Ham

Ham, according to the writer of Genesis, was the second son of Noah, and the brother of Shem and Japheth. The name, however, as generally used, is geographical rather than ethnographical. The word Ham in Hebrew signifies 'to be hot,' and the descendants of this son of Noah are represented as peopling the southern regions of the earth, so far as known at that time—viz. Arabia, the Persian Gulf, Egypt, Ethiopia, Libya, &c. Ham has also been identified with Keni ('black land'), an ancient name of Egypt; but for this identification there exists no satisfactory philological evidence. Philologists and ethnologists recognise as a distinct family of peoples and tongues a group which they call 'Hamitic,' classifying it as co-ordinate with the Aryan and the Semitic. See AFRICA, Vol. I. pp. 85, 86.