Plate [XII]., Fig. 8. (Cat. 829.) Skull of a woman of 50? with a low but convex forehead, with which the nasal bones have formed a nearly straight line. The coronal region is low, and the whole osseous structure strong and rather harsh.—Egyptian form. I. C. 70 cubic inches. F. A. 85°.
Plate [XII]., Fig. 9. (Cat. 827.) Skull of a man of 40, which strongly resembles the preceding. The forehead is low, but broad and vertical, the whole cranium long, the coronal region compressed, the orbits large, and the upper maxillæ slightly everted.—I. C. 82 cubic inches. Egyptian form.
Plate [XIII]. (Cat. 826.) A fine oval head, with a broad, high, convex forehead, large, straight nose, and rather prominent maxillæ. On one side is a mass of long, black hair, much curled, and of a fine texture.—I. C. 74 cubic inches. F. A. 77°. Egyptian form.
(Cat. 828.) An elongated, infantile head, with a narrow but vertical forehead, delicately formed face, very full occiput, and (what is not uncommon in children) a F. A. of 90°. Egyptian form.
Remarks.—In addition to the preceding details, it remains to offer some general observations on the size and configuration of the head, together with a tabular view of the whole series of crania, arranged in the first place, according to their sepulchral localities, and, in the second, in reference to their national affinities.
Ethnographic Table of one hundred ancient Egyptian Crania.[[4]]
| Sepulchral | ||||||||
| Localities. | No. | Egyptian. | Pelasgic. | Semitic. | Mixed. | Negroid. | Negro. | Idiot. |
| Memphis, | 26 | 7 | 16 | 1 | 1 | 1 | ||
| Maabdeh, | 4 | 1 | 1 | 2 | ||||
| Abydos, | 4 | 2 | 1 | 1 | ||||
| Thebes, | 55 | 30 | 10 | 4 | 4 | 5 | 2 | |
| Ombos, | 3 | 3 | ||||||
| Philæ, | 4 | 2 | 1 | 1 | ||||
| Debod, | 4 | 4 | ||||||
| 100 | 49 | 29 | 6 | 5 | 8 | 1 | 2 |
The preceding table speaks for itself. It shows that more than eight tenths of the crania pertain to the unmixed Caucasian race; that the Pelasgic form is as one to one and two-thirds, and the Semitic form one to eight, compared with the Egyptian: that one twentieth of the whole is composed of heads in which there exists a trace of Negro and other exotic lineage:—that the Negroid conformation exists in eight instances, thus constituting about one thirteenth part of the whole; and, finally, that the series contains a single unmixed Negro.
To these facts I shall briefly add the results of the observations of some authors who have preceded me in this inquiry. “I have examined in Paris, and in the various collections of Europe,” says Cuvier, “more than fifty heads of mummies, and not one amongst them presented the characters of the Negro or Hottentot.”[[5]]
Two of the three mummy heads figured by Blumenbach, (Decad. Cran., Figs. 1 and 31,) are unequivocally Egyptian, but the second, as that accurate observer remarks, has something of the Negro expression.[[6]] The third cranium delineated in the same work, (Plate 52,) is also Caucasian, but less evidently Egyptian, and partakes, in Professor Blumenbach’s opinion, of the Hindoo form. Of the four mummies described by Söemmering, “two differed in no respect from the European formation; the third had the African character of a long space marked out for the temporal muscle; the characters of the fourth are not particularized. The skulls of four mummies in the possession of Dr. Leach, of the British museum, and casts of three others, agree with those just mentioned in exhibiting a formation not differing from the European, without any trait of the Negro character.”[[7]]