DK, i'O ra'KU ON EGYl'T. 2o 



than au Haiuitic origin. It bears no resemblance to tlic Negro, 

 and the people, from the earliest historic period, possessed 

 a regularity of features and symmetry of form, and showed 

 intellectual power and refinement, to which no section of 

 Hamites ever approached. They were, and still are, in 

 general, handsome and well formed, with oval face, bright, 

 almond-shaped black eyes, straight nose, thick yet finely- 

 moulded lips, broad shoulders, and upright firmly-knit 

 limbs. Their colour is, and always was, a light richly-tinted 

 bronze; some of the younger women are models of grace and 

 beauty. On the very oldest monuments we often find the 

 Egyptian and the Negro figured side by side, each with his 

 characteristic features. Early Egyptian art is in this respect 

 especially valuable. The sculptor did not possess the freedom 

 and graphic power of the Greek, but he,nevertheless, delineated 

 with singular accuracy and minuteness the features, form, 

 and costume of each race and nation. 



One point regarding the original settlement of the country 

 has not yet been absolutely determined, and that is whether 

 the first colonists entered by the Isthmus of Suez and 

 ascended the Nile Valley ; or whether, having crossed the Red 

 Sea from some point in Arabia, they established themselves 

 in the mountains of Abyssinia, and then gradually moved 

 down to the more fertile and genial region of Egypt. 

 Be this as it may, the temples, tombs, and grand monuments 

 that stud the banks of the Nile show that, from the earliest 

 historic period, a race of men remarkable for wealth, 

 architectural skill, and artistic taste, occupied the entire 

 valley. It is also clear that the most ancient monuments, 

 the pyramids of Gizeh, the Sphinx, and the tombs of 

 Sakkarah, are in Lower Egypt, and belong to what is known 

 as the Old Empire ; while the temples and pyramids of Gebel 

 Barkel, which are, I believe, the most souihernj are of the 

 comparatively late age of Tirhakah (B.C. 700), who is called in 

 the Bible "The King of Ethiopia'^ (2 Kings xix. 9). None 

 of the monuments of Nubia appear to be older than the 

 tweKth dynasty in the Middle Empire, which Egyptologists 

 date not later than B.C. 2000 ; and the finest of those monu- 

 ments, the rock-hewn temples of Abu Simbel, were con- 

 structed by Rameses the Great, of the nineteenth dynasty 

 (circa B.C. 1400). It is noteworthy also that on the small 

 temple of Abu Simbel, dedicated to the Goddess Athor, her 

 name is followed by the hieroglyphic sign signifying " foreign 

 land," thus affording monumental evidence that Nubia was 

 outside the country of the early Egyptian monarchs. 



The authentic apnals of ancient Egypt are mainly derived 



