Dr. Oudney, who saw them in great number, describes them in nearly similar terms, but assures us that under favourable circumstances their good, sound sense, would soon render them “a shining people.” It is curious, also, to note the following remark of the same intelligent traveller: “On almost every stone, in places they frequent, the Tuarick characters are hewn out. It matters not whether the letters are written from right to left, or _vice versa_, or horizontally,” a singular accordance with the graphical system of the ancient Egyptians.[51] It would therefore appear, that these roving descendants of the Libyan race possess, even now, some vestiges of that innate love of sculpture which was cultivated on so grand a scale by the temple-builders of the Nile. Yet farther south are the darker Berber tribes called Siwahs or Shouas, who are said by Major Denham to have “free open countenances, with aquiline noses and large eyes; their complexion is a light copper colour. They possess great cunning with their courage, and resemble, in appearance, some of the best favoured Gypsies in England.” Dark as they are, he remarks that “in comparison with the Negresses they are almost white.” They are vastly numerous throughout all Soudan, Houssa and Bornou, and the Sultan of the latter country has no less than 15,000 of them in his army.[52] In other instances, although they are few in comparison, the Berbers assimilate more to the Negro on account of the proximity of the two races; a remark which is especially made by Dr. Oudney in reference to the Tuaricks of Mourzouk, who have black and curling hair, but which, “from a Negro mixture, is inclined to be crispy.”[53] Here then are the various gradations of the Caucasian type which appear to have marked the ancient Egyptians, together with a degree of that intermixture of the Negro race which is revealed in the catacombs, and perpetuated in the modern Coptic population. In connexion with this subject, it is curious to remark that the Guanches of the Canary Islands were a branch of the Berber or Libyan stock; and the singular perfection to which they brought the art of embalming, long since led to the supposition that they might have been affiliated with the Egyptians. The only Berber skull in my possession is of this insular branch of that race, and like the one figured by Professor Blumenbach, bears a striking resemblance to the Egyptian conformation.[54] THE ETHIOPIANS.—Every one who has paid the slightest attention to the present inquiry, is aware of the entire vagueness of the name _Ethiopia_ (Cush) as used by the ancients; which, like _India_ in modern times, was applied to countries very remote from each other, and whose inhabitants were remarkably dissimilar. Thus Austral-Egyptians, Hindoos, Arabs, and Negroes, and even the Egyptians themselves, have each in turn been embraced in this designation.