46 



COMPLEXION. 



Gom- cient mummies, paintings, and statues, Browne adds, 

 s P e ' __' . bear a strong resemblance to the modern Copts. This 

 Complex- part of their argument will be afterwards considered: At 

 ion of the present, we shall confine ourselves to this author's inter- 

 pnmit i ve pretation of the passage of Herodotus respecting the Col- 

 ^gypiians. chi. The terms which the historian applies to the Colchi, 

 (*iXcty%£ois Kett ovXol£i%if, (Herodotus Euterpe, § 104.) 

 Browne contends, are merely relative : " in the vernacu- 

 lar idioms of modern Europe, by the term a black man, 

 is daily designated one of visibly darker complexion 

 than ourselves." It is presumed, that this observation is 

 contradicted by every person's experience, and there- 

 fore need not detain us ; it is of more importance to 

 seek for the real meaning of the terms used by Hero- 

 dotus. If they do not designate the black complexion 

 and crisped hair of the Negroes, it would be difficult 

 to find terms in the Greek language to describe them. 

 A few passages from other Greek authors will shew 

 in what sense they are used : Strabo calls the Ethio- 

 pians piXctvxs kxi ovhol^xx; ; and Aristobulus, who is 

 quoted by this author, speaking of the Indians, says, 

 they are not wXoJg/jgaey. Diodorus Siculus, describing 

 the Ethiopians on the banks of the Nile, says they are 

 ptthxfus, snub-nosed, toi; & T/>i%af*,ao-iv ovXoi -, and, not 

 to multiply instances in so plain a case, Aristotle, in 

 his Problems, expressly asks, how it happens, that 

 men ovXol%i%t; are for the most part o-tpalt^oi, (Strabo, 

 lib. xv. p. 799. Basil, 1571. Diodorus Siculus, lib. iii. 

 p. 103. Aristot. Problem. § 33. ques. 18.) We may 

 therefore conclude, that the description given by He- 

 rodotus of the Colchi, designates men of black com- 

 plexions and crisp hair; and that, in his time, the 

 Egyptians were such. 



The argument from the mummies, respecting the 

 complexion and features of the primitive Egyptians, 

 has been illustrated with great knowledge and acute- 

 ness by Professor Blumenbach : From an examination 

 and comparison of different mummies, and of the arti- 

 ficial monuments found in Egypt, he infers, that there 

 were three principal varieties in the national physiog- 

 nomy of the ancient Egyptians ; the Ethiopian cast ; 

 the one approaching to the Hindoo ; and the mixed, 

 partaking in a manner of both the former, (Obser- 

 vations on some Egyptian Mummies, Phil. Trans, for 

 1794.) The testimony of ancient historians, at least 

 so far as regards the first two varieties, bears out the 

 inference of Blumenbach. Besides the passage in He- 

 rodotus, we have the direct testimony of Diodorus Si- 

 culus, that the Ethiopians inhabited the islands in the 

 Nile, and that they considered the Egyptians as one 

 of their colonies. Subsequent historians represent the 

 complexion of the Egyptians as less dark than it was 

 in the time of Herodotus. Ammianus Marcellinus thus 

 describes them : " Homines autem Egyptii plerique 

 subfusci sunt et atrati," (Ammian. Marcell. lib. xxii. 

 cap. 16.) From not adverting to the difference of the 

 era of Herodotus and this author, Browne considers 

 this passage as in favour of his opinion, that the Greek 

 historian meant to describe the Colchi, as merely black 

 and crisp haired in comparison with the Greeks ; but, 

 in the course of eight centuries, which had elapsed be- 

 tween the two authors, the intermixture o£ Persians, 

 Greeks, and Romans, must have reduced the blackness 

 ef the Egyptians, as much as the difference between 

 the terms used by them designates 1 . The term which 

 Ammianus Marcellinus applies to the Egyptians in a 



subsequent passage, " erubescunt," as it is applied to Com. 

 their moral character, and must therefore be taken in a plexion. 



figurative sense, is improperly considered by Browne '" '"— ' 



as any proof of the truth of his opinion. But even be- Cqm P lcx " 

 fore the time of Ammianus Marcellinus, the complexion pri^ti've 6 

 of the Egyptians seems to have lost the darkness of Egyptian* 

 the Ethiopian, and to have approached to the second 

 variety mentioned by Blumenbach, viz. that of the 

 Hindoo. Arrian describes the natives of the south of 

 India as similar to the Ethiopians in the blackness of 

 their complexion and hair, but without their crispature 

 and form of nose ; and he adds, the Indians who live 

 nearer the north are liker the Egyptians. * 



We may therefore conclude, that, though subsequent- 

 ly to the time of Herodotus, the complexion of the 

 Egyptians had become less dark, and then hair less 

 crisp. Yet in his time they greatly resembled the ne- 

 groes in these respects; and consequently that the Colchi, 

 whom he describes as resembling the Egyptians, and 

 whom tradition represented as a colony from them, had 

 black complexions and crisped hair. Let us now re- 

 vert to the bearing of this fact on the question respect- 

 ing the influence of climate. 



In the first place, Herodotus expressly states, that 

 the proof of the Egyptian descent of the Colchi, drawn 

 from the complexion and hair, amounted to nothing, 

 because there were other nations in that part of Asia 

 with similar complexions and hair. From another pas- 

 sage in this historian we may infer, that this observa- 

 tion is to be taken in rather a qualified sense ; by the 

 expression " other nations," he evidently refers to the 

 Eastern Ethiopians ; but these he describes as differing 

 from the Western or Libyan Ethiopians: his words are, 

 " the Eastern Ethiopians have straight hair, those of Ly- 

 bia have more crisped hair than that of all other men. 

 (Lib. vii. § 70; and Lib. iii. §. 101.) It is however suf- 

 ficiently evident from this historian, that people of such 

 a dark complexion as to be called Eastern Ethiopians, in- 

 habited that part of Asia, which was under the dominion 

 of Darius the son of Hystaspes ; and as there is no evi- 

 dence that they were colonists, we must suppose they 

 were the original inhabitants. The fact, therefore, of the 

 non-existence now of a race of similar complexion and 

 hair to the Colchi, is no proof of the influence of climate ; 

 since it cannot be maintained that the temperate cli- 

 mate, of which the Eastern Ethiopians were natives, 

 would destroy the dark complexion of the Colchi. The 

 testimony of Herodotus, therefore, to the existence of 

 the Eastern Ethiopians in that part of Asia, must be 

 considered as affording an additional proof, that there 

 is no essential connection between radical and perma- 

 nent darkness of complexion and extreme heat of cli- 

 mate; and the disappearance, both of the Eastern 

 Ethiopians and the Colchi, must be ascribed to some 

 other cause than the operation of climate. 



In the second place, the Egyptian colony, from whom 

 the Colchi were supposed to be descended, settled here 

 in the time of Sesostris ; that is, according to the most 

 moderate computation, 1400 years before Christ: but 

 Herodotus travelled for the purpose of collecting ma- 

 terials for his history about 440 years before Christ; so 

 that the complexion of the Colchi had withstood the in- 

 fluence of the climate for nearly 1 000 years ; and if it 

 withstood it -so long, and the Colchi at the end of that 

 period still retained the crispature of their hair, as well 

 as the blackness of then- complexion, we certainly are 



• Arrian, Ind. p. 173, 

 wcept the Ethiopians. 



In his Life »/ Alexander, speaking of the Indians in general, he describes them as blacker than all men. 



