EGYPT, AND SYRIA. 
^59 
\ 
CHAP. XII. 
ANTIENT EGYPTIANS. 
Their perfons^ complexion^ \^c. 
In the hiftory of nations, fome fads may gradually become 
obfcure, by having appeared to the hiftoriographer of the time, 
and even to thofe of fome ages after, too notorious to require 
being particularly recorded. Amid the various information re- 
fpefting the manners of the Athenians and Romans to be drawn 
from their refpedive hiftorians, poets, and orators, we are not 
furnifhed with the means of afcertaining the appropriate enun- 
ciation of their own languages. A few cafual hints, from Dio- 
nyfius of Halicarnalfus and Cicero, afford all the light that anti- 
quarian labour has been able to throw on this fubjed. 
The colour of the antient Egyptians has of late become a 
matter of doubtful inveftigation from the fame caufes ; but is 
in its nature more interefting, and therefore merits a fhort dif- 
cuflion. By one of the moft recent and intelligent travellers in 
that country, a conjedure, apparently novel, has been offered 
to the public, viz. that the original inhabitants of Egypt were 
negroes^ and that, accordingly, the world is indebted for all thofe 
branches of fcience which had their origin in Egypt, and were 
afterwards 
