The ancient Egyptian's absorption of Negro blood is so remote in its
beginning that some historians, mistaking later mixture for the original stock,
held the Egyptians to have been Negroid in origin. More recent investigations
have brought much light upon the physical type of the earliest inhabitants of
the Nile Valley, and Egyptologists are now agreed that the early type was
Caucasic and the Negroid admixture is subsequent to the period of Egypt's
greatness.
The best known authority upon Negro history (Sir Harry Johnston) tells us
that the Egyptians were a Caucasian people and that their early contact with
the Negro imparted to that race all the arts of civilization they possessed up
to the coming of the Persians, Greeks, Romans, Arabs, and modern Europeans to
the continent of Africa. Breasted, who is second to no other authority in
matters pertaining to early Egypt, recognizes the early date of the beginnings
of this admixture with the Negro peoples to the south of Egypt, but dismisses
the assumption that the Egyptians were themselves a Negroid people with
"The conclusion once maintained by some historians, that the Egyptians
were of African Negro origin, is now refuted." (James Henry Breasted, History
of Egypt, p. 28)
After following the history of Egypt during the period of greatness and
through the decay to the time mulattoes were sitting upon the throne of the
once illustrious Pharaohs, Breasted recognizes that Negro blood had reached the
aristocracy, and concludes that it was this blood which rendered the Negroid
dynasty unfit for progress. "It was indeed now patent that the Ethiopians
were unfitted for the imperial task now before them. The southern strain with
which their blood was tinctured began to appear as the reign of Shabatka drew
to a close, about 688 B.C." (Ibid., p. 554)
The consolidation of the kingdoms of Upper and Lower Egypt by Menes, the
first Pharaoh, occurred 3400 years B.C. The accession of Teharka, a mulatto, to
the throne occurred about 688 B.C. "It was at this juncture that we can
trace the rising fortunes of Prince Teharka...he was the son of a Nubian woman,
and his features, as preserved in contemporary sculpture, show unmistakably
Negroid characteristics." (Ibid., p.544) There is, then, an interval of
some twenty-seven centuries between the first Pharaoh and the date when a
mulatto inherits the throne. It was of this period, when Negroids were upon the
throne, that Isaiah foresaw the downfall of Egypt, "At the same time spake
the Lord by Isaiah, the son of Amos, saying, Go and loose the sackcloth from
off they loins, and put off thy shoe from they foot. And he did so, walking
naked and barefoot. And the Lord said, Like as my servant Isaiah hath walked
naked and barefoot three years for a sign and wonder upon Egypt and upon
Ethiopia; so shall the king of Assyria lead away the Egyptians prisoners and
the Ethiopians captives, young and old, naked and barefoot." (Isaiah 20)
It was also of the Ethiopian supremacy that the officer of Sennacherib spoke
to the ambassadors of Jerusalem, "Now, behold, thou trustest upon the
staff of this bruised red, even upon Egypt; on which if a man lean, it will go
into his hand and pierce it: so is Pharaoh king of Egypt unto all that trust on
him." (II Kings 18:21)
In seeking an ally against the Assyrians, the Israelites were drawn to
depend upon Egypt. In earlier times the fame of Egypt, its highly developed
civilization, had cast a spell upon the ancient world. Remembering its might
and glory, and unaware of its present impotence, the Israelites sought the aid
of Egypt in their contest with the Assyrians.
A survey of this ancient civilization will show that its great achievements
were in the earlier centuries. There was a prolonged period of decline. The
inhabitants lost initiative and ingenuity, and at the coming of the Assyrians
they could offer but feeble resistance. We will understand the situation if we
grasp the fact that Egyptian civilization was not overthrown; it decayed.
The trouble was internal.
Material of the greatest importance, which determines conclusively the race
type of the earliest Egyptians known to history, is so recent in its discovery
that few of the standard authors on Egyptian history have been able to profit
by it. Explorations and excavations by Americans operating in Egypt have
contributed much to this field of knowledge. Working mainly upon the results of
the Hearst Expedition of the University of California, under the direction of
Dr. Reisner of Harvard, professor G. Elliott Smith or England has published a
small but valuable volume dealing with the physical type of the Egyptian people
from the earliest times to the builders of the pyramids. With this, and kindred
information, we know the race lineage of the Egyptians as well as if these
ancient people were in our presence.
