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e subside, and is boiled and eaten like potatoes, | Polyptere bichir, described by Geoffroy-Saint-Hilaire which it somewhat resembles in taste. Herodotus (Annales du Muséum, vol. 1, p. 57), is a very remarka(2, 92) states, that the Egyptians not only ate the root, ble example. That able naturalist observes, in general, out made a sort of bread of the seed, which resembled that the birds of Egypt differ not much from those of that of the poppy. He adds, that there is a second Europe. He saw the Egyptian swan represented in species, the root of which is very grateful, either fresh all the temples of Upper Egypt, both in sculptures and or dried. The plant which was chiefly eaten by the in coloured paintings, and entertains no doubt that this ancient Egyptians, and which is so frequently carved bird was the chenaloper (vulpanser) of Herodotus, to on the ancient monuments, is supposed to be the which the ancient Egyptians paid divine honours, and nymphæa nelumbo, or nelumbium speciosum, the "sa- had even dedicated a town in Upper Egypt, called by cred bean" of India, now found only in that country. the Greeks Chenoboscium. It is not peculiar to Egypt, Its seeds, which are about the size of a bean, have a but is found all over Africa, and almost all over Eudelicate flavour resembling almonds, and its roots also rope. The Ibis, which was believed to be a destroyer are edible. The lotus of Homer, however, the fruits of serpents, is, according to the observations of Cuvier, of which so much delighted the companions of Ulysses, a sort of curlew, called at present Aboohannes. Grois a very different plant, namely, the ziziphus lotus bert and Geoffroy-Saint-Hilaire have brought home (rhamnus), or jujube, which bears a fruit the size of a mummies of this animal, which had been prepared and sloe, with a large stone, and is one of the many plants entombed with much superstitious care. (Memoire sur which have been erroneously fixed on by learned com- 'Ibis, par M. Cuvier.-Maltc-Brun, Geogr., vol. 4, p. mentators as the dudaim (mandrakes) of the sacred 45, seqq.) writings. The papyrus, not less celebrated in ancient times than the lotus, and which is believed to have disappeared from the banks of the Nile, has been rediscovered in the cyperus papyrus of Linnæus. The colocasum is still cultivated in Egypt for its large esculent roots. The banks of the river and the canals 30metimes present coppices of acacia and mimosa, and there are groves of rose-laurel, willow, cassia, and other shrubs. Faioom contains impenetrable hedges of cactus, or Indian fig. But, though so rich in plants, Egypt is destitute of timber, and all the firewood is imported from Caramania. (Malte-Brun, Geogr., vol. 4, p. 38, seqq.-Modern Traveller (Egypt), p. 18, seqq.)

