Crania Aegyptiaca; Or, Observations on Egyptian Ethnography, Derived from Anatomy, History and the Munoments. ... (Paperback)

This historic book may have numerous typos and missing text. Purchasers can usually download a free scanned copy of the original book (without typos) from the publisher. Not indexed. Not illustrated. 1844 edition. Excerpt: ... pointed out. This type is certainly national, and presents to our view the genuine Egyptian physiognomy, which, in the Ethnographic Roeellini, M. C. Plate 132, Fig. 1. f Idem. Plate 127, Fig. 1. scale, is intermediate between the Pelasgic and Semitic forms. We may add, that this conformation is the same which Prof. Blumenbach refers to the Hindoo variety in his triple classification of the Egyptian people. And this leads us. briefly to inquire, who were the Egyptians? It is in the sacred writings only that we find any authentic records of the primeval migrations of our species. "In the general allotment of territories to the offspring of Noah," observes Mr. Gliddon, "Egypt, by the concurrent testimony of all Biblical commentators, was assigned to Mizraim, the son of Ham, as a domain and for an inheritance;" whence Egypt has, from the remotest times, been called by the names of Mizraim and Ham, or Kheme. Mr. Gliddon adds, that "although the name of Mizraim has not yet been found in hieroglyphic legends, there is abundant scriptural evidence to prove that the country was called Mizraim and Mitzar by the Jews; while at the present day throughout the east, Egypt and Cairo are universally known by the cognate appellation of Muss'r." Entering Africa by the Isthmus of Suez, J the children of Ham were ushered into the fertile valley of the Nile, a region prepared by nature for settled communities and a primeval civilization. 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...