NUBIA AND THE NILE EAPIDS. 369 



of the lower Nile valley. The Nubians are descendants of the 

 "■wild Blemyes", with whom the Pharaohs of the ancient, middle,, 

 and more recent dynasties, as well as the Egyptian governors of the 

 Ptolemies, contended ceaselessly, and by no means always success- 

 fully. The former use the language in which the " Revelations " of 

 Mohammed are recorded, the latter use an old Ethiopian speech 

 now split up into several dialects; the former employ an ancient 

 mode of writing, the latter never have had any which has taken 

 organic root in their own language. The former still preserve the 

 seriousness at once characteristic of the old Egyptians, and of the 

 sons of the desert from whom they sprang. Like all Orientals they 

 give themselves, throughout their whole life, deep anxiety about 

 the world to come, and order their customs and habits according to 

 their fantastic notions of it. The Nubians, on the other hand, have 

 preserved the cheerful joyousness of the Ethiopians, living like 

 children for the present, taking what is pleasant without thanks- 

 and what is painful with loud complainings, and under the influ- 

 ence of the moment readily forgetting both. The yoke of foreign 

 masters rests heavily on both alike; the Egyptian bears it with 

 groaning and grumbling, the Nubian with equanimity and without 

 resistance; the former is a sullen slave, the latter a willing servant. 

 Every Egyptian fancies himself high above the Nubian, regards 

 himself as nobler in race, speech, and customs; boasts of his cul- 

 ture, though that is restricted to but a few of the people, and 

 seeks to oppress the dark-skinned race as completely as he himself 

 is oppressed. The Nubian recognizes the general physical supe- 

 riority of the Egyptian, and thoroughly acknowledges the intel- 

 lectual culture of the prominent members of the neighbour-people, 

 but he seems to be scarcely conscious of his own deficiency in 

 culture, and is even inclined, in his turn, to enslave the less strong 

 or less gifted people of the interior. Yet even with the purchased 

 negro he is on a brotherly footing, and seems to have patiently 

 submitted to his burdensome fate, after having tried in vain tO' 

 contend successfully against a superior force. In every fibre of his 

 being he is still a child of nature, while the Egyptian seems the 

 sad type of a decayed and still decadent people. The Nubian, in the 