2. Animal Kingdom.

3. Name of Egypt.

The name by which this country is known to Europeans comes from the Greeks, some of whose writers inform us that it received this appellation from Ægyptus, son of Belus, having been previously called Acria. (Compare Eusebius, Chron., lib. 2, p. 284, cd. Man et Zohrab.) In the Hebrew Scriptures it is styled Mitsraim, and also Matsor, and harets Cham: of these names, however, the first is the one mcst ccmmonly employed. The Arabians and other Orientals still know it by the name of Mesr or Mier. Accord ing to general opinion, Egypt was called Mitsraim after the second son of Ham. Bochart, however, opposes this (Geogr. Sacr. 4, 24), and contends that the The animal kingdom of Egypt will not detain us name of Mitsraim, being a dual form, indicates the long. The want of meadows prevents the multiplica- two divisions of Egypt into Upper and Lower. Caltion of cattle. They must be kept in stables during met (Dict., art. Misraim) supposes that it denotes the the inundation. The Mamelukes used to keep a beau- people of the country rather than the father of the tiful race of saddle-horses. Asses, mules, and camels people. Josephus (Ant. Jud., 1, 6) cal's Egypt Mesappear here in all their vigour. There are also nu-tra; the Septuagint translators, Mctsram; Eusebius merous herds of buffaloes. In Lower Egypt there are and Suidas, Mestrana. The Coptic name of Old Cairo sheep of the Barbary breed. The large beasts of prey is still Mistraim; the Syrians and Arabs call it Masra find in this country neither prey nor cover. Hence, or Massera. The other appellation, Matser, as given though the jackal and hyena are common, the lion is above, Bochart has clearly proved to mean a fortress; but rarely seen in pursuit of the gazelles which traverse and, according to him, Egypt was so called, either from the deserts of the Thebaid. The crocodile and the hip- its being a region fortified by nature, or from the word popotamus, those primeval inhabitants of the Nile, tsor, which significs narrow, and which he thinks sufseem to be banished from the Delta, but are still seen in ficiently descriptive of the valley of Upper Egypt. Sir Upper Egypt. The islands adjoining the cataracts are W. Drummond (Origines, 2, 55) inclines to the first sometimes found covered with crocodiles, which choose of these two etymologics, because Diodorus Siculus these places for depositing their eggs. The voracity (1, 30) and Strabo (803) remark, that Egypt was a of the hippopotamus has, by annihilating his means of country extremely difficult of access; and Diodorus, support, greatly reduced the number of his race. Ab- speaking of the Upper Egypt, observes, that it seems dollatif, with some justice, denominates this ugly ani- not a little to excel other limited places in the kingdom, mal an enormous water-pig. It has been long known by a natural fortification (дxvpótηti dvσiký) and by that the ichneumon is not tamed in Upper Egypt, as the beauty of the country. The third appellation menBuffon had believed. The ichneumon is the same an- tioned above, namely, harets Cham,the land of imal which the ancients mention under that name, and Ham," seems to have been the poetical name for Egypt which has never been found except in this country. among the Hebrews, and accordingly it occurs only in It possesses a strong instinct of destruction, and, in the Psalms. It is a tradition, at least as old as the time searching for its prey, exterminates the young of many of St. Jerome, that the land of Ham was so named noxious reptiles. The eggs of crocodiles form its fa- after the son of Noah. (Quæst. in Genesin.- Drumvourite food; and in addition to this its favourite repast, mond's Origines, 2, 45, seqq.) There may, however, it eagerly sucks the blood of every creature which it is be reason to think, that the patriarch was named after able to overcome. Its body is about a foot and a half the country where it is supposed he finally settled. In in length, and its tail is of nearly equal dimensions. Hebrew, cham signifies" calidus ;" and chem, "fuscus,” Its general colour is a grayish brown; but, when "niger." In Egyptian we find several words which are closely inspected, each hair is found annulated with a nearly the same both in sound and sense. paler and a darker hue. Zoology has lately been en-chmom, signifies "calor," and xaue, chame, “niger." riched with several animals brought from Egypt, among The Egyptians always called their country Chemia or which are the coluber haje, an animal figured in all the Chame, probably from the burned and black appearance hieroglyphical tables as the emblem of Providence; of the soil. (Compare Plut., de Is. et Os., p. 364.~ and the coluber vipera, the true viper of the ancients. Shawe's Travels, fol. ed., p. 432.-Calmet's Dict., art. The Nile seems to contain some singular fishes hith- Ham.) The name Aeria has a similar reference, and erto unknown to systematic naturalists. Of this the would seem to have been a translation of the native

Thus χρομ,

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word, the primitive ȧýp denoting obscurity, duskiness. Thus, the scholiast on Apollonius Rhodius (1, 580) says, that Thessaly was called 'Hepía, according to one explanation, on account of the dark colour of its soil; and adds that Egypt was denominated 'Hepía for a similar reason. Bryant (6, 149), who cites this passage of the scholiast, represents it as a vulgar error; but his reasoning is, as usual, unsatisfactory. The etymology of the word Egypt has occupied the attention and baffled the ingenuity of many learned writers. The most common opinion is, that Alyvтog is composed of ala (for yaia), land, and yúnтоç, or rather кóπTos, and that, consequently, Egypt signifies the land of Kopt, or the Koptic land. Others derive it from aia, and you, the black vulture, the colour of that bird (whence the Latin subvulturius, "blackish") being, according to them, characteristic of the soil or its inhabitants. Mede conceives the primitive form to have been Aia Cupht, the land of Cuphti; while Bruce says, that Y Gypt, the name given to Egypt in Ethiopia, means the country of canals. Eusebius, who is supposed to have followed Manetho, the Egyptian historian, states, that Ramses, or Ramesses, who reigned in Egypt (according to Usher) B.C. 1577, was also called Egyptus, and that he gave it his name, as has already been mentioned. (Euseb. Chron. 2, p. 284, cd. Man ct Zohrab.)