"The hot, dry sands of Egypt have preserved through a span of more than
sixty centuries the remains of countless multitudes of the earliest peoples
known to have dwelt in the Nile Valley; and not the mere bones only, but also
their skin, and hair, the muscles and organs of the body; and even such
delicate tissues as the nerves and the brain, and, most marvelous of all, the
lens of the eye, are available for examination today. We are able to form a
very precise idea of the structure of the body of the Proto-Egyptian (First
Egyptians)...it presented no resemblance whatever to the so-called woolly'
appearance and peppercorn-like arrangement of the Negro's hair." (The
Ancience Egyptians and Their Influence Upon European Civilization, 1911, by
G. Eliott Smith, Professor of Anatomy in the University of Manchester,
England.)
Of the remains exhumed, not more than two per cent showed definitely a Negro
admixture, and possibly an additional two percent showed a suspicion of Negro
blood. That this percentage, small as it is, is found in the prehistoric burial
grounds is ample evidence of the remoteness of Egyptian contact with the Negro.
We see how unfounded is the assumption that the early Egyptians were of African
Negro extraction. Yet the remoteness of the first interbreeding with the Negro
is well calculated to have led some authorities astray. It is as if some future
archaeologist should explore the ruins of present day Washington, find that
one-fourth of its inhabitants were Negroes, and conclude that the Americans of
the great civilization were of Negro extraction. The proportion of the Negro
here would be twelve times as great as in Ancient Egypt. Should he attribute
the civilization of America to the Negro because of these remains? Would not
the archaeologist be in keeping with American history if he stated that the
Negro resided in America, enjoyed the emoluments of its civilization, but did
not contribute an impulse to its progress?
The Egyptians were of the brunette race we now call
"Mediterranean." They were not Negroes, nor were they Nordics, though
individuals of both of these races were present. By reason of the fact that it
is not to environment, but to race, that we must look for the major factor in
the rise of great cultures, there has been a willingness on the part of some
authorities to stress the Nordic influence in the higher Egyptian culture.
Apart from the engineering skill shown in the building of the temples and
pyramids the culture of the early centuries does not imply the influence of a
race other than the Mediterranean. Pure Mediterraneans at the present time
manifest cultural activities analogous to those of the ancient Egyptians. It is
not sufficient to say that the present inhabitants do not contribute to
cultural advancement, whereas the ancient Egyptians were leaders in
civilization; for the present inhabitants of Egypt are not the pure descendants
of the ancient Egyptians. The most highly constituted race, the most developed
physically and intellectually, may, within a few generations, breed backward in
the scale of evolution by absorbing the blood of an inferior race. Breeding
backward! This is the nemesis of great cultures. Let us bear in mind that there
is no natural law affecting mankind which necessitates retrogression in mind or
body.
While the blood of the early Egyptian, is well diffused throughout Egypt, it
is significant that the Copts, who are the purest representatives of the
pre-Moslem Egyptian, are distinctly Negroid, more so than a large proportion of
the Semitic newcomers.
As we know that the great mass of the people were of the Mediterranean race,
the most that can be said with regard to the higher culture being influenced by
foreigners is that such influence was through the aristocracy. The periods of
creative activity which Egypt has experienced since the coming of the Assyrians
and Persians did not have origin in the Egyptians proper, but were instituted
by foreign aristocracies of whose coming and activities we have ample
knowledge.
Alien aristocracies gave to India, Persia, Greece, and Rome their creative
periods; and with the passing away of these aristocracies there is an
accompanying subsidence of culture. Also, we have before us at present numerous
examples of foreigners, or people semi-foreign in race and institutions,
imposing their degree of civilization upon less capable races. The electric
lights and railways of India; the Suez Canal and Aswan Dam of Egypt; the mines and
plantations of Africa; the entire progress, economic, political and social, of
the two Americas have their source in a people who are alien in race to the
earlier inhabitants of these countries over whom they rule in fact, if not in
theory, as an aristocracy.
We have seen that the Egyptians of the creative period were of the white
race. It now remains for us to trace in outline their great culture in order to
appreciate the heights from which they fell. At the same time, we will keep in
mind that the Egyptian civilization decayed. When the Asiatic conquerors
(white people; Assyrians and Persians) came, they found a corrupted mass
bearing the name Egyptian, ruled by a mulatto Pharaoh.
