152 OBSERVATIONS ON EGYPTIAN ETHNOGRAPHY, 
mates the present number in nearly the same words. If it be allowable to make these 
data the basis of calculation for the past thirty-five centuries, it will follow that upwards 
of ten millions of Negroes have been brought as bondsmen into Egypt during that pe- 
riod. This I regard a reasonable calculation; for in the present wasted and depopulated 
condition of the country, the demand for servants and slaves must be far below what it 
was in the flourishing epoch of the Pharaohs.* 
This vast influx of Negroes into the valley of the Nile must necessarily have left its 
impression on the physical traits of the Egyptians themselves; in modern times, as seen 
in the Copts, and in more distant periods, as proved by the Negroid heads, in which both 
the configuration and expression are too obvious to be mistaken. But it may be inquired, 
how does it happen that Negroes or their descendants should be found in the catacombs, 
if they constituted a menial or slave-caste in Egypt? In reply, it may be observed that 
persons of this race have been capable, in all ages, of elevating themselves to posts of 
distinction in the east, and especially and proverbially those who have belonged to the 
class of eunuchs.t It is also important to observe, that so tenacious were the Egyptians 
of the rights of their offspring, that they admitted them to equal privileges with them- 
selves, even when the mother was a slave; and these usages extended to inheritance. 
The preceding facts, without multiplying more on the same subject, amply account for 
that interminable amalgamation of the Caucasian and Negro races which has been going 
on in Egypt from the remotest times; while they also explain that incidental social ele- 
vation of the Negro caste, to which the monuments and catacombs alike bear witness. 
This blending of races is farther illustrated in the present population of Nubia. The 
traveller Burckhardt remarks, that the slaves sent down the Nile, and those transported 
to Arabia, bear but a small proportion to the number kept by the Mahommedans of the 
more southern countries of Africa. At Shendy, for example, from one to six are seen in 
every family; and the custom prevails as far as Senaar, and westward to Kordofan, Dar- 
four and Bornou. All the Bedouin tribes who inhabit or surround these countries are 
well stocked with slaves, nor does the number diminish in the very remote provinces of 
Houssa and Begarmeh; and we are told by the same intelligent observer, that the result 
of this promiscuous intercourse is a mixed progeny, which blends the characteristics of 
the Arab with those of the Negro.§ 
Negroes are abundantly represented on the pictorial delineations of the Egyptian monu- 
ments of every epoch. Complexion, features, and expression, these and every other 
attribute of the race, are depicted precisely as we are accustomed to see them in our daily 
walks: indeed, were we to judge by the drawings alone, we might suppose them to have 
* Clot Bey states the present black population of Egypt to be twenty thousand; and he adds that Negresses form the 
greater number of women in almost every harem. Apercu Générale de l’Egypte, I., p. 329. 
+ A passage in Manetho establishes at the same time the antiquity and the power of eunuchs in Egypt; for he relates 
that king Ammenemes, of the twelfth dynasty, was slain by them. This event will date, by the received chronology, 
upwards of twenty-two hundred years B.C. Cory, Frag., p. 110. Eunuchs appear, also, to be figured on the monu. 
ments. Vide Rosellini, M. C. IIL, p. 133. 
{ Wilkinson, Ancient Egyptians, IT., p. 64. 
} Notwithstanding this mixture of nations, Mr. Hoskins observes, that the higher classes of modern Ethiopians 
(Nubians,) pay great respect to the distinctions of race; that they esteem nothing more than a light complexion, which 
the petty kings or chiefs make a prerequisite to the selection of wives; and that, with this class, all mixture with the 
Negro blood is carefully shunned,”—T'ravels in Ethiopia, p, 357, 