4. Divisions of Egypt.

In the time of the Pharaohs, Egypt was divided into the Thebais, Middle, and Lower Egypt. The Thebais extended from Syene, or, more correctly speaking, Philæ, as far as Abydos, and contained ten districts, jurisdictions, or, as the Greeks called them, nomes (Nóuot. Herod. 2, 164). The Coptic word is Pthosch. (Champollion, l'Egypte sous les Pharaons, 1, 66.) To these succeeded the sixteen nomes of Middle Egypt (Strabo, 787), reaching to Cercasorus, where the Nile began to branch off. Then came the ten nomes of Lower Egypt, or the Delta, extending to the sea. The whole number of nomes then was thirty-six, and this arrangement is said by Diodorus Siculus (1, 50) to have been introduced by Sesostris (Sethosis-Ramesses) previous to his departure on his expedition into Asia, in order that, by means of the governors placed over each of these nomes, his kingdom might be the better governed during his absence, and justice more carefully administered. It is more than probable, however, that this division was much older than the time of Sesostris (Champollion, l'Egypte, &c., 1, 71), and the account given by Strabo, respecting the halls of the labyrinth, would seem to confirm this. The geographer informs us, that the halls of this structure coincided with the number of the nomes, and the building would seem to have occupied a central position with respect to these various districts, having eighteen nomes to the north, and as many to the south, and thus answering a civil as well as a religious purpose. (Ritter, Erdkunde, 2d ed., 1, 704.) Under the dynasty of the Ptolemies the number of the nomes became enlarged, partly by reason of the new and improved state of things in that quarter of Egypt where Alexandrea was situated, partly by the addition of the Oases to Egypt, and partly also by the alterations which an active commerce had produced along the borders of the Arabian Gulf. A change also took place, about this same period, in the three main divisions of the land. Lower Egypt now no longer confined itself to the limits of the Delta, but had its extent enlarged by an addition of some of the neighbouring nomes. In like manner, Upper Egypt, or the Thebais, received a portion of what had formerly been included within the limits of Middle Egypt, so that eventually but seven nomes remained to this last-mentioned section of country, which therefore received the name of Heptanomis. (Mannert, Geogr., 10, 1, 303.) |

A new

Under the Roman dominion, Thebais alone was regarded as a separate division of the country; all the rest of the land obtained no farther division than that produced by its nomes. Hence Pliny (5, 9). after mentioning eleven nomes as forming the district of Thebais, speaks of the country around Pelusium as consisting of four others, and then, without any other division, enumerates thirty nomes in the rest of Egypt. At this time, then, the nomes had increased to 45. They became still farther increased, at a subsequent period, by various subdivisions of the older ones. Hence we find Ptolemy enumerating still more nomes than Pliny, while he omits the mention of others recorded by the latter, which probably existed no longer in his own days. At a still later period we hear little more of the nomes. A new division of the country took place under the Eastern empire. An imperial Prefect exercised sway over not only Egypt, but also Libya as far as Cyrene, while a Comes Militaris had charge of the forces. The power of the latter extended over all Egypt as far as Ethiopia, but a Dux, who was dependant on him, exercised particular control over the Thebais. This arrangement seems to have been introduced in the time of the Emperor Theodosius, as appears from the language of the Notitia. From this time, the whole of Middle Egypt, previously named Heptanomis, bore the name of Arcadia, in honour of Arcadius, eldest son of Theodosius. province had also arisen a considerable time before this, named Augustamnica, from its lying chiefly along the Nile. It comprised the eastern half of the Delta, together with a portion of Arabia as far as the Arabian Gulf, and also the cities on the Mediterranean coast as far as the Syrian frontier. Its capital was Pelusium. The name of this province is mentioned by the ecclesiastical writers as early as the time of Constantine, and it occurs also in the history of Ammianus Marcellinus (22, 16). About the time of Justinian, in the sixth century, the position of the various archbishop rics and bishoprics, all subject to the patriarchate of Alexandrea, gave rise to a new distribution of provin ces. The territory of Alexandrea, with the western portion of the Delta in the vicinity of the Ostium Canopicum, was called The First Egypt," and the more eastern part, as far as the Ostium Phatneticum, was termed The Second Egypt." The northeastern quarter of the Delta, on the Pelusiac arm of the Nile, together with the eastern tract as far as the Arabian Gulf, received the appellation of "The First Augustamnica," and had Pelusium for its capital. The inner part of the western Delta, as far as the Ostium Phatneticum, was named "The Second Augustamnica." Its capital was Leontopolis. Thus the Delta, with the country immediately adjacent, embraced four small provinces. Middle Egypt still retained a large part of its previous extent, under the name of Middle Egypt or Arcadia (Méσn Alyvπtoç, î 'Apкadía). Memphis belonged to it as the northernmost state; but it was by this time greatly sunk in importance, and Oxyrynchus had succeeded it as the metropolis. Amid all these changes, the Thebais was continually regarded as a separate district. It now received new accessions from the north, and a double appellation arose. The northern and smaller portion, which had originally formed a part of Middle Egypt, was called " The First Thebais." To it was appended the Oasis Magna, and its metropolis was Antropolis. The southern regions as far as Philæ and Thatis, including a small part of Ethiopia, formed "The Second Thebais." Its capital was Coptos. It seems unnecessary to pursue the subsequent changes that gradually ensued, especially as they are of no peculiar importance either in point of history or geography. (Compare Hierocles, Synekdemos; in Wesseling's Rom. İtin., Amst., 1735, 4to.-Mannert, Geogr., 10, 1, 305, segg.)