Drawing, in the main, upon "History of Egypt" (Breasted)* but
disclaiming any purpose to identify this authority with any opinion here
presented, saw inasmuch as data given by him is inseparable form the
conclusions we reach, we now will observe the salient outlines of Egyptian
culture.
*(History of Egypt, from the
Earliest Times to the Persian Conquest, by James Henry Breasted, Professor
of Egyptology and Oriental History in the University of Chicago, Second
Edition, 1909. The value of this work is not surpassed by any publication
dealing with early Egypt.
Thirty-four hundred years B.C. the kingdoms of Upper and
Lower Egypt were consolidated under the rule of Menes, the first Pharaoh. It
was the Northern Kingdom, the Delta region, farthest removed form the Negro to
the south and in close contact with the other white peoples of North Africa and
Asia Minor, that at the time of the consolidation was most advance, "That
civilization was probably earlier and more advanced than that of the valley
above. Already in the forty-third century B.C., the men of the Delta had
discovered the year of three hundred and sixty-days and they introduced a
calendar year of this length...it is the civilization of the Delta , therefore,
which furnishes us with the earliest fixed date in the history of the
world." (Brested, James Henry, History of Egypt, p. 32)
This same Menes, who appears in history as the first Pharaoh, "carried
his arms southward against northern Nubia, which then existed below the first
cataract as far northward as the nome of Edfu and built a dam above the city of
Memphis to divert the waters of the Nile to gain more room for that city. The
swamp lands of the Delta were being reclaimed as before the consolidation of
the two kingdoms, and the rich lands obtained drew to the Delta a rapidly
increasing population." (Ibid., p. 37)
The first Pharaoh is seen to have reigned over a people able to divert the
waters of the Nile, reclaim the swamp lands of the Delta, and, important for
our consideration, to wage warfare against the Negroid peoples of Nubia. The
inhabitants of Nubia were less Negroid at this and earlier periods. Some
authorities think that the draining of the Delta swamps led to a rapid movement
of the inhabitants northward to that region, leaving behind the more feeble,
and that these latter were not able to stem the migration into Nubia of the
highly Negroid populations which connected white Egypt with Negro Africa. (G.E.
Smith, The Anceint Egyptians)
That portion of Egyptian history covered by the reign of the Pharaohs is
divided into thirty dynasties or family reigns. The greater number of these
families were related more or less closely by blood ties. Space prevents
detailed reference to the material culture of the unknown period of time
referred to as the Prediagnostic Age. The first pharaoh, Menes, came into
possession of a kingdom far removed form barbaric conditions. We are not to
trace a civilization in its rudiments, but one possessing an already well
established background of tradition and attainment.
In addition to those attainments implied in the activities already mentioned,
the people under the first pharaoh are known to have used not only the
hieroglyphic, but a cursive hand as well, and thus to have antedated by more
than twenty-five hundred years the use of alphabetic signs by any other people.
The Second Dynasty erected stone temples, Namar, an early king, took 120,000
Libyans captive, and of their herds "one million four hundred and twenty
thousand small, and four thousand large cattle." There is evidence that
"the kings of this time maintained foreign relations with far remoter
people" than the Bedouins of the Sinitic Peninsula, and that they were in
commercial relations with the peoples of the northern Mediterranean in the
fourth millennium B.C.
Dynasties three to six inclusive (2928-2475 B.C.) form that period known as
the Old Kingdom. In religion, government, society, industry, and art, the Old
Kingdom is revealed as a well-constituted state, exhibiting rapidly developing
culture, physical and spiritual, superior to the culture of the dynasties to
follow.
The Egyptians were a religious people, who at this remote date devoutly
believed in the resurrection of the body after death and in the immortality of
the soul. Osiris was their god of the dead, "king of the glorified."
Of a just man they said, "As Osiris lives, so shall he live; as Osiris
died not, so shall he also not die; as Osiris perished not, so shall he also
not perish." (From the "Pyramid Texts," engraved upon the
passages of the Fifth and Sixth Dynasty pyramids, Brested, History of Egypt,
pp. 66-67) They believed that a ferryman would row the departed to the land of
the glorified, but that this ferryman would receive only those of whom it was
said "There is no evil which he has done." This is the "earliest
record of an ethical test at the close of life making the life hereafter
dependent upon the moral quality of the life lived in this world." It will
doubtless surprise the average reader to learn that such exalted religious
teachings were held by the Egyptians more than four thousand years ago At a later
period their religion became debased, "the animal worship which we usually
associate with ancient Egypt, as a cult, is a late product, brought forward in
the decline of the nation at the close of its history." (See also, Race
or Mongrel, by Alfred Schultz, chap. "Egypt.")
