materials. Our Abyssinian head exhibits the same form and color
as the present race of that country, even after the lapse of 3300 years;
and it stands as another proof of the 'permanence of human types.
Conceding the extreme probability of Birch’s conjecture, that the
Negro captives discovered by Mr. Harris belong to the Xlth dynasty,
(which thus would place the earliest known effigies of Negroes in the
twenty-fourth or twenty-fifth century B. c.,) we cannot lay hold of the
indication as a stand-point; because the sculpture may (through circumstances
of recent masonry) be assigned to a later age. But, of
one fact we are made certain by Birch’s former studies:334 viz., that
the officers or superintendents appointed by the Pharaohs to regulate
their Nubian provinces, were invariably Egyptians, painted red, and
never Nigritians of any race whatever. The title “ Prince of KeSA”
was that of Egyptian viceroys, or lord-lieutenants, nominated by the
Diospolitan government to rule over distant territories occupied by
Nubians and Negroes of the austral Nile.
In the Theban tomb, opened previously to 1830 by Mr. "Wilkinson,
(about the epoch of which the theory of an Argive, “ Danaus,” 335 led
him into some odd hallucinations), and critically examined in 1839-
’40 by Harris and Grliddon, there was an amazing collection of Negro
scenes. A Negress, apparently a princess, arrives at Thebes, drawn
in a plaustrum by a pair of humped oxen — the driver and groom
being red-colored Egyptians, and, one might almost infer, eunuchs.336
Following her," are multitudes of Negroes and Nubians, bringing
tribute from the Hpper country, as well as black slaves of both sexes
and all ages, among which are some red children, whose fathers were
Egyptians. The cause of her advent seems to have heen to make
offerings in this tomb of a “ royal son of KeSA— Amunoph,” who
may have been her husband. The Pharaoh whose prenomen stands
recorded in this sepulchral habitation is an Amenophis;337 but, beyond
the fact that his reign must fall towards the close of the XYIHth
F ig. 183. F ig. 184.338
dynasty, and about the times of the “ disk-heresy,” we were not aware
that his place could be determined, until we opened the Eenkmdler;
where the major portion of these varied African subjects, unicjue for
their singularity and preservation, are reproduced in brilliant colors.
We have already chosen a Semitic head, deemed by us to present
Phoenician affinities (supra, p. 164, Fig. 90), from sculptures of the
same times. W0 here repeat it (Fig. 183)-, for the sake of contrasting
its type with a Negro, and a Nubian
apparently (Fig. 184), taken from the
menagerie of African curiosities above
mentioned. We say apparently, because
the slighter shade, given by
Egyptian artists to figures grouped
closely together, ' sometimes arises
from the necessity of distinguishing
the interlocked limbs, &c., of men of
the same color. Instances may be
found, of this attempt at perspective,
in various colored scenes indicated in
the notes,339 so that the unblackened
face in our Fig. 184 may be that of
a Negro also.
For the sake of illustrating that,
even in Ancient Egypt, African slavery
was not altogether unmitigated
by moments of copgenial enjoyment;
not always inseparable from the lash
and the hand-cuff; we submit a copy
of some Negroes “ dancing in the
streets of Thebes ” (Fig. 185), by way
of archaeological evidence that, 3400
years ago, (or before the Exodus of
Israel, B. c. 1322), “ de same ole Nigger”
of our .Southern plantations
could spend his Nilotic sabbaths in
saltatory recreations, and
“ Turn about, and wheel about, urAjump
Jim Crow/ ”
Before closing our comments upon
“ Ethiopians,” it is due to the memory
of the author of Crania JEgyp-
tiaca not to omit some notice of two
ili
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