The Ainos, or native inhabitants of the Kurile islands, are modest even to bashfulness. The men are very shy about allowing strangers to hold any communication with their wives and daughters. Their tattooed hands, swarthy faces, jet black hair hanging over their foreheads, and lips stained blue, are not much calculated to excite the admiration of those accustomed to civilized life. The Ainos, of both sexes, are remarkable for the gentleness and strict honesty of their characters.
Asiatic women baking bread.
Egyptian women bringing water for their conquerors.
AFRICA.
It has been said Egypt was the first nation that became civilized, and framed wise laws, by which they agreed to be governed. It had reached the height of its grandeur, and was beginning to decay, while nations which we call ancient were yet in their infancy. Moses, the great lawgiver of the Jews, is said to have been learned in “all the wisdom of the Egyptians.” Thebes, with its hundred gates and immense population, was a subject of wonder and praise even in the days of Homer. Solon and Herodotus, Pythagoras and Plato, travelled in Egypt to witness her magnificent works of art, and gather from the far-famed stores of her intellectual wealth.
Such was Egypt, long before Greece and Rome had existence! This early civilization might be in part owing to the annual overflowing of the Nile, which made it impossible for the inhabitants to subsist by hunting and fishing, and thus compelled them to turn their attention to agriculture. During the inundation of the river, they were obliged to take shelter in houses raised on piles above the reach of the waters. Men and women, being thus placed in each other’s society, naturally endeavored to please each other, and female influence produced its usual effect of softening the character, and rendering the manners more polished and agreeable. From this union, music, poetry, and the fine arts would naturally flow, as the stream from its parent fountain.
It is generally supposed that the Egyptians were a colony from Ethiopia, and that their complexion was black. Herodotus, who travelled in Egypt, distinctly states that they had “black skins and curly hair.” Speaking of the tradition that two black pigeons had flown from Thebes in Egypt, and established oracles, one at Dodona, and the other in Libya, the same writer says, the story doubtless refers to two priestesses stolen by the Phœnicians, and carried one into Libya and the other into Greece: he adds, “their being black explains to us their Egyptian origin.” Pausanias likewise informs us that the image of the Nile was always black, while the other river gods were uniformly represented as white.