Turning from the high spiritual conceptions of the ancient Egyptians we are
struck with no less wonder when we behold their social and material culture.
Within the home, the wife was in every respect the equal of the husband, and
was treated as such. Filial affection and obedience to parents were enjoined
upon all youths, and a favorite tomb inscription was, "I was one beloved
of his father, praised of his mother, whom his brothers and sisters
loved."
But it is not in their religious or their social attainments that the Early
Egyptians were most conspicuous. Their use of metal tools dates back to such
early times that some capable authorities assert that the Egyptians initiated
the Age of Metals. Let us not fail to appreciate the importance of such a step
in the history of man. Prior to the invention of metal implements, the tools
used in the industries and the arts were those made from stone, reed and bone.
Consider the limitations upon the individual and upon the nation imposed by
such possessions. It required infinite patience to fashion these tools and to
make advantageous use of them. Industrial progress, of necessity, would be
slow. But with the use of metals, industry would take a rapid course upward,
and the people in possession of such culture would become strong in war as well
as the arts of peace. So Egypt's visible greatness descends to us as the result
of the early use of metal tools. "They brought from the first cataract
granite blocks twenty or thirty feet long and fifty or sixty tons in weight.
The drilled the toughest stone, like diorite, with tubular drills of copper,
and the massive lids of the granite sarcophagi were sawn with long copper saws,
which, like the drills, were reinforced with sand or emery."
With creative genius awakened, and conscious of their constructive talent,
the Egyptians sought yet greater triumphs. Their kings, through a not always
generous rivalry, wished to build imperishable monuments to their power, and
this desire to live in the eyes of posterity gradually found expression in the
pyramid tomb. A succeeding Pharaoh, viewing the tombs of his predecessors and
profiting by the increase of wealth and architectural knowledge, would demand a
yet greater monument to his glory. The existing generation would subscribe to
his aspiration, for the pyramids were recognized as national achievements. So
the age of the mighty pyramids was ushered in. These are the most conspicuous
evidence of Egyptian greatness; and in the ability of the engineers in planning
and overseeing, and the organized power of the Pharaohs in bringing them to
perfection, we catch a glimpse of the Caucasian civilizers of Egypt which must
forever impress us with the height of their power and make it an absorbing
study to discover the causation of their decline.
Zoster, the first Pharaoh of the "Old Kingdom" (2980-2475 B.C.)
made his capital at Memphis. It was the Old Kingdom "in which art and
mechanics reached a level of unprecedented excellence never later
surpassed." With Zoster, as with Menes (3400 B.C.), we have record of the
extension of Egyptian influence over the mulatto tribes of Nubia. At the
accession of Menes, the Nubian frontier extended northward beyond the nome of
Edfu. During the reign of Zoster, Egyptian conquest had quelled the turbulent
mongrel tribes of Northern Nubia; and peaceful navigation of the Nile was
possible for a distance of seventy-five miles south of the first cataract. From
Menes to Zoster intervene more than four hundred years. Within these four centuries
the southern frontier had been extended but little. Sesostris III of the
Twelfth Dynasty, who came to throne in 1887 B.C., completed the conquest of
Nubia. Between Menes and Sesostris III there is a period of fifteen hundred
years. This evidence of the slow conquest and absorption of the Negroids to the
south of Egypt should not escape our attention. These centuries cover the
period of Egypt's greatness. Egypt was still white! During this period, and
before it, the Egyptians were in constant contact with the Libyans to their
west and with other Caucasian peoples to their north and east. From these they
gave and received, and their civilization flourished. Their extension southward
was slow, very slow, and to this they owed their long-lived civilization.
Before the time of Zoster, the royal tombs were constructed of sun-dried
brick, but this king, desiring a more auspicious and permanent memorial, built
a terraced pyramid of stone 195 feet in height. He became the first Pyramid
Builder. Later kings of this dynasty erected the great stone pyramids of Dashur
and Sneferu, and the last king constructed vessels 170 feet long for traffic on
the Nile.
