THE HUMAN SPECIES. 359 



army, where many tribes are collected, without bearing 

 at the head of it a reminiscence of the ark, in the 

 shape of a wooden frame, placed on the back of a 

 strong camel, and adorned with ostrich feathers, which 

 they call Merkeb (the ship). 



The styles of sculpture, architecture, and excavation, 

 notwithstanding the remote period of their origin, have 

 more affinity to the Bactrian Hindoo, than to any other 

 colossal, ponderous, detail ; such as a compound of 

 what remains of Nineveh, and the earliest cavern 

 temples would produce, showing traces of the natural 

 development of art, when working upon the same kind 

 of materials with similar means. The statues retain 

 the normal pillar form in all ; but the parts of archi- 

 tectural combination advanced beyond mere excava- 

 tion, as it still was in the most ancient cavern temples 

 of India; not so complete and less appropriate than 

 the Egyptian, indicating an older date, though it was 

 wielded in both regions by sacerdotal supremacies 

 over great populations. The system of worship in 

 Egypt was likewise allied to the Indian, though both 

 no doubt had their revolutions, innovations, and suc- 

 cessive incorporations of foreign elements. British 

 sepoys, forming part of the expedition that was to 

 co-operate with General Sir Ralph Abercrombie in the 

 re-conquest of Egypt, no sooner entered the ancient 

 temples in the valley of the Nile, than they asserted 

 their own divinities were discovered on the walls, and 

 worshipped them accordingly. They even pointed out 



