‘4 It is thus that we trace this peculiar style of countenance, in its several modifications,
through epochs and in localities the most remote from each other, and in every class of the
Egyptian people. How different from the Pelasgic type, yet how obviously Caucasian!
How varied in outline, yet how readily identified! And, if we compare these features with
those of the Egyptian series of embalmed heads, are we not forcibly impressed with a
striking analogy not only in osteological conformation, but also in the very expression of
the face ? . . . No one, I conceive, will question the analogy I have pointed out. This type
is certainly national, and presents to our view the genuine Egyptian physiognomy, which, in
the ethnographic scale, is intermediate between the Pelasgic and Semitic forms. We may
add, that this conformation is the same which Prof. Blumenbach refers to the Hindoo
variety, in his triple classification of the Egyptian people.277 And this leads us briefly to
inquire,,who were the Egyptians? ” . . ..
That this “genuine Egyptian physiognomy” was -the preponderant
type, seen throughout the whole monumental period known to Morton,
cannot be questioned; but we do not think it is so universal in
the royal families as in the other classes. There is such a want of
portraits and other information of the dynasties between the XHth
and X VIith, that we know little or nothing of the predominant type
of those intermediate times. But it is highly probable, owing to
Hyksos traditions, that the royal families of that period, called the
W Middle Empire,” were in great part Asiatics; and we, are certain
that, after the Restoration, marriages with foreigners were not uncommon.
Alliances of this kind occurred in the XXth and preceding
dynasties; and it is hut reasonable to conclude that such had been
the custom of the country in earlier times; inasmuch as the Bible
has helped us to prove the same habits respecting Jewish amalgamations
with denizens of the Nile.
In order that the reader may be enabled to judge for himself of the
characteristics of the royal families, we have already exhibited some
of their portraits, back to the XVlLth dynasty. It is evident to us,
that these portraits do not fully correspond to Dr. Morton’s Egyptian
Type, but that, on the contrary, they are eminently Asiatic, and not
A fr ic a n . However, it cannot be denied that the pervading type,
throughout Egypt proper, was the one described by him; though we are
not prepared to admit this as the then-common type in the Nubias,
or so high up as Meroe. The monuments of Meroe, on which Ids
opinions were based, have since been discovered to be mere bastard
and modern copies of those of Egypt. This country, until the eighth
century B. c., formed part of the Egyptian Empire; and its later
edifices were built by consecutively ruling races — Egypto-Mero'ite,
then Nubian, and lastly Negro-Nubian. But we have abundant
reason for opining that the populations of the Nubias; in ancient
times, were what (Arab elements deducted) they are now: viz., types
intermediate between Negroes and Egyptians; viewing the latter such
as we behold them at the XVliith dynasty, or about 1500 b . c.
We read the Orania JEgyptiaca, with intense interest, so soon as it
was published; and, down to the time when Lepsius’s plates of the
IVth, Vth, and Vlth dynasties appeared, we had not ceased to regard
Morton’s Egyptian type as the true representative of that of the Old
Empire; but the first hour’s glance over those magnificent delineations
of the primeval inhabitants produced an entire revolution in the
authors’ opinions, and enforced the conviction that the Egyptians
of the earliest. times did not correspond with our honored friend’s
description, but with a type which, although not Negro, nor akin to
any Negroes, was strictly African — a type, in fact, that supplied the
long-sought-for link between African and Asiatic races.
There are no portraits, yet discovered,' older than the IVth dynasty,
or the thirty-fifth century b . c. ; and although what may be called a
Negroid type preponderates at that period, yet the race, even there, is
already a mixed one; and we distinguish many heads which are
clearly Asiatic — possessing, as we have shown (ante, Eigs. 34, 35),
Semitish features. The history of Egypt from the XHth to the
XVIith dynasty is so mutilated, that, for this interregnum, there is
but little material for definite opinions. Lepsius, upon Manethonian
tradition, states, that during this time the bulk of native Egyptians
were driven tip the Nile by Asiatic races, and retired into Nubia;
and that when the Hyksos were expelled, their Pharaonic conquerors
eame down the river. It is not probable that eYery individual of the
Hyksos race, however, could have been driven out; and when we
compare the monumental portraits of the IVth; Vth, and Vlth dynasties
with those of the XVIith and XVJLULth, we cannot doubt that an
immense amount of Asiatic blood remained in the country, notwithstanding
these expulsions. Lepsius considers that those Asiatic Shepherds
impressed their type and language upon the native race, although
the Egyptian people and their, tongue still remained essentially African.
It should be observed that, if Hyksos invasions be accepted as
historical, so must the many centuries of the intruders’ sojourn; ánd
during M a n e th o ’s five hundred and eleven years, or sixteen generations,
these warriors must have found abundant leisure to stamp their
paternity upon the offspring of Egyptian women, whose sentiments
of chastity have never been other than somewhat lax.
But the Negroid type of the earlier dynasties seems never to have
become extinguished, notwithstanding the immense influx of Asiatics
into Egypt; which has been going on, literally for thousands of years,
to the present hour. It may be received, in science, as a settled fact,
that where two races are thrown together and blended, the type of
the major number must prevail over that of the lesser; and, in time,
the latter will become effaced. This law, too, acts with greater force
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