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5. Population of Egypt.

Diodorus Siculus (1, 31) states, on the authority of the ancient Egyptian records, that the land contained, in the time of the Pharaohs, more than 18,000 cities and villages. The same writer informs us, that, in the time of the first Ptolemy, the number was above 30,000. In this latter statement, however, there is an evident exaggeration. Theocritus (Idyll. 17, 82, seqq ) assigns to Ptolemy Philadelphus the sovereignty over 33,333 cities. In this also there is exaggeration, but not of so offensive a character as in the former case,

since the sway of Philadelphus did, in fact, extend
over other countries besides Egypt; such as Syria,
Phoenicia, Cyprus, Pamphylia, Caria, &c. Pomponius
Mela (1, 9), and Pliny (5, 9), who frequently copies
him, confine themselves with good reason to a more
moderate number. According to them, the Egyptians
occupied, in the time of Amasis, 20,000 cities. This
number is borrowed from Herodotus (2, 77), and may
be made to correspond with that first given from Dio-
dorus Siculus, if we take into consideration that Ama-
sis had extended his sway over Cyrenaica also, and
that this may serve to swell the number as given by
Herodotus, Mela, and Pliny, leaving about 18,000 for
Egypt itself. Diodorus Siculus (L. c.) gives the an-
cient population of the country as seven millions, an
estimate which does not appear excessive, when com-
pared with that of other lands. The number would
seem to have been somewhat increased during the
reign of the Ptolemies, and to have continued so under
the Roman sway, since we find Josephus (Bell. Jud.
2, 16) estimating the population of Egypt, in the time
of Vespasian, at 7,500,000, without counting that of
Alexandrea, which, according to Diodorus (17, 52),
was 300,000, exclusive of slaves. When we read,
however, in the same Diodorus (1, 31), that in his
days the inhabitants of Egypt amounted to "not less
than three millions" (ovк ¿ZÚTTоvç eivai īpιakoσiwv sc.
pvpuador), we must regard this number as the interpo-
lation of a scribe, and must consider Diodorus as mere-
ly wishing to convey this idea, that, in more ancient
times, the population was said to have been seven mil-
lions, and that in his own days it was not inferior to this.
(Τοῦ δὲ σύμπαντος λαοῦ τὸ μὲν παλαιόν φασι γεγονέναι
περὶ ἑπτακοσίας μυριάδας, καὶ καθ' ἡμᾶς δὲ οὐκ ἐλάτ-
τους είναι [τριακοσίων]. Compare Wesseling, ad
loc. Mannert, 10, 2, 309, seg?)

