120 OBSERVATIONS ON EGYPTIAN ETHNOGRAPHY, 
On the monuments the Egyptians represent the men of their nation red, the women 
yellow; which leads to the reasonable inference that the common complexion was dark, 
in the same sense in which that term is applicable to the Arabs and other southern Cau- 
casian nations, and varying, as among the modern Hindoos, from comparatively fair to a 
dark and swarthy hue. “Two facts,” says Heeren, “are historically demonstrated ; one, 
that among the Egyptians themselves there was a difference of colour; for individuals 
are expressly distinguished from each other by being of a darker or lighter complexion: 
the other, that the higher castes of warriors and priests, wherever they are represented 
in colours, pertain to the fairer class.” 
That the Ethiopians proper, or Merdites, were of a dark, and perhaps very dark com- 
plexion, is more than probable; and among other facts in support of this view, we find 
that the mother of Amunoph III., and wife of Thotmes IV., who was a Merdite princess, 
is painted black on the monuments. Thus the different complexion of the great divi- 
sions of the Egyptian nation must sometimes have been blended, like their ph yslognomi- 
cal traits, even in the members of the royal family. 
It is not, however, to be supposed that the Egyptians were really red men, as they are 
represented on the monuments. ‘This colour, with a symbolic signification, was conven- 
tionally adopted for the whole nation, (with very rare exceptions,) from Merde to Mem- 
phis. Thus, also, the kings of the Greek and Roman dynasties are painted of the same 
complexion.* 
Professor Rosellini supposes the Egyptians to have been of a brown, or reddish-brown 
colour, (rosso-fosco,) like the present inhabitants of Nubia; but, with all deference to that 
illustrious archeologist, I conceive that his remark is only applicable to the Austral- 
Egyptians as a group, and not to the inhabitants of Egypt proper, except as a partial 
result of that mixture of nations to which I have already adverted, and which will be 
more fully inquired into hereafter. 
The well known observation of Ammianus Marcellinus, ‘“Homines /Zgyptii plerique 
subfuscult sunt, et atrati,” is sufficiently descriptive, and corresponds with other positive 
evidence, in relation to the great mass of the people; and when the author subsequently 
tells us that the Egyptians “blush and grow red,” we find it difficult to associate these 
ideas with a black, or any approximation to a black skin.t+ 
The late Doctor Young, in his Hieroglyphical Literature, has given a translation of a 
deed on papyrus of the reign of Ptolemy Alexander I., in which the parties to a sale of 
* Tt is a curious fact observed by Rosellini and others, that the Greeks painted some of their divinities red, as Jupiter 
and Pan; and even Venus herself appears to have been sometimes represented of the same colour. Monumenti Civili, 
IL., p. 169. 
t “ By saying that the Egyptians, for the most part, are of a brownish or somewhat brown colour, and of a tanned 
and blackened hue, the writer shows that this was not the case equally, at least, with all of them; and the expression 
subfusculi and atrati are very different from nigri or atri.”—Pricuarp, Researches, II., p. 282. 
“‘ Tra le specie d’uomini non affatto neri di pelle, e di fattezze diversi da quelli che noi siam soliti chiamare Africani, 
furono gli antichi Egizi: e quando Erodoto afferma che i Colchi erano una colonia d’Hgitto, perché dessi pure aveyano 
nero colore, non vuolsi gia intende rigorosamente di quel colore, che proprio é dei Neri; ma tale cilo chiama per rispetto 
al colore dei Bianchi e dei Greci stessi; e perché veramente l’incarnato degli Egiziani al nero in qualche modo si avvici. 
nava, Noi lo diremmo con pit giustezza color fosco ;- e questo epiteto diedero anche i Latini agli abitanti dell ’Egitto, 
come si legge in Properzio: “ An tibi non satis est fuscis Egyptus alumnis?”—Rosxtxini, Mon. Civ., IL, p. 167, 
