DERIVED FROM ANATOMY, HISTORY, AND THE MONUMENTS. 157 
in the army of Xerxes which invaded Greece was a legion of Western Ethiopians, “ who 
had hair more crisp and curling than any other men.”* Now if the army of Xerxes 
embraced a legion of African Negroes, it would not be remarkable if the Egyptian troops 
should have been composed in part of the same people; which, indeed, with respect to 
the Ethiopian dynasty, may be assumed as a thing of course: for the Merdites would 
naturally avail themselves of every expedient to establish their power by augmenting the 
number of their exotic confederates, and by extending to them those privileges which 
had once been sacred to particular castes. For these and other oppressive acts, the 
Merdite kings were hated by the Egyptians; and no sooner were they expelled than 
their names were erased from the monuments.f 
THE THIRD EPocH dates from the conquest by Cambyses, B. C. 525, and continues 
through the whole of the Persian dynasty, or, in other words, until the Ptolemaic era, B. 
C. 332,—a period of nearly two hundred years. 
Every one knows that the Persian dominion in Egypt was marked by an utter disre- 
gard of all the established institutions. No occasion was omitted which could humble the 
pride or debase the character of the people. The varied inhabitants of Europe, Asia and 
Nigritia poured into the valley of the Nile, abolishing in degree the exclusiveness of caste, 
and involving an endless confusion of races. 
The prelude to these changes and misfortunes can be traced to the reign of Psamme- 
ticus the First, who permitted to foreigners, and especially to the Greeks, a freedom of 
ingress which the laws and usages of the country had previously denied them. The same 
policy appears to have been fostered by the subsequent kings of the same dynasty, until 
its consummation by Amasis; (B. C. 569) when, in the language of Champollion Figéac, 
Egypt became at once Egyptian, Greek, and Asiatic; her national character was lost for 
ever; her armies were filled with foreign mercenaries; the throne was guarded by Eu- 
ropean soldiers, and continual wars completed the destruction of a tottering kingdom. 
CONCLUSIONS. 
1. The valley of the Nile, both in Egypt and in Nubia, was originally peopled by a 
branch of the Caucasian race. 
2. These primeval people, since called Egyptians, were the Mizraimites of Scripture, 
the posterity of Ham, and directly affiliated with the Libyan family of nations. 
3. In their physical character the Egyptians were intermediate between the Indo- 
European and Semitic races. 
diers. I am now satisfied that such explanation is at least unnecessary, and I, therefore, take this occasion to with- 
draw it. 
* Polhym, Cap. Ixx. 
+ Among the meager facts which history has preserved in relation to these intrusive kings, the following 1s the most 
remarkable: «‘Sabakon (the first king of the Ethiopian dynasty) having taken Boccoris (the legitimate sovereign) captive, 
burnt him alive.’ Manetho apud Cory, Frag. p. 126. Could any circumstance have rendered the Ethiopians more de- 
testable in the eyes of the Egyptians than this first act of barbarian policy ? 
{ Egypte Ancienne, p. 207. 
VoL. 1x.—43 
