NEGRO RACE.
The true Negro conformation requires no comment; but it is necessary to observe that a practised eye readily detects a few heads with decidedly mixed characters, in which those of the Negro predominate. For these I propose the name of Negroid crania; for while the osteological development is more or less that of the Negro, the hair is long but sometimes harsh, thus indicating that combination of features which is familiar in the mulatto grades of the present day. It is proper, however, to remark in relation to the whole series of crania, that while the greater part is readily referrible to some one of the above subdivisions, there remain other examples in which the Caucasian traits predominate, but are partially blended with those of the Negro, which last modify both the structure and expression of the head and face.
We proceed, in the next place, to analyze these crania individually, arranging them, for the purpose of convenience, into seven series, according to their sepulchral localities, beginning with the Necropolis of Memphis in the north:
First series, from the Memphite Necropolis.
A. Pyramid of five steps.
B. Saccàra, generally.
C. Front of the Brick Pyramid of Dashour.
D. North-west of the Pyramid of Five Steps.
E. Toora, on the Nile.
Second series, from the Grottoes of Maabdeh.
Third series, from Abydos.
Fourth series, from the Catacombs of Thebes.
Fifth series, from Koum Ombos.
Sixth series, from the Island of Beggeh, near Philæ.
Seventh Series, from Debod in Nubia.
FIRST SERIES.
TWENTY-SIX SKULLS FROM THE NECROPOLIS OF MEMPHIS.
This vast Necropolis extends from the Pyramids of Gizeh to the southern limit of Saccàra, a distance of about fifteen miles. The tombs are cut in the solid rock, and frequently communicate with one another, forming a vast subterranean labyrinth. Memphis is well known to be one of the oldest, if not indeed the oldest of the Egyptian cities; and among the tombs now extant Professor Rosellini has found some which bear inscriptions of a date nearly 2300 years before Christ, at which period Memphis must have been a large and flourishing city. The simpler catacombs were probably constructed before the pyramids; for these last could only result from centuries of civilization, and next to the catacombs, are the oldest existing monuments of the human race.