The Teeth.—Professor Blumenbach, in his Decades Craniorum, long ago pointed out what he considered a peculiarity in the conformation of the teeth in some Egyptian mummies; namely, that the crowns of the incisors are very large, thick, and cylindrical, or obtusely conical, in place of having the characteristic chisel-like form.[[17]] I have given especial attention to this supposed peculiarity; but although the incisors remain more or less perfect in forty-five crania, embracing upwards of two hundred teeth of this class, I have not been able to confirm the preceding observation. On the contrary, there does not appear to be the smallest deviation from the ordinary form or structure; and I feel confident, that the learned and accurate Blumenbach was deceived by the worn condition of the crowns of the teeth, obviously resulting from the habitual mastication of hard substances. Mr. Lawrence expresses the same opinion, from personal observation; Dr. Prichard inclines to a similar view of the case, and remarks, that “the most satisfactory method of obtaining information is by inspecting the mummies of children.” Here, again, I have been so fortunate as to examine the crania of three children from one year old to five years, and five others between the ages of five and ten years. The result is entirely confirmatory of the opinion I have already advanced, and also coincides with the observations of Mr. Estlin.[[18]]
What the masticated substances were, has not been ascertained; but the teeth of some Hindoos, even in early life, are as much worn away as those of the Egyptians. The latter, as a general rule, are remarkably free from decay, and in a number of instances the whole set remains unbroken. There are various examples in which the teeth appear to have been extracted; thus reminding us of the statement of Herodotus, that there was a class of physicians whose attention, like that of our modern dentists, was bestowed exclusively upon these organs.
The Nose.—A review of the preceding Anatomical details, and a glance at the accompanying delineations, will serve to show that the form of the nose in the Caucasian series was straight, or slightly aquiline, as in the Hindoo; more prominent, as in the Pelasgic tribes; and long, salient, and aquiline, as in the Arabian race, and more especially in the Semitic nations of that stock.
It may be here observed, that the nasal bones have in many instances been more or less broken in forcing a passage through the ethmoid bone, for the purpose of removing the brain. This operation, which appears to have been almost uniformly practised at Thebes, was comparatively unusual at Memphis; for of the twenty-six heads from the latter necropolis, five only are perforated; while of the fifty-five Theban crania, all are perforated but two; and in a third the ethmoid is so little broken that the brain could not have been removed through the orifice. I moreover detect three instances of complete perforation of the nose, in which the brain had been extracted through the foramen magnum, by cutting the neck half across behind; the bandages being folded over the incision. The absence of the ethmoidal perforation in the oldest heads from Memphis, and in many others of a later date from the same necropolis, leads me to suppose that the brain may have been primitively removed through the foramen magnum; and that its extraction through the nose, as already suggested, may have been a subsequent refinement of the embalming art. Again, the different provinces of Egypt may have had peculiar and conventional details in this as in other usages; for all the heads from Ombos and Maabdeh have the ethmoidal opening; all those from Abydos and Debod are without it; while of the four from Philæ, one is perforated and three are not.
Denon long ago pointed out a peculiarity of the Egyptian profile, as seen in the remarkable distance between the nostrils and the teeth. This feature, with a small receding chin, is of frequent occurrence both in the mummies and on the monuments.
Position of the Ear.—Every one who has paid the least attention to Egyptian art, has observed the elevated position which is given to the ear; and I have examined my entire series of heads, in order to ascertain whether this peculiarity has any existence in nature, but I can find nothing in them to confirm it. The bony meatus presents no deviation from the usual relative arrangement of parts; but the cartilaginous structure being desiccated, and consequently contracted, may not afford satisfactory evidence. Clot Bey and other authors have remarked an elevation of the ear in some modern Copts; and the traveller Raw, quoted by Virey, notices the same feature in the Hindoos, and it is said also to exist in degree in the Jews. There may, therefore, be some foundation for this peculiarity of Egyptian sculpture and painting; but I feel confident that in nature it is nothing more than an upward elongation of the auricular cartilages, without any modification of the bony meatus. It has also occurred to me that the appearance in question may be sometimes owing to the remarkable vertical length of the upper jaw in some heads (those represented Plate [IV]., Fig. 2, and Plate [V]., Fig. 2, for example,) in which it is manifest that the ear would possess a remarkable elevation in respect to the maxillary bones, without being any nearer to the top of the head than usual. These hints may possibly afford some clew to a satisfactory explanation of an almost invariable rule of Egyptian art.
Dr. Prichard (Researches Vol. II., p. 251,) has given an abstract of some observations made by M. De La Malle, on the mummies contained in the Museum of Turin. “In the skulls of these [six] mummies, as well as in many others brought from the same country, although the facial angle was not different from that of European heads, the meatus auditorius, instead of being situated in the same plane with the basis of the nose, was found by M. De Malle to be exactly on a level with the centre of the eye”! Unless M. De Malle is an anatomist, and accustomed to comparisons of this kind, I can imagine that he might be deceived by the mere position in which the head was placed for inspection; for the more the face is drawn downward, the higher will be the relative position of the ear, until it may be brought on a level either with the nostrils or the eye, at option. I am the more disposed to offer this suggestion because we are told that in the mummies in question “the facial angle was not different from that of European heads.” I need hardly remark, however, that the higher the external meatus of the ear, the less will be the facial angle; so that M. De Malle’s two observations manifestly contradict each other.
In the annexed plates the reader will find seventy-four accurate delineations of mummied heads, among which he will search in vain for the alleged peculiarity of the Egyptian ear. It is equally absent in the Pelasgic, Egyptian, Semitic, and Negroid forms: and yet the Egyptians, on their monuments, bestowed it alike on the people of all nations, of all epochs, and of every condition in life. See Plate [XIV].
Complexion.—On this point our evidence is, perhaps, less conclusive than on most others connected with Egyptian ethnography. Yet, meagre as it may seem, we cannot pass it by without a few remarks.
Herodotus, in the passage already cited, (p. 115,) speaks of the colour of the Egyptians as if it were black; yet this is evidently a relative, and not an absolute term. This remark applies, also, to the hackneyed fable of the two black doves, who are said, in mythological language, to have flown from Egypt, and established (at least one of them) the oracle of Delphi. Here, again, Herodotus supposes that because the doves were black, they must have represented Egyptian personages. But the Greeks, observes Maurice, called every thing black that related to Egypt, not excepting the river, the soil, and even the country itself; whence the name [Greek: Ermochymios]—the black country of Hermes.