Note 502 — Chapter XVIII · PHENICIANS.

See the discussion in Dr. Prichard, Natural History of Man, sect. xvii, p. 152.

Μελαγχρόες καὶ οὐλότριχες (Herodot. ii, 104: compare Ammian. Marcell. xxii, 16, “subfusculi, atrati,” etc.) are certain attributes of the ancient Egyptians, depending upon the evidence of an eye-witness.

“In their complexion, and in many of their physical peculiarities (observes Dr. Prichard, p. 138), the Egyptians were an African race. In the eastern, and even in the central parts of Africa, we shall trace the existence of various tribes in physical characters nearly resembling the Egyptians; and it would not be difficult to observe among many nations of that continent a gradual deviation from the physical type of the Egyptian to the strongly-marked character of the negro, and that without any very decided break or interruption. The Egyptian language, also, in the great leading principles of its grammatical construction, bears much greater analogy to the idioms of Africa than to those prevalent among the people of other regions.”