Canaan is the last of the three of Ham’s four sons whose descendants are given in detail. This is the son on whom the curse of Ham fell, probably because he already showed his ungodly character.
At this point Custance makes some interesting observations. He says, ‘There still remains however the vast aggregate of peoples who are generally classified as Mongoloid, who settled the Far East and the New World. Do they really appear in this genealogical tree, or must we admit that the table of nations is not comprehensive here? There are two names which I think may conceivably provide us with clues. That they should be so briefly referred to in the genealogy here may seem surprising if – as we have been proposing – they gave rise to such enormous populations. We are referring specifically to Heth, a son of Canaan, and the Sinites, the tribe presumably descended from Sin, a brother of Heth. Heth was without question, the father of the Hittites.’ Custance notes the view of Condor that when the Hittite Empire crumbled all the Hittites of importance were either killed or fled eastwards. And he assumes that they became a not an important part of early Chinese stock. He also speculates that Heth’s brother, whose name was presumably Sin, may further have had his name preserved in the modern term ‘China’. He adds ‘the Chinese have a tradition that their first king, Fu-hi [Fu-xi], made his appearance on the mountains of chin immediately after the world had been covered with water.’ Furthermore, he refers to what many see as clear evidence that those who settled the New World also passed through China.