34*8 M r . Beke on the Complexion of the Ancient Egyptians, 



the Egyptians used to boast that their women were not con- 

 fined to their beds by childbirth, but could immediately after 

 their delivery resume their domestic avocations: — £1 %l 

 AlywTrriwv ocl yovciixzg fxsycc <Ppwov<riv, oti xaxeivou ty)v a'SIva ot7roAu- 

 (roKroti, xxi e£uv<x<rToi<J(xi, tcov epyouv s^ovtoii rwv xoltol tyjv olxiav. 

 ' De Nat. Anlmal.\ lib. vii. c. 13 *. On the other hand, we 

 learn from the Scriptural history, that among the people over 

 whom the oppressor of the Israelites reigned, childbirth was 

 far from being so easy : — " because the Hebrew women are 

 not as the Mitzritish women, for they are lively, and are de- 

 livered ere the midwives come in unto them," (Exod. i. 19.) 

 is the excuse of the midwives who were commanded by Pha- 

 raoh to destroy the new-born male infants of the Israelitish 

 mothers. 



It will be right here at once to anticipate an objection, 

 which might be made in accordance with the opinion enter- 

 tained by J. D. Michaelis, (see his ' Supple m. ad Lex. Hebr* 

 in voc. rTn) that the word in the text, DVn, should be pointed 



ni*n, and translated midwives; whence the passage would 



have to be read, " because the Hebrew women are not as the 

 Mitzritish women, for they are themselves midwives" &c. ; or, 

 as the Vulgate has it, " ipsa? enim obstetricandi habent scien- 

 tiam;" in which sense the expression in question is under- 

 stood in many other ancient versions. To this objection a 

 sufficient answer is given by Rosenmiiller {Scholia in loc); 

 namely, that as throughout the whole relation the Mitzritish 

 midwives are called Jli^TTfJ, ai) d there does not appear any 



reason why the historian should employ two different words 

 to express one and the same idea, the meaning attached by 

 Aben-Ezra to the word in question, (and adopted also in our 

 authorized version,) namely, " lively," " robust," is to be pre- 

 ferred. Jarchi says, that the Rabbis understood the expression 

 to mean, " because they are like the beasts of the field, which 



* My attention was called to this subject, in its present form, by the 

 perusal of the article 'iEgvpUis* in • Lempriere's Classical Dictionary,' (by 

 Barker, second edition, London, 1832,) in which, §8, 'On the Com- 

 plexion and Physical Structure of the Egyptians,' pp. 43— 46, the va- 

 rious authorities which are thus far cited are collected and commented 

 upon; the principal matter of the remarks being apparently taken from 

 Dr. Prichard's • Physical History of Mankind;' — a work, to which I have 

 not at present the opportunity of referring. As might be supposed, how- 

 ever, no satisfactory conclusion could be arrived at by the author, whilst 

 the notion of the identity of Miizraim and Egypt was retained. My own 

 conclusions, upon all material points connected with the subject, had been 

 expressed, though not in this developed form, in my ' Origines Biblicas* 

 long previously to my perusal of the article in Lempriere. — 20th July t 

 1835. 



