290 FORMS OF THE SKULL. 



dire dii monde. Jc n'ai pas remarquc un visage laid en ce 

 pais-la, parrni Tun et I'autre sexe ; maisj'yen ai vu d'an- 

 geliques. La nature y a repandu sur laplupart des femmes 

 des graces qu'on ne voit point alUeurs. Je tiens pour im- 

 possible de les regarder sans les aimer. L'on ne peut pein- 

 dre de plus cbarmans visages, ni de plus belles tailles, que 

 celles des Georgiennes *." 



The characters above described belong to the. following 

 people, whether ancient or modern, viz. the Syrians and 

 Assyrians, Chaldeans, Medes, Persians^f, Jews J, Egyptians, 

 Georgians, Circassians, Mingrelians, Armenians §, Turks ||, 

 Arabs, Afghans, Hindoos of high cast, Gipsies %, Ta- 

 tars**, Moors and Berbers in Africa, Guanches in the Ca- 

 nary Islands, Greeks, Romans ff, and all the Europeans 

 except the Laplanders. The enumeration includes all the 

 human races in which the intellectual endowments of man 

 have shone forth in the greatest native vigour, have received 

 the highest cultivation, and have produced the richest and 

 most abundant fruits in philosophy, science and art, in re- 

 ligion and morals, in poetry, eloquence, and the fine arts, in 

 civilization and government — in all that can dignify and en- 

 noble the species. We cannot, therefore, wonder that they 

 should in all cases have not merely vanquished, but held in 

 permanent subjection, all the other races. 



Much uncertainty has prevailed respecting the physical 

 characters of the ancient Egyptians ; and some have main- 

 tained the opinion that they were Negroes JJ;. The ques- 

 tion is certainly interesting, particularly if it should appear 



* Voyages en Perse; t. i. p. 171. Edition of 1735. 



f Blumenbach, Dec. xxxiv. 



+ Ibid. 11, xxviii. & xxxv. 



^ Ibid. xli. (I Ibid. ii. 



5 A genuine Transilvanian Gipsey ; ibid. xi. 



** Ibid. xii. Sandifort, Museum Acad. Lugduno-Bat. v. i. tab. ii. 



if Roman Praetorian soldier; ibid, xxxii. 



±^ VoLNEY seems to assimie it as a settled point, that the anci?nt Egyp- 

 tians were Negroes. " How are we astonished when v/c behold the present 

 barbarism and ignorance of the Copts, descended from the profound genius of 