6. Complexion and Physical Structure of the
Egyptrans.

A few remarks relative to the physical character of this singular people, may form no uninteresting prelude to their national history. There are two sources of information respecting the physical character of the ancient Egyptians. These are, first, the descriptions of their persons incidentally to be met with in the ancient writers; and, secondly, the numerous remains of paintings and sculptures, as well as of human bodies, preserved among the ruins of ancient Egypt. It is not easy to reconcile the evidence derived from these different quarters. The principal data from which a judgment is to be formed are as follows: 1. Accounts given by the ancients. If we were to judge from the remarks in some passages of the ancient writers alone, we should perhaps be led to the opinion that the Egyptians were a woolly-haired and black people, like the negroes of Guinea. There is a well-known passage of Herodotus (2, 104), which has often been cited to this purpose. The authority of this historian is of the more weight, as he had travelled in Egypt, and was, therefore, well acquainted, from his own observation, with the appearance of the people; and it is well known that he is in general very accurate and faithful in relating the facts and describing the objects which fell under his personal observation. In his account

of the people of Colchis, he says, that they were a colony of Egyptians, and he supports his opinion by this argument, that they were μɛhúyxpoεs kai ovλótρixes, or, " black in complexion, and woolly-haired." These are exactly the words used in the description of undoubted negroes. The same Colchians, it may be observed, are mentioned by Pindar (Pyth. 4, 377) as being black, with the epithet of κελαινώπες, όπ which passage the scholiast observes, that the Colchians were black, and that their dusky hue was attributed to their descent from the Egyptians, who were of the same complexion. Herodotus, in another place (2, 57), alludes to the complexion of the Egyptians, as if it was very strongly marked, and, indeed, as if they were quite black. After relating the fable of the foundation of the Dodonean oracle by a black pigeon, which had fled from Thebes in Egypt, and uttered its prophecies from the oaks at Dodona, he adds his conjecture respecting the true meaning of the tale. Ho supposes the oracle to have been instituted by a female captive from the Thebaid, who was enigmatically described as a bird, and subjoins, that, by representing the bird as black, they marked that the woman was an Egyptian." Some other writers have left us expressions equally strong. Eschylus, in the Supplices (v. 722, seqq.), mentions the crew of an Egyptian bark, as seen from an eminence on shore. The person who espies them concludes them to be Egyptians from their black complexion :

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πρέπουσι δ' ἄνδρες νήίοι μελαγχίμοις

γυίοισι λευκῶν ἐκ πεπλωμάτων ἰδεῖν

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behind marked him

There are other passages in ancient writers, in which the Egyptians are mentioned as a swarthy people, which might with equal propriety be applied to a perfect black, or to a brown or dusky Nubian. have, in one of the dialogues of Lucian (Navigium seu Vota.-vol. 8, 157, ed. Bip.), a ludicrous description of a young Egyptian, who is represented as belonging to the crew of a trading vessel at the Piræus. It is said of him, that, “besides being black, he had projecting lips, and was very slender in the legs, and that his hair and the curls bushed up to be of servile rank. The words of the original are, οὗτος δὲ πρὸς τῷ μελάγχρους εἶναι, καὶ πρόχειλος ἐστ τι, καὶ λεπτὸς ἄγαν τοῖν σκελοῖν, ἡ κόμη δὲ, καὶ ἐς τοὐπίσω ὁ πλόκαμος συνεσπειραμένος, οὐκ ἐλευ Dépióv ongiv avròv Eival. The expression, however, which is here applied to the hair, seems rather to agree with the description of the bushy curls worn by the Nouba, than with the woolly heads of negroes. Mr. Legh, in speaking of the Barabras, near Syene, says, The hair of the men is sometimes frizzled at the sides, and stiffened with grease, so as perfectly to resemble the extraordinary projection on the head of the Sphinx. But the make of the limbs corresponds with the negro." (Legh's Travels in Egypt, p. 98.) In another physical peculiarity the Egyptian race is described as resembling the negro. Elian (Hist. Anim. 7, 12) informs us, that the Egyptians used to boast that their women, immediately after they were delivered, could rise from their beds, and go about their domestic labour. Some of these passages are very strongly expressed, as if the Egyptians were negroes; and yet it must be confessed, that if they really were such, it is singular we do not find more frequent allusion to the fact. The Hebrews were a fair people, fairer at least than the Arabs. Yet, in all the intercourse they had with Egypt, we never find in the sacred history the least intimation that the Egyptians were negroes; not even on the remarkable occasion of the marriage of Solomon with the daughter of Pharaoh. Were a modern historian to record the nuptials of a European monarch with the daughter of a negro king, such a circumstance would surely find its place. And since Egypt was so closely connected, first with

