400 I'HILOSOPHICAL TRANSACTIONS. [aNNO 1794, 



phagi, for the sake of the idols they expect to find in them, of replacing them 

 with tolerably preserved common painted mummies, such as I have called soft, 

 and thus offering them for sale. 



The osteological properties which I have had opportunities to observe in the 

 skulls of mummies, are most of them mentioned in the description of my col- 

 lection of the skulls of different nations above quoted ; and will, I hope, prove 

 useful to others for further comparisons. As to the different national physiog- 

 nomies of the ancient Egyptians, I shall here advert only to what, in my phy- 

 siological study of the varieties in the human species, I have deduced from my 

 comparisons of these skulls with the artificial monuments found in Egypt. For 

 I am wholly at a loss to conceive how learned writers, not only of the stamp of 

 the author of the Recherches sur les Egyptiens * ; but even professional anti- 

 quaries, such as Winkelmann -|-, and the author ot the Recherches sur I'Origine 

 des Arts de la Grece |, could ascribe to the artificial monuments found in Egypt 

 one common character of national physiognomy, and define the same in a few 

 lines in the most decided and peremptory manner. 



It appears to me that we must adopt at least 3 principal varieties in the national 

 physiognomy of the ancient Egyptians; which, like all the varieties in the 

 human species, are no doubt often blended together, so as to produce various 

 shades, but from which the true, if I may so call it, ideal archetype may how- 

 ever be distinguished, by unequivocal properties, to which the endless smaller 

 deviations in individuals may, without any forced construction, be ultimately re- 

 duced. These appear to me to be, 1. the Ethiopian cast; 2. the one approach- 

 ing to the Hindoo; and, 3. the mixed, partaking in a manner of both the 

 former. 



The first is chiefly distinguished by the prominent maxillae, turgid lips, broad 

 fiat nose, and protruding eye-balls, such as Volney finds the Copts at present^; 

 such, according to his description, and the best figures given by Norden, is the 

 countenance of the Sphinx; such were, according to the well-known passage in 

 Herodotus on the origin of the Colchians, even the Egyptians of his time; and 

 thus hath Lucian likewise represented a young Egyptian at Rome||. 



The 2d, or the Hindoo cast, differs toto coelo from the above, as we may 

 convince ourselves by the inspection of other Egyptian monuments. It is 

 characterized by a long slender nose, long and thin eyelids, which run upwards 

 from the top of the nose tovvarrls the temples, ears placed high on the heatl^, a 



• T. 1, p. 'i37. t In his Description des Pierres gravees de Stosch. p. 10, and in other works of 

 his. J T. 1 , p. 30(1. § Both in his Voyage en Syrie, &c. t. I , p. 7 4 ; and the Riiines, ou Medita- 

 tions sur les Uevolutions, p. 336. || Navigium s. Vota, c. ','. (Oper. t. 3, p. !.>4 8.) ^ The author of 

 the Recherches sur les Egyptiens is pleased to consider this as a mere defect in the drawing; no doubt 

 an excellent expedient Lliis, to get rid uf ditliculties in the investigation of national varieties, — Orig. 