Across the Nile from modern Cairo (ancient Gizeh) the numerous tourists who
frequent Egypt will get their first glimpse of the might and power of the
civilization that has perished. There, among others, is the Great Pyramid,
built by Khufu (Cheops). This is the mighty structure near which is located the
Sphinx, the pictorial representations f which have long been familiar to the
civilized world. "How strong and effective must have been the organization
of Khufu's government we appreciate in some measure when we learn that this
pyramid contains some two million three hundred thousand blocks, each weighing
on the average two and a half tons...The blocks were taken out of the quarries
on the east side of the river south of Cairo, and at high water, when the flats
were flooded, they were floated across the valley to the Base of pyramid hill.
Here an enormous stone ramp or causeway had been erected, a labor of ten years,
if we are to believe Herodotus, and up this incline the stones were dragged to
the plateau upon which the pyramid stands. Not merely was this work
quantitatively so formidable, but in quality, also, it is the most remarkable
material enterprise known to us in this early world, for the most ponderous
masonry in the pyramid amazes us by its fineness...The pyramid is, or was,
about four hundred and eighty-one feet high, and on its square base measured
some seven hundred and fifty-five feet on a side, but the average error is less
than ten thousandths of the side in equality, in squareness and in
level'...Some of the masonry finish is so fine that blocks weighing tons were
set together with seams of considerable length, showing a joint of one
ten-thousandth of an inch and involving edges and surfaces equal to opticians'
work of the present day, but on a scale of acres rather than feet or yards of
material."
From the great pyramids let us turn to other activities which give insight
into the wide range of Egyptian culture. The sculpture of the Old Kingdom
exhibits the highest technical skill, and compares favorably with the work of
modern artists. The temples of the period mark the greatest architectural
attainments. Egypt is the source of calumniated architecture. This country, at
the close of the fourth millennium B.C., had "solved the fundamental
problems of great architecture, developing with the most refined artistic sense
and the greatest mechanical skill the treatment of voids." The art of
weaving was highly developed, so much so that the fabrics are a source of
wonder to the modern beholder, while the goldsmiths were capable of producing
the most exquisite ornaments, many of which have survived to the present day.
Toward the close of the Old Kingdom there is evidence of the weakening of
the central power, but Egyptian culture did not suffer. Race is more than
politics, religion or art. These are but the expression of race.
The rise of the official class to greater influence and the consequent
lessening of the Pharaoh's power would not then, of itself, have led to a
lessening of cultural activities. Instead, this period was "of significant
political development, and in material civilization one of distinct progress.
Art and industry flourished as before, and great works of Egyptian sculpture
were produced."
The Sixth Dynasty, last of the Old Kingdom, marks a foreign policy of
increasing vigor. The Negro tribes of the south were compelled to contribute
quotas to the Egyptian armies; and the use of these levies against white
neighbors with whom the Egyptians were at war marks an unsavory epoch in the
history of the contact of races. The non-creative races, compelled to rely upon
their own resources in war or in peace, are insignificant competitors with the
white man. But armed with the white man's inventions, they are transformed into
formidable competitors, immediately attaining rank which evolutionary forces
have not conferred upon them and assuming an influence which they are incapable
of maintaining. The Pharaohs' use of multitudes of Negro troops against the
enemies of Egypt had much to do with the final decay of Egyptian civilization.
