144 ANTIENT METAPHYSICS. Book II. 



out of one ftone of red granite, eleven feet eight inches long, fix 

 feet broad, and feven feet nine inches liigh, with the figure of the 

 King upon the lid of it, in Mezo Relievo *. But the Sarcophagus of 

 the Memphian King, v^diich Maillet faw in the Great Pyramid, and 

 who, it is likely, was Cheops, the builder of that Pyramid, was only 

 betwixt feven and eight French feet in length f . This antient fize of 

 the Egyptians we cannot compare v\-ith the modern, becaufe the 

 Egyptian nation, though once the moft numerous in the world, for 

 the track of ground it pofleffed, does no longer exift ; for the race 

 of thofe black, woolly haired men, fuch as we know the antient E- 

 gyptians were, is not now to be found in Egypt, and, I believe, is 

 utterly extinguifhed J. 



The 



* Pococke's Travels In Egypt-, p 98. 

 f Dercriptlon de I'Egypt, p. 24 J. 



1 There are mmy pretending to be Scholars, who do not know that ihe antient 

 Egyptians were Negroes : But that thty were (o is evident from Herodotus, who 

 might be miftaken as to other things which he relates of Egypt, but could not be 

 mirtaken with refpe6t to their colour and their hair. As he wrote only for the in- 

 formation of his countrymen, the Greeks, he did not tell them dircdlly what they all 

 knew, that the Egyptians were black men, with woolly hair: But he m-ntions it 

 indireftly and occafionally, as a thing perfe£lly well known ; for, among other 

 proofs, that he has giv<-n us, of the Colchians being originally Egyptians, he has told 

 us, that, like the Egyptians, they were black men with woolly hair, (Lib. ii. Cap. 

 1O40- Of this race of men were alfo the Ethiopians of Africa, from whom the Ethi- 

 opians of Afia were diftinguiOied, not by their colour, (for they were as black 

 as the Ethiopians of Africa), but by their hair ; for Herodotus tells us, that the 

 Ethiopians of Afia were 'tiir^iyj?, that is, with Jircight or lank kiir ; where- 

 as, the Ethiopians of Africa were oixor^ix-^i, or ivoo'ly haired ; (Lib. vii. cap. 70.) 

 This fliows that H^-rodotus knew perfectly the diflinQion betwixt a Negro and an 

 Eaft Indian Black. If the reader fliould defire any other proof of the antient Egyp- 

 tians b?ing black men, Ammianus Marcelbnus furmfhes one, who tells us that, even 

 in his time, when the antient race was no doubt much worn out, and what remained 



of 



