Samuel George Morton

“ Every one knows that the Persian dominion in Egypt was marked by an utter disregard of all the established institutions. No occasion was omitted which could humble the pride or debase the character of the people. The varied inhabitants of Europe, Asia and Nigritia poured into the valley of the Nile, abolishing in degree the exclusiveness of caste, and involving an endless confusion of races. ”

“ How then could a branch of the Libyan race, a people so comparatively obscure, have become the mighty Egyptian nation? How could families of mankind so widely different in their intellectual manifestations, have been derived from a cognate stock? ”

“ It would therefore appear, that these roving descendants of the Libyan race possess, even now, some vestiges of that innate love of sculpture which was cultivated on so grand a scale by the temple-builders of the Nile.
Yet farther south are the darker Berber tribes called Siwahs or Shouas, who are said by Major Denham to have “free open countenances, with aquiline noses and large eyes; their complexion is a light copper colour. They possess great cunning with their courage, and resemble, in appearance, some of the best favoured Gypsies in England.” ”

“ A sensible writer, and one who has ingeniously and instructively investigated the Nubian question, remarks as follows:—“The Arab tribes near Shendy may still, perhaps, justly boast of the purity of their blood; but, generally speaking, within the limits mentioned above, the slave or Negro population is about a sixth of the whole, and continually amalgamating with it. While nature kindly endeavours to wash out the stain, every caravan from the south or west pours in a new supply of slaves, and restores the blackening element.” ”

“ This vast influx of Negroes into the valley of the Nile must necessarily have left its impression on the physical traits of the Egyptians themselves; in modern times, as seen in the Copts, and in more distant periods, as proved by the Negroid heads, in which both the configuration and expression are too obvious to be mistaken. But it may be inquired, how does it happen that Negroes or their descendants should be found in the catacombs, if they constituted a menial or slave-caste in Egypt? ”

“ Pelasgic Type. In this division I place those heads which present the finest conformation, as seen in the Caucasian nations of western Asia, and middle and southern Europe. The Pelasgic lineaments are familiar to us in the beautiful models of Grecian art, which are remarkable for the volume of the head in comparison with that of the face, the large facial angle, and the symmetry and delicacy of the whole osteological structure. ”

“ Placed as the former were, between the Egyptians on the north, the Indo-Arabian nations on the east, and the Negroes on the south and west, and this, too, through the long period of several thousand years, their features must have become sensibly modified, even in the earliest times, by that blending of race which was inseparable from their position; and as the Koldagi and other Negro tribes have, at different times, established themselves in large bodies in Nubia, we need be at no loss, I conceive, in accounting for any traces of Negro lineage in some Barábra communities of the present day. ”

“ THE HYKSHOS. There is no fact in history more familiar than the rule of the Hykshos or shepherd kings in Egypt. The word Hykshos is the same as we have seen (p. 38,) both in the Egyptian and Berber or Libyan tongues, and signified a shepherd or a wanderer. It was applied to all those foreigners who at different times displaced the native dynasties,—Scythians, Hellenic tribes, Phenicians, and others. ”

“ Yet in every instance wherein we detect Mongolians on the monuments, they are represented as foreigners and enemies. The annexed wood-cut, with the small and somewhat depressed nose, shaven head, and crown-lock, scanty beard, moustache, and sallow complexion, seems clearly to indicate a man of that race. It is copied from a drawing in Rosellini, in which Rameses the Third is represented fighting against the Sheto or Scythians, among whom the Mongols appear to be allies or mercenaries. ”

“ That while the higher classes, who were screened from the action of a burning sun, were fair in the comparative sense, the middle and lower classes, like the modern Berbers, Arabs, and Moors, presented various shades of complexion, even to a dark and swarthy tint, which the Greeks regarded as black in comparison with their own. To these diversities must also be added others incident to a vast servile population, derived from all the adjacent nations, among which the sable Negro stood forth in bold and contrasted characters. ”

