Note 582 — Chapter XX · EGYPTIANS.
Reading edition
Heeren, Ideen über den Verkehr der Alten Welt, part ii, 1, p. 403. The opinion given by Parthey, however (De Philis Insulâ, p. 100, Berlin, 1830), may perhaps be just: “Antiquissimâ ætate eundem populum, dicamus Ægyptiacum, Nili ripas inde a Meroë insulâ usque ad Ægyptum inferiorem occupâsse, e monumentorum congruentiâ apparet: posteriore tempore, tabulis et annalibus nostris longe superiore, alia stirps Æthiopica interiora terræ usque ad cataractam Syenensem obtinuit. Ex quâ ætate certa rerum notitia ad nos pervenit, Ægyptiorum et Æthiopum segregatio jam facta est. Herodotus cæterique scriptores Græci populos acute discernunt.”
At this moment, Syênê and its cataract mark the boundary of two people and two languages,—Egyptians and Arabic language to the north, Nubians and Berber language to the south. (Parthey, ibid.)