30 VARIETIES OF THE HUMAN SPECIES. 



that Herodotus speaks of the Colchians as Egyptians : to which it may be answered, that he does so; 

 in a generic or comprehensive sense; precisely as in our own time the army of Ibrahim Pacha is said 

 to be composed of Negroes and Fellahs, who, with all their motley grades, receive the collective 

 name of Egyptians.* As Herodotus is chiefly appealed to by those who would merge the Egyptian in 

 the Negro, I think some extracts from his work will show that he himself had no such view. He has 

 for example the following passage: "The priests afterwards recited to me the names of three hundred 

 and thirty sovereigns (successors of Menes:) in this continued series, eighteen were Ethiopians, and 

 one a female native of the country — all the rest were men and Egypiians.^^ Let us analyse this 

 passage. It is admitted that these eighteen Ethiopians^ were foreigners; yet in all probability 

 Nubians, and not Negroes. If it be contended, however, that they were real Negroes, then it will 

 follow that only one eighteenth part of this long line of monarchs could have been of Negro origin. 

 It is also reasonable to infer, that whatever may have been the national character of this exotic 

 minority, they reigned in Egypt by usurpation or by conquest. J Moreover, this "female native of 

 the country," was Nitocris, who is described by Manetho as "remarkably beautiful, with a fair skin 

 and flaxen hair."§ It is unnecessary to remark that no two personal traits could be more diametrically 

 opposite to those of the Negro than these ; and as Nitocris was a native Egyptian, and of the royal 

 line, we may reasonably infer that she possessed, in an eminent degree, the national characteristics of 

 the high-caste Egyptians. 



This question is further elucidated by the numberless pictorial and other representations in the 

 tombs of Egypt and Nubia. Thus, in the plates to Belzoni's Researches, among the most ancient 

 Nubian remains, we see figures of various complexions, from a Hght flesh-color to a dark red, and 

 these are conjoined with strictly Caucasian or Asiatic features. Another series represents four 

 unequivocal Negroes, marked by every characteristic trait, including, of course, a jet black skin; 

 while, on the same picture, and as if to enforce the distinction of race by a direct contrast, several 

 other personages are seen with fair skins and Caucasian lineaments. || 



" Black people," says Mr. Wilkinson, " designated as natives of the foreign land of Cush, are 

 generally represented on the Egyptian monuments either as captives, or as the bearers of tribute to 

 the Pharaohs."ir "I remarked," says Denon, "many decapitated figures: these were all dark, while 

 those who had struck off their heads, and still stood over them sword in hand, were red."** 



*This feature of the modern Egyptian army is well explained in Burkhardt, Trav. p. 341, &c.— Long after tins part 

 of my manuscript was ready for the press, I read the learned Dr. Wiseman's Lectures on the Natural History of Man, 

 in which I find the following corroborative passage: "It is not easy," he remarks, "to reconcile the conflictino- results 

 thus obtained from writers and from monuments, and it is no w^onder that learned men should have differed widely in 

 opinion on the subject. I should think the best solution is, that Egypt was the country where the Greeks most easily 

 saw the inhabitants of interior Africa, many of whom doubtless flocked thither and w^ere settled there, or served in the 

 army as tributaries or provincials, as they have done in later times; and thus they came to be confounded by writer* 

 with the country where alone they knew them, and were considered a part of the indigenous population." Am. ed. p. 97. 



t The geographical meaning of the word Ethiopian will be explained in the chapter on the Negro Race. 



:|: Herod. Euterpe, lib. c. 



§ Manetho, as quoted in Wilkinson's Anc. Egypt, I, pp. 28, 91. The reader may also put his own construction on 

 the following passage in Herodotus : " We may venture to assert," says he, " that after the Jfricans, there is no people 

 in health and constitution to be compared to the Egyptians."— Su^erpe, cap. LXXVI. 



II Researches, folio plates.-Dr. Wiseman also refers for further proof to Hoskins's Trav. in Ethiopia, which I have 

 not seen. 



^ Ancient Egypt, I, p. 4. ** y^y. jj^ p, 296. 