This custom continued for centuries. It became so universal that the Egyptian
word for soldier is derived from the name of a powerful Negro tribe long
accustomed to furnishing levies for the Egyptian word for soldier is derived
form the name of a powerful Negro tribe long accustomed to furnishing levies
for the Egyptian armies. "We know little of the Negro and Negroid tribes
who inhabited the cataract region at this time. Immediately south of the
Egyptian frontier dwelt the tribes of Wawat, extending well towards the second
cataract, above which the entire region of the upper cataracts was known as
Kush...In the upper half of the huge S' formed by the course of the Nile
between the junction of the two Niles and the second cataract, was included the
territory of the powerful Mazoi, who afterward appeared as auxiliaries in the
Egyptian armies in such numbers that the Egyptian word for soldier ultimately
became Matoi,' a late (Coptic) form of Mazoi. Probably on the west of the Mazoi
was the land of Yam, and between Yam and Mazoi on the south and Wawat on the
north, were distributed several tribes, of whim Irthet and Sethut were the most
important...They dwelt in squalid settlements of mud huts along the river, or
by wells in the valleys running up country from the Nile." (The names and
locations of these tribes will be of service in understanding the next chapter)
The Old Kingdom ended with the Sixth Dynasty (2475 B.C.). Space will not
permit an attempt to portray the heights of Egyptian culture during that
succeeding period known as the Empire. Let us omit, say, a thousand years of
history and search for light upon the Egyptian Negro problem. This omission
will bring us to approximately 1500 B.C. The Negro policy of the Empire will be
found to be not radically different from that of the white nations now ruling
Africa. We do not believe that the modern European has taken a leaf out of
Egyptian history and modeled his Negro policy accordingly, but there is a
striking similarity in method and intent. "Egyptian temples had now sprung
up at every large town, and the Egyptian gods were worshiped therein; the
Egyptian arts were learned by Nubian craftsmen, and everywhere the rude
barbarism of the upper Nile was receiving the stamp of Egyptian culture.
Nevertheless, the native chieftains, under the surveillance of the viceroys,
were still permitted to retain their titles and honors, and doubles continued
to enjoy at least a nominal share in the government...The annual landing of the
viceroy of Thebes, bringing the yearly tribute of all the Nubian lands, was now
a long established custom."
The gradual diffusion of Caucasian culture and the utilization of native
chiefs, under direction of white colonial governors, was characteristic of the
first attempt to implant civilization in Negro Africa, as it is of the present
effort on the part of modern white nations.
We have seen that the earliest period of Egyptian history reveals a slight
Negroid mixture in the populations of southern Egypt. Possibly some five
percent of the inhabitants were Negroes or tinged with Negro blood. At the
period we now have under consideration (1500 B.C.), there is no way in which it
is possible to tell the exact extension of Negro blood, but as Egyptians were
constantly going into the South and peoples from the South constantly coming
into Egypt proper, it is not likely that more than half the population of the
southern half of Egypt was still white. Blood admixture has without exception
been the inevitable result of long continued race contact; and, as we know a
mulatto inherited the throne a few centuries later, a guess that forty or fifty
percent of the ;population was Negroid should be considered conservative.
Constant immigration from west and east, armed and peaceful, had augmented the
Caucasic element, and this would have tended to prolong the civilization.
Now, if we drop down another long period (800 years), we shall have passed
though the age of decay to the point where a mulatto has become the Pharaoh.
From prehistoric time the Negro had sifted into the country. Many thousands
came as soldiers for the Pharaohs of old, just as some modern rulers of Europe
found it less costly to employ Negro mercenaries than white troops. Countless
numbers had come as slaves; many included in the yearly tribute of the southern
dependencies, others as captives taken in war; while the large levies for
purposes of labor, even if not forcibly retained by Egyptian authorities, would
find the Egyptian environment superior to their squalid settlements, and seek
to remain.
Certain of the Pharaohs sought to prevent the mongrelization of Egypt by
restricting Negro immigration, even to the extent of inflicting the death
penalty upon the immigrant. But the Negro was a docile, subservient workman and
soldier, and these characteristics created a demand to the influence of which
less enlightened Pharaohs succumbed. So they came for centuries; not by force
of arms in battle array, but as a subjugated and enslaved people. That the
blood of a people who had not produced a civilization should have been
instrumental in lowering the status of the Egyptians so that progress ceased,
is a lamentable event in world history. Negro blood made the proud Egyptian a
mongrel. For three thousand years the same Nile has flowed, the same richly
laden soils from its upper reaches annually have inundated the land, but the
Negro Egyptian has known no progress. Thirty centuries have demonstrated that
the mulatto of the Lower Nile, like the true Negro of its equatorial branches,
is below the level of progress. The Caucasian at best progress but slowly;
mixed with the Negro he progresses not at all.
The Moslem Arab's conquest of North and East Africa has resulted generally
in the mongrelization of the Arab. Thus is added another culture of the
Caucasian race engulfed by miscegenation. The comparatively recent
interbreeding of the Arab with his African subjects is an event which may serve
to illustrate the factor determining the decay of early Egyptian culture.