was brought by Aryans from outside India through north western frontier of India and Bengalis/Indians are the descendent of those Aryans,,END, Ghost Towns In The East Every state has ghost towns, Eastern and Midwestern States are no exception, At one time or another you may have driven your car right by a ghost town, not aware of it, If you are a hiker, backpacker, or a hunter, you may have walked past or through a ghost town not knowing one was there,When people hear the words "ghost town", they associate the term with the old, abandoned towns of the Western frontier, Many of those settlements are still standing, but in the Eastern states, the majority of old towns from the 1800's to the early part of the 1900's are no longer visible, And it is because they are no longer visible, that makes them virtually unknown,Another reason why people are not aware that ghost towns exist in the east is because historians and writers have overlooked them,History writers never took the time to research the ghost towns of Middle America and the Eastern states, Instead, there has always been the fascination with the ghost towns of the Western states,, Most books or stories having to do with the "gold rush" will probably mention a Western town that once thrived; yet today it is a ghost town, Those stories have kept alive the interest about the Western ghost towns,The excitement that surrounds the ghost towns in the Midwest and the East, becomes even more interesting, because they are more difficult to locate, And the difficulty of locating these ghost towns makes them more of a mystery,My travels as a treasure hunter have taken me to many Eastern Ghost towns, I have hiked through miles of brush, crossed hundreds of streams and rivers and climbed steep ravines in search for the old towns of the east,Anyone who is interested in American History should take the time to research and to explore the settlements that once populated our rural areas, It's a great adventure and an interesting way to spend time outdoors,Cellar HolesIn the Eastern and Midwestern States, most of the ghost towns are nothing more than a hole in the ground, The holes are cellar holes, They are what's left of the houses that once sat on top of them,Searching for cellar holes or ghost towns is an exciting adventure that can lead to some interesting experiences and treasures, Many times, in the areas surrounding the ghost towns, are pieces of history, lying on the ground, untouched for hundreds of years, Old bottles and pottery shards often lay scattered, I also use a metal detector to search for relics lost or buried by the past inhabitants,The First PioneersThe first pioneers were a hardy bunch, They had to deal with harsh winter months and hot, humid summers, In addition wild animals and infectious diseases were a constant problem, Of course, there was no running water or electricity either, Everything was done by hand, including digging the cellars for the homes,Nor was raising a family easy,, Many young babies and children died of disease, This is confirmed by the fact that as I locate old cellar holes, I often stumble upon an old tombstone erected on the property by the family, and often the grave is the burial site of a young child,I have a lot of respect for those pioneersHow To Find Eastern Ghost TownsGhost towns existed as a small town or village, They were probably the first settlement of an area, Today they are holes in the ground, covered and hidden by hundreds of years of vegetation, Time, weather and man, have all played their parts in the ruins of the old towns of the Eastern and Midwestern States,Start by browsing used bookstores, Look for old books in the local history sections,, Oftentimes by reading through an old book about an area, you can gather information about an old town,Historical SocietiesVisit your local historical societies, A great amount of information on the history of your area can be found there, I have found ghost towns by searching through old newspapers that were on file at the historical societies,LibrariesThe history sections of your local libraries are another great place to search for the old settlements,The InternetA great tool for research now is the Internet, Researching ghost towns on the Internet is no different, For a recent television series I produced, the Internet and my computer provided valuable information for my search of a ghost town,,, Frank W, Pandozzi Out of Africa: Albinism and Origins Of Skin Color[ A Short Synopsis] Based on what we know from archaeological finds, genetic and fossil evidence, radiometric and carbon dating, I would have to conclude that the origins of human life began in Africa, However, I have to strongly disagree with Dr, Frances Welsing's (1974 publications) conclusions on skin color and albinism, Yet, I understand how it was possible to arrive at the conclusions that Dr, Welsing's came to when one considers the advances made in analytical and genetic testing in the past 40 to 50 years,Today we now know that albinism is inherited to both dark and light skin races of the planet and its occurrence is about 1 in 20,000 p