Page:Manners and Customs of the Ancient Egyptians Volume 1.djvu/50

2 2 THE ANCIENT EGYPTIANS. CHAP. I.

I am fully aware of the profound metaphysical hnport of the first book of Moses, but the allusions to real events are no less obvious and important ; and it is to these alone that I shall have occasion to advert in the present inquiry.

Every one who considers the features, the language, and other peculiarities of the ancient Egyptians, will feel convinced that they are not of African extraction, but that, like the Abyssi- nians and many inhabitants of the known valley of the Nile*, they bear the evident stamp of an Asiatic origin; and Juba, according to Pliny t, af- firms that "the people of the banks of the Nile, from Syene to Meroe, were not Ethiopians i, but Arabs." And if feature and other external ap- pearances are insufficient to establish this fact, the formation of the skull, which is decidedly of the Caucasian variety, must remove all doubt of their valley having been peopled from the East : and some may even consider it directly alluded to in the book of Genesis §, where Ham, the son of Noah, and his immediate descendants, are said to have inhabited the lands of Ethiopia, Egypt li, Libya, and Canaan. The name of Ham^ is, in fact, the same as that of Egy])t, Khcm, or Cham ; and Moses may have pointed out the eastern origin of the Egyptians

lihick Nile,' ill contratHstiiiction to the Nccl-cl-Aliiad, 'the White (|{ivcr) Nik'.' Azrek is coiiiiiioiily used to signily hlack as well as bhie.
 * That is, tlic Neel-cl-Azrck, 'the Blue,' or more properly 'the

f I Mill. lil). vi. .'{4-. :| 'J'liat is, lihirhx. ' § (Ji-ii. x. 1—6.

11 Mizraim, or Mizriin, a phiial wonl applieil to K;,'pt ((ieii. 1. 11. cf jjfissini), is tiie Tlihrcw mode of expressing the ' two rei;ioiis of ll>^ pt' Cso commonly met with in the hierot;Iy|)hics), or the ' two Misr,' a name still used hy the Aral)s, who call all Kgypt, as well as (Jairo, Mnsr or Misr. Thiimmim or Thiiiim is in like manner 'the /loo truths.'

1 Ham is also put for Egypt, as in I'salm Ixxviii. 5- and other parts of Scripture.