i62 TRAVELS IN AFRICA, 
yet remaining, fcarcely one is entire enough to give any idea of 
the form of the vifage which the fculptor defigned to attach 
to it. 
The ftatues of the Nile, it is faid, were made of black mar- 
ble, in allufion to his coming from Ethiopia. If this fymbol, 
hitherto fo unfatisfadorily explained, (the Sphinx,) had any rela- 
tion to the fame fubjeft, might not the negro face be given to 
it for a fimilar reafon * ? It would hardly have been thought 
neceflary to explain why the figure of the Nile was black, if the 
complexion of the natives of Egypt had been generally acknow- 
leged of the fame tinge. 
The complete filence of the antient writers, concerning fo 
fmgular a circumftance as that of the negro character of the 
Egyptians, if all other arguments were equally balanced, would 
be fufficient to decide this point in the negative. In defe<ft, 
however, of hiftorical and pofitive teftimony, ftrong circumftan- 
tial evidence is drawn from the monuments of undoubted an- 
tiquity yet remaining. Among thefe are the fmall ftatues of 
Ifis, &c. daily found among the ruins in various parts of Egypt. 
Thefe are adorned with a profufion of long hair, peculiarly 
contorted, and the nofe. Hps, and other features, are far from 
refembling thofe of the negro. The fame may be obferved of 
the figures in alto relievo and bafTo relievo, on the walls at 
Thebes, in the caverns of Gebel-el-Silfili, &c. Of the Coloffal 
* The beft idea of the Sphinx feems to be that of Maillet, who fuppofes it 
emblem of the increafe of the Nile under the figns of Leo and Firgo. 
ftatues 
