on some Egyptian Mummies. 1 g 1 
racter of national physiognomy, and define the same in a few 
lines in the most decided and peremptory manner. 
It appears to me that we must adopt at least three principal 
varieties in the national physiognomy of the ancient Egyp- 
tians , which, like all the varieties in the human species, are 
no doubt often blended together, so as to produce various 
shades, but from which the true, if I may so call it, ideal ar- 
chetype may however be distinguished, by unequivocal pro- 
perties, to which the endless smaller deviations in individuals 
may, without any forced construction, be ultimately reduced. 
These appear to me to be, 1. the ^Ethiopian cast; 2. the 
one approaching to the Hindoo; and, 3. the mixed, partaking 
in a manner of both the former. 
The first is chiefly distinguished by the prominent maxillce, 
turgid lips, broad flat nose, and protruding eye-balls, such as 
Volney finds the Copts at present ;* such, according to his 
description, and the best figures given by Norden, is the 
countenance of the Sphinx ; such were, according to the well- 
known passage in Herodotus on the origin of the Colchians, 
even the Egyptians of his time ; and thus hath Lucian likewise 
represented a young Egyptian at Rome.f ( See Tab. XVI. fig. 1 . ) 
The second, or the Hindoo cast , differs toto ccelo from the 
above, as we may convince ourselves by the inspection of other 
Egyptian monuments. It is characterized by a long slender 
nose, long and thin eyelids, which run upwards from the top 
of the nose towards the temples, ears placed high on the head,J 
* Both in his Voyage en Syrie, &c. T. I. p. 74 ; and the Ruines, ou Meditations ; 
sur les Revolutions , p. 336. 
f Navigium s. Vota, c. 2. (Oper. T. III. p. 248.) 
t The author of the Recbercbes sur les Egyptiens is pleased to consider this as a 