Grecian affairs when under the Ptolemies, and after- this, that the red Egyptians were connected by kindeed, ward with the rest of Europe when it had become a and were, in fact, the descendants of a black race, ] rcbRoman province, it is very singular, on the suppositionably the Ethiopian. (Compare plate 92 of the work just that this nation was so remarkably different from the alluded to, and also plates 84 and 86.) In the same rest of mankind, that we have no allusion to it. We volume of the "Description de l'Egypte" is a plate seldom find the Egyptians spoken of as a very peculiar representing a painting at Eilithyia. Numerous figrace of men. These circumstances induce us to hes-ures of the people are seen. It is remarkable that itate in explaining the expressions of the ancients in their hair is black and curled. "Les cheveux noirs that very strong sense in which they at first strike us. et frisés, sans être court et crêpus comme ceux des -2. The second class of data, from which we may Negres." This is probably a correct account of the form a judgment on this subject, are Paintings in hair of the Egyptian race.-3. The third class of data Temples, and oth: remains. If we may judge of the for the present investigation is obtained from the complexion of the Egyptians from the numerous paint-form of the scull. In reference to the form of the ings found in the recesses of temples, and in the tombs scull among the ancient Egyptians, and their osteologiof the kings in Upper Egypt, in which the colours are cal characters in general, there is no want of informapreserved in a very fresh state, we must conclude that tion. The innumerable mummies, in which the whole the general complexion of this people was a chocolate, nation may be said to have remained entire to modern or a red copper colour. This may be seen in the times, afford sufficient means of ascertaining the true coloured figures given by Belzoni, and in numerous form of the race and all its varieties. Blumenbach, who plates in the splendid "Description de l'Egypte." has collected much information on everything relating This red colour is evidently intended to represent the to the history of mummies, in his excellent" Beyträge complexion of the people, and is not put on in the want zur Naturgeschichte," concludes with a remark that of a lighter paint or flesh colour: for when the limbs the Egyptian race, in his opinion, contains three varieor bodies are represented as seen through a thin veil, ties. These are, first, the Ethiopian form; secondly, the tint used resembles the complexion of Europeans. the "Hindus-artige," or a figure resembling the HinThe same shade might have been generally adopted dus; and, thirdly, the "Berber-ähnliche," or, more if a darker one had not been preferred, as more truly properly, Berberin-ähnliche, a form similar to that representing the natural complexion of the Egyptian of the Berbers or Berberins. It must be observed, race. (Compare Belzoni's Remarks, p. 239.) Female however, that Blumenbach has been led to adopt this figures are sometimes distinguished by a yellow or opinion, not so much from the mummies he has examtawny colour, and hence it is probable that the shade ined, as from the remains of ancient arts and from of complexion was lighter in those who were protected historical testimonies. As far as their osteological from the sun. A very curious circumstance in the characters are concerned, it does not appear that the paintings found in Egyptian temples remains to be Egyptians differed very materially from Europeans. noticed. Besides the red figures, which are evidently They certainly had not the character of the scull which meant to represent the Egyptians, there are other fig- belonged to the negroes in the western parts of Africa; ures which are of a black colour. Sometimes these and if any approximation to the negro scull existed represent captives or slaves, perhaps from the negro among them, it must have been rare and in no great countries; but there are also paintings of a very dif- degree. Sommering has described the heads of four ferent kind, which occur chiefly in Upper Egypt, and mummies seen by him; two of them differed in nothing particularly on the confines of Egypt and Ethiopia. In from the European formation; the third had only one these the black and the red figures hold a singular re- | African character, viz., that of a larger space marked lation to each other. Both have the Egyptian costume, out for the temporal muscle; the characters of the and the habits of priests, while the black figures are fourth are not particularized. Mr. Lawrence, in whose represented as conferring on the red the instruments work (Lectures on Physiology, p. 299, Am. ed.) the and symbols of the sacerdotal office. "This singular above evidence of Sömmering is cited, has collected representation," says Mr. Hamilton, "which is often a variety of statements respecting the form of the head repeated in all the Egyptian temples, but only here at in the mummies deposited in the museums and other Phile and at Elephantine with this distinction of col- collections in several countries. He observes, that our, may very naturally be supposed to commemorate in the mummies of females seen by Dénon, in those the transmission of religious fables and the social in- from the Theban catacombs engraved in the great stitutions from the tawny Ethiopians to the compara- French work, and in several sculls and casts in the tively fair Egyptians." It consists of three priests, possession of Dr. Leach, the osteological character is two of whom, with black faces and hands, are repre- entirely European; lastly, he adduces the strong evisented as pouring from two jars strings of alternate dence of Cuvier, who says, that he has examined in sceptres of Osiris and cruces ansata over the head of Paris, and in the various collections of Europe, more another whose face is red. There are other paintings than fifty heads of mummies, and that not one among which seem to be nearly of the same purport. In the them presented the characters of the negro or Hottemple of Philæ, the sculptures frequently depict two tentot. (Lawrence's Lectures, p. 301.-Öbservations persons who equally represent the characters and sym-sur le cadavre de la Venus Hottentotte, par M. Cuvier, bols of Osiris, and two persons equally answering to those of Isis; but in both cases one is invariably much older than the other, and appears to be the superior divinity. Mr. Hamilton conjectures that such figures represent the communication of religious rites from Ethiopia to Egypt, and the inferiority of the Egyptian Osiris. In these delineations there is a very marked and positive distinction between the black figures and those of fairer complexion; the former are most frequent y conferring the symbols of divinity and sovereignty on the other. Besides these paintings described by Mr. Hamilton, there are frequent repetitions of a very singular representation, of which different examples may be seen in the beautiful plates of the "Description de l'Egypte." In these it is plain, that the idea meant to be conveyed can be nothing else than