“ I have in my possession eight skulls of Fellahs, or modern Egyptian peasants, who habitually shave the head, and wear a thin cap; and yet their skulls, which are of various ages from early youth to senility, are without exception thin and delicate. ”

“ It is, in fact, questionable whether a greater proportion of beautifully moulded heads would be found among an equal number of individuals taken at random from any existing European nation. The entire series consists of sixteen examples of the Pelasgic and seven of the Egyptian form, a single Semitic head, one of the Negroid variety, and one of mixed conformation. Of the antiquity of these remains there can be no question; and with respect to a part of them, those from the Pyramid of Five Steps, we have evidence of a more precise character. ”

“ An elongated head, with a very receding forehead, long, aquiline nose, and large, ponderous jaws, which project so as to reduce the facial angle to about 65°. This person has been embalmed with evident care, but with the mouth open, the tongue protruded, and the eyelids raised, giving a frightfully vacant expression to the whole countenance, and leaving no reasonable doubt that this is the head of an idiot. A little hair remains, which is remarkably fine, and encroaches on the eyebrows. ”

“ For the purpose of illustration, we select a single picture from the temple (hemispeos) of Beyt-el-Wàlee, in Nubia, in which Rameses the Second is represented in the act of making war upon the Negroes; who, overcome with defeat, are flying in consternation before him. From the multitude of fugitives in this scene, (which has been vividly copied by Champollion [117] and Rosellini, and which I have compared in both,) I annex a fac-simile group of nine heads, which, while they preserve the national features in a remarkable degree, present also considerable diversity of expression. ”

“ It is moreover evident that while the Egyptians became thus fraternized with the nations of southern Asia, and the motley races of the Upper Nile, the provinces of Lower Egypt would be overrun with the Caucasian tribes of Europe and western Asia; for these, either as cognate with the Hykshos or as allies in their service, must have been in immense number to have conquered so populous a country, and especially to have kept possession during so long a period. ”

“ These and other facts derived from the slave trade, when considered in connexion with the Negro colonization of Nubia in the reign of Dioclesian, will account, I may repeat, not only for every blending of race observable in that country, but also assists us in tracing the origin of the Copts;—not to a period of time, it is true, but to circumstances which have been in operation for ages, and which were once, in all probability, far more active than they are at present. ”

“ Particular communities of the Libyans are familiar in history by the names of Mauritanians, Numidians and Getuli. Respecting the physical characteristics of these people, history is nearly silent; yet there is sufficient evidence to prove, that they possessed those features which are now called Caucasian, independently of any modifications that may have resulted from their long intercourse with Phenician colonies, and the Romans, Arabs and Vandals in later periods of time. The Libyans were a nomadic and warlike people ”

“ Atlas; and in their physical characters combine the Caucasian physiognomy with various shades of complexion, from a fair skin to a dark and tawny hue.
“The Kabyles,” says Mr. Shaler, “are a white people, of middle stature, muscular, athletic and active, but never corpulent; and are of lively, social manners and of ingenious dispositions. Many of them are of light complexions, with hair approaching to flaxen, resembling rather the peasants of the south of Europe than the inhabitants of Africa.” ”

“ That they are a mixed progeny of Arabs, Berbers and Negroes, no longer admits of a reasonable doubt. Such is the opinion of D’Avezac and Hodgson, Vater, Adelung, and most other inquirers. “In the midst of the Negro races,” observes M. D’Avezac, “there stands out a métive population, of tawny or copper colour, prominent nose, small mouth, and oval face, which ranks itself among the white races, and asserts itself to be descended from Arab fathers and Taurodo mothers. Their crisped hair, even woolly, though long, justifies their classification among the Oulotric (woolly-haired) populations ”

“ We may repeat that it consists in an upward elongation of the head, with a receding forehead, delicate features, but rather sharp and prominent face, in which a long and straight or gently aquiline nose forms a principal feature. The eye is sometimes oblique, the chin short and retracted, the lips rather tumid, and the hair whenever it is represented, long and flowing. ”

