1850.] Brahminical Conquerors of India. 9 



logy of Chev. Bunsen shall, before I go much further, testify : but 

 in the mean time I must go back to the vestiges which remain to us of 

 one of those great races after their settlement as a civilized people, in 

 order to trace the character of Egyptian influence over them. 



I may here premise, that when writing on this subject in 1846, I 

 alluded to the researches of Signor Botta (commenced in 1843) at 

 Khorsabad, pointing out their immense importance, and stating that 

 " we may look to receive from this quarter information of the most 

 interesting and instructive character, as soon as the exploration of these 

 ruins shall have been undertaken on an extensive scale. It may 

 readily be conceived, that at such a time as this, vague speculation upon 

 the character of the former tenants of these ancient realms, " would not 

 only be valueless but even impertinent ;" and Layard's Nineveh that 

 now (1849) is before me, speaks confirmation, welcome and eloquent, 

 of the justice of the opinion. This able man and delightful writer, 

 who has driven by sheer sense, skill, and enterprise a new adit into the 

 dark hill of history, has furnished us in one of his discoveries, with 

 evidence of the adoption of Egyptian habits, and of the existence of an 

 Egyptianised race in works of art (ivory carved figures with hieroglyphics 

 and symbols of Egyptian sovereignty found at Nimroud) having in form 

 and style of art a purely Egyptian character, though certain pecu- 

 liarities would seem to mark the work of a foreign, perhaps an Assyrian 

 artist j* the like were found at Kyomjik, another of the mighty mounds 



* It is most interesting to compare in Mr. Dennis' Cities and Cemeteries of 

 Etruria(2 Vols. 8vo. London, 1848), an archseological discovery of precisely simi- 

 lar character, simultaneously published with the Ninevehan one, as regards Egyptian 

 imitative art, occurring in a very ancient Etruscan sepulchre at Vulci. This 

 tomb, called by the discoverers Grotto d' Iside (Cit. and Cem. Vol. 1st. p. 419) is 

 the burial place of two ladies of rank, " whose effigies are still in existence, though 

 nearly three thousand years may have elapsed since their decease." Of the articles, 

 vases, unguent-pots, and alabastra, in the tomb, "all have a strong Egyptian or 

 oriental character ; but with the exception of those evidently imported from the 

 banks of the Nile, they are Etruscan imitations of Egyptian art, with the native 

 stamp more or less strongly marked." Of a particular vase, Mr. Dennis further 

 observes — " So Egyptian-like are the chariots, and the procession of females, 

 painted on this vase that the general observer would take it for an importation : 

 yet the learned have pronounced it Egyptian only in character, and native in 

 execution, though of most archaic style, and early date." A necropolis of the 



c 