Mem. du Muscum d'Hist. Natur., 3, 173, seqq.) It could therefore be only in the features, as far as they depend on the soft part, that the Egyptians bore any considerable resemblance to the negro. And the same thing might probably be affirmed of several other nations, who must be reckoned among the native Africans. Particularly it might be asserted of the Berberins or Nubians already mentioned, and, of some tribes of Abyssinians. A similar remark might be made of the Copts. In neither of these races is it at all probable that the scull would exhibit any characteristic of the negro. It is here, then, that we are to look for the nearest representatives of the ancient Egyptians and Ethiopians, and particularly to the Copts, who are descended from the former, and to the copper-coloured races resembling the Berberins or Nubians. Dénor

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7. Origin of Egyptian Civilization. The question that now presents itself, is one of a singularly interesting character. Whence arose the arts and civilization of Egypt? Were they indigenous, or did they come to her as the gift of another land? Everything seems to countenance the idea that civilization came gradually down the valley of the Nile, from the borders of Ethiopia to the shores of the Medilized life were first introduced into Upper Egypt, the lower section of this country formed merely a vast morass or gulf of the sea, and that they followed in their progressive development the course of the stream. (Compare Herodotus, 2, 4.—Id. ibid. 5.—Id. ibid. 11, seqq.-Divd. Sic. 1, 34; and the memoirs of Girard, Andréossy, &c., in the Description de l'Egypte. Compare also the remarks in the present volume under the article Delta.) Monuments, tradition, analogies of every kind, are here in accordance with natural prob abilities. There was a period when the names of Ethiopia and Egypt were confounded together, when the two nations were thought to form but a single people. (Compare the proofs of this assertion, as collected and discussed by Creuzer, Commentat. Herodot., p. 178, seqq., in opposition to Champollion the youn ger; and also the remarks in the present volume, under the articles Æthiopia and Meroë.) In all the re