“ Internal Capacity of the Cranium. [9] —As this measurement gives the size of the brain, I have obtained it in all the crania above sixteen years of age, unless prevented by fractures or the presence of bitumen within the skull; and this investigation has confirmed the proverbial fact of the general smallness of the Egyptian head, at least as observed in the catacombs south of Memphis. Thus, the Pelasgic crania from the latter city, give an average internal capacity of eighty-nine cubic inches; those of the same group from Thebes give eighty-six. ”

“ Moreover, the characters of the animal, as delineated in Rosellini, are not unlike those of the celebrated grotesque species of India called by naturalists Ursus labiatus, which has been, in all ages, a favourite with Hindoo mountebanks. The man himself has an aquiline and pointed nose, thin beard, receding forehead, and comparatively fair complexion, which assimilate him to some Indo-Semitic or Indo-Persian tribe. ”

“ In a country bounded by the Red Sea on the one side, and by a wilderness on the other, and presenting but a narrow strip of land for its inhabitants, laws would at once become necessary for mutual protection; and we may suppose that while one portion of the Mizraimites embraced these social restrictions, another, impatient of control, passed beyond the desert barrier on the west, and spreading themselves over the north of Africa, became those nomadic tribes to which the earliest annals give the name of Libyans. ”

“ That there was extensive and long-continued intercourse between the Hindoos and Egyptians is beyond a question; and history speaks, also, of conquest and migration. Which was primitively the dominant power? The Egyptians very naturally decided this point in their own favour; for they assert that Osiris crossed Arabia to the utmost inhabited parts of India, and built many cities there. “He left, likewise,” says Diodorus, “many other marks of his being in these parts, which have induced the inhabitants to believe and affirm, that this god (Osiris) was born in India.” ”

“ The bodies thus displaced, however, were not destroyed; and the Egyptians of at least twenty-five centuries before our era, though for the most part mingled without regard to rank or epoch, are still preserved in their interminable cemeteries.
I disclaim all knowledge of hieroglyphic literature; but I may express my conviction that the past discoveries and pending researches of Young, Champollion, Rosellini, Wilkinson, Lepsius, and some other illustrious men, are destined to unravel much that has hitherto been regarded as mystical in Egyptian history ”

“ The Berbers, says he, are of a dark red-brown complexion, “which, if the mother is a slave from Abyssinia, becomes a light brown in the children; and if from the Negro countries, extremely dark. Their features are not at all those of the Negro, the face being oval, the nose often perfectly Grecian, and the cheek bones not prominent. The upper lip, however, is somewhat thicker than is considered beautiful among northern 58nations, though it is still far from the Negro lip. Their hair is bushy and strong, but not woolly.” ”

“ In those which retain the hair, it is comparatively coarse, and in one instance somewhat wiry. The hair of the solitary Negro head possesses the characteristic texture.
I find a short beard (perhaps half an inch in length,) on three Theban heads of the Caucasian part of the series. (Plate IV., Fig. 1, Plate VIII., Fig. 1, and Plate X., Fig. 5.) The Egyptians habitually shaved the beard; but on their statues and paintings we frequently see a beard-case which, as Rosellini remarks, appears to be merely emblematical of the male sex and of manhood. ”

“ The same lineaments, though in less degree, are also obvious in the effigies of Sheshonk (Shishak) and Osorkon II., of the twenty-second dynasty, and in a few others of different periods of time. I wish it to be understood that I do not say these sovereigns were of Coptic lineage; but merely that their physiognomy, as expressed on the monuments, has the Coptic character. The history of the Copts remains an enigma in Egyptian ethnography. ”

“ The Egyptian form differs from the Pelasgic in having a narrower and more receding forehead, while the face being more prominent, the facial angle is consequently less. The nose is straight or aquiline, the face angular, the features often sharp, and the hair uniformly long, soft, and curling. In this series of crania I include many of which the conformation is not appreciably different from that of the Arab and Hindoo ”