346 Mr. Beke on the Complexion of the Ancient Egyptians, 



or at least with some reference or allusion to it, similar to that 

 which is made by the prophet Jeremiah (xiii. 23.) respecting 

 the colour of the Cushites. 



Secondly: in times when the communication between Egypt 

 and Europe was common and uninterrupted, and when so re- 

 markable a peculiarity, had it existed, could not have failed 

 to be noticed, we have the like negative evidence of the later 

 writers of Greece and Rome. It is true, that there is a de- 

 scription given by Lucian, in one of his Dialogues, (/Navigium, 

 seu Vota,') of a young sailor on board an Egyptian vessel, 

 who, besides- being black, is represented as having pouting 

 lips and spindle-shanks ; — qvto$ 8e 7rpb$ tco ^sKuy^poui shut, 

 xcc) 7rp6^r.iXo^ eo-Ti, xa» Xsktos ayotv toiv (rxeXoh: but, from the 

 consideration of the context, it is impossible to regard this 

 description as applicable to the Egyptians generally: on the 

 contrary, it would seem rather that the individual in question 

 ought to be regarded as having differed in appearance even 

 from the rest of the crew of the vessel, having been perhaps 

 a negro or Nubian slave : besides which, it is evident that the 

 whole description is so caricatured, that much of its value as 

 an authority is lost* 



Thirdly: in the paintings which have been discovered in 

 the temples and tombs of Upper Egypt, the natives of the 

 country are usually represented as being of a chocolate or red 

 copper colour, which we may reasonably infer to have been 

 their actual complexion at the period when those paintings 

 were made. The human faces, too, painted upon the mummy- 

 cases, which likewise may be assumed to be representatives, 

 although not likenesses, of the individuals whose bodies are 

 contained in those cases, are of a similar coppery hue. 



Fourthly: the naturalists who have investigated the physical 

 structure of the skulls of the embalmed bodies, have deter- 

 mined, that they possess none of the decided characters of the 

 negro; and that, indeed, they differ but little in formation 

 from the European races of mankind*. The hair, too, upon 

 the heads of many of these bodies, is found to be totally unlike 

 the woolly hair of the negroes; it being, in fact, of a soft and 

 smooth texture, like that of Europeans. From the bodies 

 themselves no opinion is to be formed of their natural colour, 

 owing to the changes which the process of embalming has 

 necessarily caused in them : neither is any certain conclusion 

 to be deduced from the colour of their hair, which is not un- 

 frequently brown ; since it is possible that that colour may not 

 be natural, but may have been induced by the same process. 



[* See Phil. Mag. First Series, vol. Ixvi. p. 71 ; and Phil. Mag. and 

 Annals, N.S., vol. v. p. 5J), 0*4.— Edit.] 



