ORIGIN OF EGYPTIAN CIVILIZATION—NAVILLE. 553 
generally two huts with a kind of slope between them, which is the 
entrance. At the side of one is a standard pole, bearing either the 
symbol or the god of the village. 
In these inclosures we see men whose life is that of hunters. They 
are armed with bows and spears; the animals are those of the desert 
—large birds, chiefly ostriches, gazelles, and antelopes, of which the 
rich Memphite Egyptians liked to have large flocks. Trees appear 
here and there, but the inhabitants of these villages do not seem to 
have practiced agriculture; we do not see cattle, neither oxen nor 
sheep nor asses, none of the domestic animals. Sometimes men are 
shown struggling against wild beasts, and women holding their hands 
over their heads, as if they were carrying a jar or a basket. Boats 
with sails will occasionally appear, therefore they knew how to navi- 
gate. The great number of slates in form of fishes are certainly a 
proof that they practiced fishing as well as hunting. 
These people, who in some respects seem to have reached only a 
very rudimentary degree of civilization, knew how to make fine vases 
of very hard stone. Their flint instruments are among the finest 
known, but their sculpture is rude, not in animals, but in the repre- 
sentation of the human figure. The characteristic feature of this 
race is that they were hunters and not agriculturists. 
As to their physical type; the views between the numerous experts 
who have studied Egyptian skulls are decidedly conflicting. How- 
ever, they are unanimous on one point. They all agree that the pre- 
historic Egyptians were not negroes, that they had long hair, gener- 
ally black, but sometimes fair, and that prognathism hardly appeared. 
Some of the authors admit a negroid influence, and have come to 
the conclusion that there were two races, a negroid and a nonnegroid. 
This view is strongly attacked by others. If we look at the painting 
of a prehistoric grave found at Hieraconpolis, we find the men of a 
brown or reddish color, very like that of the Egyptians of later 
times. 
As to the connection of the prehistoric Egyptians with the other 
races of North Africa, especially the Libyans and the Berbers, un- 
questionable evidence has been sought in craniology, or anthropome- 
try. I can not help quoting the two following statements which are 
given as equally decisive, and which are derived from the same kind 
of arguments. Let us first hear Doctor MacIver: “ What has anthro- 
pometry to say on the question whether the prehistoric Egyptians 
were or were not Libyans? The answer is most definite and explicit. 
The prehistoric Egyptians were a mixed race, the component ele- 
ments of which it is difficult to analyze with exactness, but this mixed 
race as a whole was not Berber. * * *” And further, “it is 
impossible any longer to maintain the view that the prehistoric 
