DOI Page / Citation link:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.5066#0032
'CH- l NOT FROM ETHIOPIA 3
that bridge of nations the Isthmus of Suez, to find a
new fatherland on the banks of the Nile.
Comparative philology, in its turn, gives powerful
support to this hypothesis, for the primitive roots and
the essential elements of the Egyptian grammar point
to such an intimate connection with the Indo-Germanic
and Semitic languages, that it is almost impossible to
mistake the close relations which formerly prevailed
between them. According to Greek tradition the pri-
mitive abode of the Egyptian people is to be sought
m Ethiopia, and the honour of founding their civi-
lisation should be given to a band of priests from
Meroe. Descending the Nile, they are supposed to have
settled near the later city of Thebes, and to have esta-
blished the first State with a theocratic form of govern-
ment.
But it is not to Ethiopian priests that the Egyptian
empire owes its origin its form of government, and its
nigh civilisation ; much rather was it the Egyptians
themselves that first ascended the river to found in
Ethiopia temples, cities, and fortified places, and to
diffuse the blessings of a civilised state among the rude
dark-coloured population.
Supposing, for a moment, that Egypt had owed her
civil and social development to Ethiopia, nothing would
be more probable than the presumption of our finding
monuments of the greatest antiquity in that primitive
home of the Egyptians, while in going down the river
we ought to light only upon monuments of a later age.
Strange to say, the whole number of the buildings in
stone, as yet known and examined, which were erected
on both sides of the river by Egyptian and Ethiopian
kings, furnish the incontrovertible proof, that the long
series of temples, cities, sepulchres, and monuments in
general, exhibit a distinct chronological order, of which
a 2
that bridge of nations the Isthmus of Suez, to find a
new fatherland on the banks of the Nile.
Comparative philology, in its turn, gives powerful
support to this hypothesis, for the primitive roots and
the essential elements of the Egyptian grammar point
to such an intimate connection with the Indo-Germanic
and Semitic languages, that it is almost impossible to
mistake the close relations which formerly prevailed
between them. According to Greek tradition the pri-
mitive abode of the Egyptian people is to be sought
m Ethiopia, and the honour of founding their civi-
lisation should be given to a band of priests from
Meroe. Descending the Nile, they are supposed to have
settled near the later city of Thebes, and to have esta-
blished the first State with a theocratic form of govern-
ment.
But it is not to Ethiopian priests that the Egyptian
empire owes its origin its form of government, and its
nigh civilisation ; much rather was it the Egyptians
themselves that first ascended the river to found in
Ethiopia temples, cities, and fortified places, and to
diffuse the blessings of a civilised state among the rude
dark-coloured population.
Supposing, for a moment, that Egypt had owed her
civil and social development to Ethiopia, nothing would
be more probable than the presumption of our finding
monuments of the greatest antiquity in that primitive
home of the Egyptians, while in going down the river
we ought to light only upon monuments of a later age.
Strange to say, the whole number of the buildings in
stone, as yet known and examined, which were erected
on both sides of the river by Egyptian and Ethiopian
kings, furnish the incontrovertible proof, that the long
series of temples, cities, sepulchres, and monuments in
general, exhibit a distinct chronological order, of which
a 2