The Libyans are represented in our day by the various and motley Berber tribes, who under the names of Tuaricks, Kabyles and Siwahs, inhabit both north and south of Mt. Atlas; and in their physical characters combine the Caucasian physiognomy with various shades of complexion, from a fair skin to a dark and tawny hue.
“The Kabyles,” says Mr. Shaler, “are a white people, of middle stature, muscular, athletic and active, but never corpulent; and are of lively, social manners and of ingenious dispositions. Many of them are of light complexions, with hair approaching to flaxen, resembling rather the peasants of the south of Europe than the inhabitants of Africa.”[[50]] Then come the darker Tuaricks, men of fine mould and adventurous spirit, but nomadic, unfeeling and vindictive.
Dr. Oudney, who saw them in great number, describes them in nearly similar terms, but assures us that under favourable circumstances their good, sound sense, would soon render them “a shining people.” It is curious, also, to note the following remark of the same intelligent traveller: “On almost every stone, in places they frequent, the Tuarick characters are hewn out. It matters not whether the letters are written from right to left, or vice versa, or horizontally,” a singular accordance with the graphical system of the ancient Egyptians.[[51]] It would therefore appear, that these roving descendants of the Libyan race possess, even now, some vestiges of that innate love of sculpture which was cultivated on so grand a scale by the temple-builders of the Nile.
Yet farther south are the darker Berber tribes called Siwahs or Shouas, who are said by Major Denham to have “free open countenances, with aquiline noses and large eyes; their complexion is a light copper colour. They possess great cunning with their courage, and resemble, in appearance, some of the best favoured Gypsies in England.” Dark as they are, he remarks that “in comparison with the Negresses they are almost white.” They are vastly numerous throughout all Soudan, Houssa and Bornou, and the Sultan of the latter country has no less than 15,000 of them in his army.[[52]]
In other instances, although they are few in comparison, the Berbers assimilate more to the Negro on account of the proximity of the two races; a remark which is especially made by Dr. Oudney in reference to the Tuaricks of Mourzouk, who have black and curling hair, but which, “from a Negro mixture, is inclined to be crispy.”[[53]]
Here then are the various gradations of the Caucasian type which appear to have marked the ancient Egyptians, together with a degree of that intermixture of the Negro race which is revealed in the catacombs, and perpetuated in the modern Coptic population.
In connexion with this subject, it is curious to remark that the Guanches of the Canary Islands were a branch of the Berber or Libyan stock; and the singular perfection to which they brought the art of embalming, long since led to the supposition that they might have been affiliated with the Egyptians. The only Berber skull in my possession is of this insular branch of that race, and like the one figured by Professor Blumenbach, bears a striking resemblance to the Egyptian conformation.[[54]]
The Ethiopians.—Every one who has paid the slightest attention to the present inquiry, is aware of the entire vagueness of the name Ethiopia (Cush) as used by the ancients; which, like India in modern times, was applied to countries very remote from each other, and whose inhabitants were remarkably dissimilar. Thus Austral-Egyptians, Hindoos, Arabs, and Negroes, and even the Egyptians themselves, have each in turn been embraced in this designation.
Our present inquiry, however, relates to that people who occupied the valley of the Nile, from Philæ to Meroë, and perhaps yet farther south; a region at the present time inhabited by the Nubians, Senàaree and the Abyssinians, with all those endless varieties of race which necessarily result from immemorial proximity to the Negro countries. It is a point of great interest and importance to ascertain the physical characteristics of the aboriginal communities of this branch of the Nilotic family; but they become at an early period so blended with exotic nations that their distinctive features must be chiefly derived from the monuments, unless the catacombs of Meroë should hereafter throw additional light on the subject. Of the monumental evidence we have already spoken: we have seen that the proper Egyptian physiognomy, the same which abounds at Thebes, is every where conspicuous on the tombs and temples of the Meröite[[55]] or monumental Ethiopians. That these people had no affinity, even in the remotest times, to the Negro race, would appear from the evidence already adduced, and also from other facts which remain to be noticed. Among the paintings of the Grand Procession (epoch of Thotmes IV.,) at Thebes, Mr. Hoskins remarks that the Negro is represented with all the characteristic features of his race, but that the Ethiopians are painted red like the Egyptians, having their hair dressed in curls above their foreheads, and in ringlets upon their shoulders.[[56]] (Plate [XIV]., Fig. 22.) So also in the voyage of Scylax, B.C. 360, the Ethiopians are described as a beautiful people, with long hair and beard; and the distinguished English traveller just quoted remarks that the heads sculptured on the pyramids of Meroë have a nearly European profile. Two of these, which are associated with the same legend, are represented by the subjoined figures.[[57]] The one to the left hand (that of an unknown king) has mixed lineaments, neither strictly Pelasgic nor Egyptian; while the right hand personage, who appears to be a priest doing homage, presents a countenance which corresponds in essentials to the Egyptian type, although the profile approaches closely to the Grecian.
