THE ORIGIN OF THE SUEZ CANAL. 39 



" i ANTHROPOLOGY AND ZOOLOGY. 



" f I consider that from the Mediterranean to the 

 fourth degree, and even farther, the populations along 

 the Nile banks descend from races in which all the 

 races foreign to Africa have been absorbed. The 

 populations belong to two types quite distinct, but 

 which are in some instances fused in the same 

 locality, the Ethiopian and the negro types. The 

 Ethiopian type dominates up to the tenth degree, but 

 beyond that one encounters only the pure negro race, 

 with its thick lips, flat nose, and woolly hair. 



" i It has often been asked if the Ethiopian popula- 

 tions have degenerated. I believe myself that they 

 have remained stationary. They were probably during 

 the splendour of the Egyptian and Ethiopian kings 

 what they are now. It is the might of the kings and 

 of the great which has perished with their palaces and 

 their monuments. If you except these, with the royal 

 tombs hewn in the rock or elevated on the pyramids, 

 the private dwellings, the manners, the customs, the 

 furniture, the arms, and the clothing were the same 

 that they are to-day. The study of the monuments 

 of ancient Egypt led Champollion to the conclusion 

 that the valley of the Nile derived its first inhabitants 

 from Abyssinia and the Sennaar, and that the ancient 

 Egyptians belonged to a race of men very similar to 

 the Barabras who inhabit Nubia at the present day. 

 Diodorus of Sicily was also of that opinion, remarking 



