THE NILOTIC FAMILY. 25 



large and elongated, slightly inclining from the nose upwards, and always hlack. 

 The nose is straight, excepting at the end, where it is rounded and wide ; the lips 

 are rather thick, and the hair is black and curly."* Mr. Madden says that they 

 are also marked by the great distance between the eyes. Their legs and feet are 

 badly formed, and they are seldom graceful or pleasing in their manner. These 

 people, now reduced to about one hundred and fifty thousand souls, are Christians, 

 but they bear a bitter hatred to all other sects. They are said to be of sullen 

 temper, avaricious, ignorant, dissembling and faithless. 



The Coptic language is extremely ancient and very peculiar ; nor can there 

 be a question of the identity of the pure Coptic with the ancient vernacular 

 Egyptian. It does not appear to have undergone any change of grammatical 

 structure, and it is of greater antiquity than any Indo-European or Semitic 

 language.f The knowledge of the Coptic language is at present known to but 

 few of the Copts themselves. The Ptolemies first attempted to eradicate it by 

 substituting the Greek in its place, and they even made it a capital offence to 

 speak the Coptic in common conversation. The Turks have pursued the same 

 policy, by requiring the Arabic to supersede both Greek and Coptic. 



The Copts are supposed by Niebuhr, Denon and others, to be the descendants 

 of the ancient Egyptians; and it has often been observed, that a strong resemblance 

 may be traced between the Coptic visage and that presented in the ancient mum- 

 mies, paintings and statues :$ but it is in vain that we look for absolute identity 

 in a country that has groaned in bondage for two thousand years. The Persians, 

 the Greeks, the Romans, the Arabians and the Turks, have successively held 

 dominion in this fated valley, and subjected it, in turn, to every species of oppres- 

 sion. The Copts, therefore, can be at most but the degenerate remains, both 

 physically and intellectually, of that mighty people who have claimed the admira- 

 tion of all ages. 



The great mass of the present Egyptian population is composed of a mixed 

 race of Copts and Arabs, who are called Moslem-Egyptians^ or Fellahs. They 

 are handsomer than the purer Copts. " Their heads are a fine oval, the forehead 

 of moderate size, not high, but generally prominent ; their eyes are deep sunk, 

 black and brilliant ; the nose is straight and rather thick ; the mouth well formed ; 

 the lips are rather full than otherwise ; the teeth particularly beautiful, and the 

 beard is commonly black and curly, but scanty."^ 



* Lane, Mod. Egypt, 11, p. 310. t Lipsius, in Wiseman's Lect. p. 63. 



t Niebuhr, Trav. in Africa, p. 71. § Lane, Mod. Egypt, II, p. 32. 



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