EGYPT, AND SYRIA. i6i 
between the fonorous copioiifnefs of the Arabic, and the ineffa- 
ble mendicancy of the native African tongues * ? 
The Ethiopians, or in a more confined fenfe, the Abyffmians, 
though fo much farther removed from Afia, the fource of migra- 
tion, are far from partaking what is properly called the negro 
charader, as the narratives of the Portuguefe writers, who firft 
knew them, with thofe of Poncet, and in our times of Bruce, 
abundantly teftlfy. The Fuj/gni^ or people of Sennaar, with 
thofe of Dongola, Mahas, &c. in Barabra, or Nuh'ia^ are, as all 
the Europeans who have feen them in Kahira can affirm, not 
negroes. And if all thefe be colonies from Syria or Arabia 
Felix, how are we conftrained to acknowlege that the Egyptians 
muft have been of the African race ? 
It has been urged that the Coloffal figure of the Sphinx^ near 
the pyramids, gave additional countenance to the opinion that 
the Egyptians were black, the face of that ftatue having been 
faid to refemble the negro. But, not to mention that the form 
of the vifage is now become entirely dubious, in forming ftatues 
of mere ornament, or as reprefentations of the human figure, 
the artift endeavours to give the features moft habitual to him, 
or what are moft admired among his countrymen ; but as to 
a merely emblematical figure, the fame reafoning is not conclu- 
five. Would it be imagined that a dog-headed nation once 
exifted from the figure of Latrator Anuhis P Unfortunately, of 
the Sphinxes at Thebes, innumerable fragments of which are 
* Populorum Afrlcse vocabula plerumque ineffabilia, prceterquam ipforum 
Unguis. Pliny, 
Y yet 
