114 OBSERVATIONS ON EGYPTIAN ETHNOGRAPHY, 
Facial Angle.—lI have carefully measured the facial angle in all those adult skulls 
which are sufficiently denuded for that purpose, and have obtained the following re- 
sults :— 
Ethnographic Division. No. Measured. | Largest. | Smallest.| Mean. 
Pelasgic form, 16 83° | 73° | 80° 
Egyptian form, 20 ll a ail a bo 
Semitic form, 2 TTO | Fars 
Negroid form, 6 FIO) POA TBS 
It is stated by M. Virey, that the numerous mummies which have been brought to 
Europe present the full facial angle of the Caucasian race. 
The Structure of the Cranial Bones is as thin and delicate as in the European, and a 
ponderous skull is of unfrequent occurrence. I make this remark with the more satis- 
faction because it enables me to contest one of the observations of Herodotus; who tells 
us, that on visiting the field of battle whereon the Egyptians had fought with the Per- 
sians, he saw the bones of the latter lying on one side, and those of their enemies on the 
other, He then adds, that “the skulls of the former were so extremely soft as to yield 
to the slightest impression, even of a pebble; those of the Egyptians, on the contrary, 
were so firm that the blow of a large stone would hardly break them.” The historian 
then explains the reason of this difference, by stating that the Egyptians have thicker 
skulls, because their heads are frequently shaved and more exposed to the weather: 
while the Persians have soft skulls, owing to the habitual use of caps which protect their 
heads from the sun. 
These reveries are wholly untenable in a physiological point of view, and derive not 
the smallest support from anatomy itself; nor can there be a question that the confiding 
historian received his impressions through the ignorance or imposition of others. I have 
in my possession eight skulls of Fellahs, or modern Egyptian peasants, who habitually 
shave the head, and wear a thin cap; and yet their skulls, which are of various ages 
from early youth to senility, are without exception thin and delicate. 
Some modern authors have also attributed to the mummy skulls a density which is 
not characteristic, but which is adventitiously acquired by the infiltration of bitumen 
into the diploic structure during the process of embalming. 
Hair.—The hair is fortunately preserved on thirty-six heads, in some instances in 
profusion, in others scantily, but always in sufficient quantity to enable us to judge of its 
texture. ‘Thirty-one of these examples pertain to the Caucasian series, and in these the 
hair is as fine as that of the fairest European nations of the present day. ‘The embalm- 
ing process has changed it, with a few exceptions, from a black to a dark-brown colour. 
There are also several instances of gray-hair, and two in which it is of a true flaxen 
colour: it is more than probable, however, that the latter hue has been produced arti- 
ficially,—a practice still in use among the Saumaulies south of Adel. 
The preceding remarks on the texture of the hair accord with those of other observers, 
