DOI Seite / Zitierlink:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.4668#0069
II.] Tradition of Origin. 51
to, the long and narrow strip of fertile soil
which lines its borders, cut off by deserts on
either hand, and alone permits the very exist-
ence of an Egyptian people.
According to ancient tradition, and agreeably
also to the records, the ancestors of the race
in very remote times were not of Northern
but of Southern * extraction, being originally
natives of Poont, situated near the Equatorial
sources of the Nile. In harmony with this
tradition, we find that the central point of
* As a contrary opinion is still held by some Egypto-
logists, and was sanctioned by Dr. Brogsch himself. I may
be permitted to quote the opinion of a very distinguished
authority in support. M. Maspero, when I put the
question to him, most courteously informed me that
though years ago he had held the opinion then prevalent
of a Northern origin, he had changed his views on further
research, and now believes the Egyptians to have come
from the South. If this view be correct—and many facts
seem to support it—endless difliculties are resolved, or
rather do not arise to require solution, which have
resulted from a belief in the famous "prehistoric Asiatic
family ; " that is to say, in a family of the existence of
which no record can be produced.
to, the long and narrow strip of fertile soil
which lines its borders, cut off by deserts on
either hand, and alone permits the very exist-
ence of an Egyptian people.
According to ancient tradition, and agreeably
also to the records, the ancestors of the race
in very remote times were not of Northern
but of Southern * extraction, being originally
natives of Poont, situated near the Equatorial
sources of the Nile. In harmony with this
tradition, we find that the central point of
* As a contrary opinion is still held by some Egypto-
logists, and was sanctioned by Dr. Brogsch himself. I may
be permitted to quote the opinion of a very distinguished
authority in support. M. Maspero, when I put the
question to him, most courteously informed me that
though years ago he had held the opinion then prevalent
of a Northern origin, he had changed his views on further
research, and now believes the Egyptians to have come
from the South. If this view be correct—and many facts
seem to support it—endless difliculties are resolved, or
rather do not arise to require solution, which have
resulted from a belief in the famous "prehistoric Asiatic
family ; " that is to say, in a family of the existence of
which no record can be produced.