that Herodotus speaks of the Colchians as Egyptians: to which it m ay he answered, that he does so
in a generic or comprehensive sense; precisely as in our own time the army of Ibrahim Pacha is said
to be composed of Negroes and Fellahs, who, with all their motley grades, receive the collective
name of Egyptians* As Herodotus is chiefly appealed to by those who would merge the Egyptian
in the Negro, I think some extracts from his work will show that he himself had no such view. He
has for example the following passage: “ The priests afterwards recited to me the names of three
hundred and thirty sovereigns (successors of Menes;) in.this continued series, eighteen were Ethiopians,
and one a female native of the country- a l l the rest were men and Egyptians.” Let us analyse
this passage. It is admitted that these eighteen Ethiopians: were foreigners; yet in all probability
Nubians, and not Negroes. If it be contended, however, that they were real Negroes, then it will
follow that only one-eighteenth part of this long line of monarchs could have been of Negro origin.
It is also reasonable to infer, that whatever may have been the national character of this exotic
minority, they reigned in Egypt by usurpation or. by conquest. J Moreover, this “ female native of
the country,” was Nitocris, who is described by Manetho as “ remarkably beautiful, with a fair skin
' and flaxen hair.” § It is unnecessary to remark that no two personal traits could be more diametrically
opposite to those of the Negro than these; and as Nitocris was a native Egyptian, and of the royal
line, we may reasonably infer that she possessed, in an eminent degree, the national characteristics of
the high-caste Egyptians. . .
This question is further elucidated by the numberless pictorial and other representations in the
tombs of Egypt and Nubia. Thus, in the plates to Belzoni’s Researches, among the most ancient
Nubian remains, we see figures of various complexions, from a light flesh-color to a dark red, and
these are conjoined with strictly Caucasian or Asiatic features. Another series represents four
unequivocal Negroes, marked by every characteristic trait, indudmg, of course, a jet black skin;
while, on the same picture, and as if to enforce the distinction of race by a direct contrast, several
other personages are seen with fair skins and Caucasian lineaments.!
“ Black people,” says Mr. Wilkinson, I designated as natives of the foreign land o f Cush, are
generally represented on the Egyptian monuments either as captives, or as the bearers of tribute to
the Pharaohs.” 11 “ I remarked,” says Denon, “ many decapitated figures: these were all dark, while
those who had struck off their heads, and still stood over them sword in hand, were red.” **
. This feature of the „ „ .e ra Egyptian anny is well explained in Burkhardt, M p. Ml, fce.-Leng after tinnpar.
of my manuscript was ready for the press, I read the learned Dr. Wiseman’s Lecture, on Urn Natural History of Man
in wMclr I find the following o orroWive passage: “ I. is ot easy,” he remarks, - to reconcile the ■ B H
thus obtained from wrihus and from monuments, and it is no wonder that learned men should have, Mered widely m
opinion on rite subject. I should think the best solution is, that Egypt was the country where, th . Greeks moat easriy
L the inhabitants of interior Africa, many of whom doubtless Hooked thither and were settled there, or served the
army as tributaries or provincials, as they have done in later times; and thus they.eame to he e.nfounded by wetter, wt.b
the country whom alono they knew them, and were eo.siderol a part of the indigenous population.» g g A P- ’ •
t The geographical meaning of the word BHopion will be explained m the chapter on the Negro Race.
± Herod. Euterpe, lib. c. . . .
5 hfatiETHO, as quoted in Wilkinson’s Anc. Egypt, I, PP- 28, 91. Thu reader may also put his own eonstmetion on
the foBowing passaged. Herodotus: “ We may venti.ru to asseri,” says he, * U * r * * * - * * - “ “ W “
health and constitution to he compared to the Egyptians.”—Euterpe, cap. LXXVI.
o Besearohes, folio p la te s-D r. Wiseman also refem for furiher proof to Hoskins’. Trim, in Ethtopm, which I have
not seen.
f Ancient Egypt, I, p. 4. Voy. H, p. 296.
At the entrance of the temple of Ipsamboul, in Nubia, Burkhardt saw the remains of several
colossal statues, cut out of the solid rock; of the most perfect of them he remarks: “ The head which
is above the surface [of the sand] has a most expressive, youthful countenance, approaching nearer to
the Grecian model of beauty than that of any ancient Egyptian figure I have seen.” *
But with reference to the physical character of the Egyptians, there is a source of evidence to
which some allusion has already been made, and which is more conclusive than any other: I refer
to the embalmed bodies of the Theban catacombs. These vast cemeteries are crowded with genuine
Egyptians, whose remains even now retain almost every feature in perfection. Here are the very
people who walked the streets ofrThebes, they who built Luxor and the Pyramids; and yet among
the thousands whose bodies curiosity and avarice have dragged from their tombs, I am not aware
that a solitary Negro has been discovered.
“ It is now clearly proved,” says the illustrious Cuvier—“ yet it is necessary to repeat the truth,
because the contrary error is still found in the newest works—that neither the Gallas, (who border on
Abyssinia,) nor the Bosjesmans, nor any race of Negroes, produced the celebrated people who gave
birth to the civilisation o f ancient Egypt, and of whom w e may say that the whole world has inherited
the principles of its laws, sciences, and perhaps also religion. ‘ It is easy to prove, that whatever ma y
have been the hue o f their skin, they belonged to the same race with ourselves. I have examined in
Paris, and in the various collections of Europe, more than fifty heads of mummies, and not one
amongst them presented the characters of the Negro or Hottentot.” t
It may justly be inquired, if science, art and literature, had their origin with a Negro tribe on the
skirts of Africa, how does it happen that the stream of knowledge has never flowed into, but always
from that country ? For while it has been permanently diffused through Asia and Europe, in Africa
itself it cannot be traced beyond the mountains of Nubia. Again, it is now proved almost beyond
controversy, that Egypt, and, not Nubia, was the mother of the arts; Stod that the stupendous
monuments of the Upper Nile, and especially those of Merbe, were the. works of the Pharaohs, and
indicate the great marts of commerce between Egypt and the other nations of Africa. $
The passages from the Greek poets which bear on this subject, have been ingeniously analysed
by Dr. Prichard, to whose work on the Physical History of Mankind, the reader is referred for much
valuable information on this subject. “ Some of these passages,” says Dr. Prichard, “ 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 that 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
memorable occasion o f the marriage of Solomon with Pharaoh’s daughter. Were a modern historian
to record the nuptials of an European monarch with the daughter of a Negro king, such a circumstance
would surely find its- place. And since Egypt was so closely connected with Grecian affairs when
under the Ptolemies, and afterwards with the rest of Europe when it became a Roman province,
it is very singular, on the supposition that, this nation .was so remarkably different from the resjfcof
mankind, that we have no allusion to it.” §
* Trav. in Nubia, p. 91. ; ƒ Lawrence’s Lect. on Zool. p. 347, &c.
£ Heeren, Anc. African Nations, I, p. 426.—W ilkinson, Anc. Egypt, I, p. 4, 13.
§Res. I, p. 319.