makes mention of the resemblance which the Copts Prichard's Physical History of Mankind, 1, 316, seqq., bear to the human figures painted or sculptured among | 2d ed.) the ruins of ancient Egypt. He adds the following remarks. "As to the character of the human figure, as the Egyptians borrowed nothing from other nations, they could only copy from their own, which is rather delicate than fine. The female forms, however, resembled the figures of beautiful women of the present day; round and voluptuous; a small nose, the eyes long, half shut, and turned up at the outer angle like those of all persons whose sight is habitually fatigued by the burning heat of the sun or the dazzling white-iterranean. It would appear, that when the arts of civness of snow; the cheeks round and rather thick, the lips full, the mouth large, but cheerful and smiling; displaying, in short, the African character, of which the negro is the exaggerated picture, though perhaps the original type." The visages carved and painted on the heads of the sarcophagi may be supposed to give an idea of an Egyptian countenance. In these there is a certain roundness and flatness of the features, and the whole countenance, which strongly resembles the description of the Copts, and in some degree that of the Berberins. The colour of these visages is the red coppery hue of the last-mentioned people, and is nearly the same, though not always so dark, as that of the figures painted in the temples and catacombs. The most puzzling_circumstance in this comparison refers to the hair. The Copts are said to have frizzled or somewhat crisp, though not woolly, hair. The old Egyptians, as well as the Ethiopians, are termed by the Greeks ovλórpixes. But the hair found in mum-citals and legends of the earliest antiquity, the Egyp mies is generally, if not always, in flowing ringlets, tians are associated with the Ethiopians, and to the lat as long and as smooth as that of any European. Its ter is assigned a distinguished character for wisdom, colour, which is often brown, may depend on art, or knowledge, and piety, which testifies to their priority the substance used in embalming. But the texture is in the order of civilization. (Compare Heeren, Ideen, different from what we should expect it to be, either 2, 1, 314, 405, &c.) We see also the common tradifrom the statements of ancient writers, or from the tions of the two nations referring to Meroë the origin description of the races now existing in the same of most of the cities of Upper Egypt, and, among othcountries. · Conclusion. From what has been ad-ers, of Thebes. It is to Meroë, its ancient metropolis, daced, we may consider it as tolerably well proved, that Thebes attaches itself, when, for the purpose of that the Egyptians and Ethiopians were natives of the extending their commercial interests, they send a colsame race, whose abodes, from the earliest periods of ony to found, in the midst of the deserts, a new city history, were the regions bordering on the Nile. of Ammon. (Herod. 2, 42.-Diod. Sic. 2, 3.) The These nations were not negroes, such as the negroes same institutions, a similar religion, language, and of Guinea, though they bore some resemblance to mode of writing, together with manners most strongly that description of men, at least when compared resembling one another, attest the primitive connexion with the people of Europe. This resemblance, how- that subsisted between these three sacred cities, though ever, did not extend to the shape of the scull, in any so widely apart. It appears, then, that a sacred caste, great degree at least, or in the majority of instances. established from a remote period on the borders of the It perhaps only depended on a complexion and physi- Nile, in the island, or, rather, peninsula formed by the ognomy similar to those of the Copts and Nubians. Astapus and Astaboras, sent forth gradually its sacerThese races partake, in a certain degree, of the Afri- dotal colonies, carrying with them agriculture and the can countenance. The hair in the Ethiopians and first arts of civilized life, along the regions to the north, Egyptians must sometimes have been of a more crisp and that these, proceeding slowly onward, passed or bushy kind than that which is often found in mum- eventually the cataract of Syene, and entered upon the mies; for such is the case in respect to the Copts, valley of Egypt. Placing commerce under the safeand the description of the Egyptians by all ancient guard of religion, and subjugating the inhabitants of the writers obliges us to adopt this conclusion. In com- regions to which they came, more by the benefits they plexion it seems probable that the race was a coun- conferred than by any exercise of force, these stranterpart of the Foulahs, in the west of Africa, nearly ingers became at last the controlling power of the land, the same latitude. The blacker Foulahs resemble in complexion the darkest people of the Nile; they are of a deep brown or mahogany colour. The fairest of the Foulahs are not darker than the Copts, or even than some Europeans. Other instances of as great a variety may be found among the African nations, within the limits of one race, as in the Bishuane Kaffers, who are of a clear brown colour, while the Kaffers of Natal on the coast are of a jet black. From some remarks of Diodorus and Plutarch, it would appear that the birth of fair, and even red-haired individuals occasionally happened in the Egyptian race. Both these writers say, that Typhon was uppós, or red-haired; the former adds that a few of the native Egyptians were of that appearance: ¿λiyovç tivùs. (Diod. Sic., 1, 88.-Plut., de Is. et Os., p. 363.—|

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and laid the foundation of that brilliant character in the annals of civilization which has acquired for Egypt so imperishable a name. (Compare Heeren, Ideen, 2, 1, 363, seqq.-Id. ibid. 2, 532, seqq.-Goerres, Mythengeschichte, 2, 331, seqq. Creuzer, Commentat. Herodot., p. 178, seqq.—Id. Symbolik, par Guignaut, 1, 2, 778, seqq.) But whence came the civilization of Meroë?-This question will be considered in a different article. (Vid. Meroë.)

8. Egyptian History.

The Egyptians, like the Hindus and Persians, had allegorical traditions among them respecting the introduction of agriculture and the first beginnings of civilization in their country. Such were the Songs of Isis, whose high antiquity is attested by Plato (de Leg.

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