EGYPTIAN ETHNOGRAPHY.
“Vix quidem monitu opus est in tanta seculorum serie qua mos cadavera balsamo condiendi in Ægypto solemnis fecit, inque tam variorum ejus terræ dominorum et incolarum vicissitudine magnam mumias intercedere debere variatatem tam quod ad conditurse variam rationem et materiem; quam quod ad craniorum in mumiis gentilitiam formam et speciem.”—Blumenbach, Decad. Cran. p. 12.
It was remarked fifty years ago by the learned Professor Blumenbach, that a principal requisite for an inquiry such as we now propose, would be “a very careful, technical examination of the skulls of mummies hitherto met with, together with an accurate comparison of these skulls with the monuments.” This is precisely the design I have in view in the following memoir, which I therefore commence by an analysis of the characters of all the crania now in my possession. These may be referred to two of the great races of men, the Caucasian and the Negro, although there is a remarkable disparity in the number of each. The Caucasian heads also vary so much among themselves as to present several different types of this race, which may, perhaps, be appropriately grouped under the following designations:—