1. The valley of the Nile, both in Egypt and in Nubia, was originally peopled by a branch of the Caucasian race.

2. These primeval people, since called Egyptians, were the Mizraimites of Scripture, the posterity of Ham, and directly affiliated with the Libyan family of nations.

3. In their physical character the Egyptians were intermediate between the Indo-European and Semitic races.

4. The Austral-Egyptian or MerÖite communities were an Indo-Arabian stock engrafted on the primitive Libyan inhabitants.

5. Besides these exotic sources of population, the Egyptian race was at different periods modified by the influx of the Caucasian nations of Asia and Europe,—Pelasgi, or Hellenes, Scythians and Phenicians.

6. Kings of Egypt appear to have been incidentally derived from each of the above nations.

7. The Copts, in part at least, are a mixture of the Caucasian and the Negro in extremely variable proportions.

8. Negroes were numerous in Egypt, but their social position in ancient times was the same that it now is, that of servants and slaves.

9. The national characteristics of all these families of Man are distinctly figured on the monuments; and all of them, excepting the Scythians and Phenicians, have been identified in the catacombs.

10. The present Fellahs are the lineal and least-mixed descendants of the ancient Egyptians; and the latter are collaterally represented by the Tuaricks, Kabyles, Siwahs, and other remains of the Libyan family of nations.

11. The modern Nubians, with a few exceptions, are not the descendants of the monumental Ethiopians, but a variously mixed race of Arabs and Negroes.

12. Whatever may have been the size of the cartilaginous portion of the ear, the osseous structure conforms in every instance to the usual relative position.

13. The Teeth, differ in nothing from those of other Caucasian nations.

14. The Hair of the Egyptians resembled, in texture, that of the fairest Europeans of the present day.

15. The physical or organic characters which distinguish the several races of men, are as old as the oldest records of our species.

Note.—I have taken frequent occasion to quote the opinions of the late Professor Blumenbach, of GÖttingen, whose name is inseparably connected with the science of Ethnography; but I have to regret that up to the present time I have not been able to procure either in this country or from Europe, the last two memoirs which embrace his views on Egyptian subjects, and especially the work entitled, “Specimen historiÆ naturalis antique artis operibus illustratÆ.” His views, however, as previously given to the world, have been repeatedly adverted to in these pages; and his matured and latest observations, as quoted by Dr. Wiseman, appear to have confirmed his original sentiments. “In 1808,” says Dr. Wiseman, “he more clearly expressed his opinion that the monuments prove the existence of three distinct forms or physiognomies among the ancient inhabitants of Egypt. Three years later he entered more fully into this inquiry, and gave the monuments, which he thought bore him out in this hypothesis. The first of these forms he considers to approach to the Negro model, the second to the Hindoo, the third to the Berber, or ordinary Egyptian head. (BetrÄge zur Naturgeschichte, 2 ter Th. 1811.) But I think an unprejudiced observer will not easily follow him so far. The first head has nothing in common with the Black race, but is only a coarser representation of the Egyptian type; the second is only its mythological or ideal purification.” Lectures on the Connexion between Science and Revealed Religion, 2d edit. p. 100.

I thus place side by side the opinions of these learned men. With respect to Professor Blumenbach, I may add that when he wrote on Egyptian ethnography there were no fac simile copies of the monuments, such as have since been given to the world by the French and Tuscan Commissions; and again, that learned author had not access lo a sufficient number of embalmed heads to enable him to compare these with the monumental effigies. With these lights he would at once have detected an all-pervading physiognomy which is peculiarly and essentially Egyptian; and in respect to which all the other forms,—Pelasgic, Semitic, Hindu and Negro are incidental and subordinate; sometimes, it is true, represented with the attributes of royalty, but for the most part depicted as foreigners, enemies and bondsmen.

With Egyptian statuary I am little acquainted. The only four years of my life which were spent in Europe were devoted almost exclusively to professional pursuits; and the many remains of Egyptian art which are preserved in the British and continental museums, have left but a vague impression on my memory. How invaluable to Ethnography are the two statues of the First Osortasen, now in the royal cabinet of Berlin! These I have not seen, nor the memoir in which Dr. Lepsius has described them.

I have, for the most part, omitted any remarks on the intellectual and moral character of the Egyptians, because they would have extended my work beyond the limits prescribed by the present mode of publication. I have also avoided, as much as possible, those philological disquisitions which have of late years combined so much interest and discrepancy, but which are all-important to Egyptian ethnography, and are daily becoming better understood, and therefore of more practical value. For an instructive view of this question, and many collateral facts and opinions, the reader is referred to the third volume of Dr. Prichard’s Researches into the Physical History of Mankind; a work which commands our unqualified admiration both in respect to the multitude and the accuracy of the facts it contains, and the genius and learning with which they are woven together.

I look with great interest to the researches of Dr. Lepsius at MeroË; as well as to those of my friend Dr. Charles Pickering, who is now in Egypt for the sole purpose of studying the monuments in connexion with the people of that country. And finally, it gives me great pleasure to state that the profound erudition of the Baron Alexander de Humboldt is at this moment engaged in a work which will embrace his views on Egyptian ethnography, and give to the world the matured opinions of a mind which has already illuminated every department of natural science.