Note 266 — Chapter XXII · ABYDUS AND CAIRO.

“Enfin nous signalerons l’importance des statues de Meydoum au point de vue ethnographique. Si la race Égyptienne était à cette époque celle dout les deux statues nous offrent le type, il faut convenir qu’elle ne ressemblait en rien à la race qui habitait le nord de l’Égypte quelques années seulement après Snefrou.”—“Cat. du Musée de Boulaq.” A. Mariette Bey. P. 277; Paris. 1872.

Of the heads of these two statues Professor Owen remarks that “the brain-case of the male is a full oval, the parietal bosses feebly indicated; in vertical contour the fronto parietal part is little elevated, rather flattened than convex; the frontal sinuses are slightly indicated; the forehead is fairly developed but not prominent. The lips are fuller than in the majority of Europeans; but the mouth is not prognathic.... The features of the female conform in type to those of the male, but show more delicacy and finish.... The statue of the female is colored of a lighter tint than that of the male, indicating the effects of better clothing and less exposure to the sun. And here it may be remarked that the racial character of complexion is significantly manifested by such evidences of the degree of tint due to individual exposure.... The primitive race-tint of the Egyptians is perhaps more truly indicated by the color of the princes in these painted portrait-statues than by that of her more scantily clad husband or male relative.”—“The Ethnology of Egypt,” by Sir Richard Owen, K. C. B. “Journal of Anthropological Institute,” vol. iv, Lond., 1874; p. 225 et seq.