It is moreover reasonable to suppose that even after the expulsion of the Hykshos, multitudes of Egyptians would remain in Ethiopia,—that country wherein whole generations of their ancestors had lived and died; at the same time that great numbers of Meröites, influenced by a variety of motives and especially by social alliances, would descend the Nile into Egypt. It is moreover evident that while the Egyptians became thus fraternized with the nations of southern Asia, and the motley races of the Upper Nile, the provinces of Lower Egypt would be overrun with the Caucasian tribes of Europe and western Asia; for these, either as cognate with the Hykshos or as allies in their service, must have been in immense number to have conquered so populous a country, and especially to have kept possession during so long a period. It is to these events, then, that we attribute that blending of nations which appears to have been coeval with the early ages of the Nilotic Family, and which amply accounts for the ethnographic diversities every where manifest on the monuments. THE SECOND EPOCH is comprised in the Ethiopian Dynasty of three kings, which lasted forty-four years, beginning B.C. 719. These Meröite or Austral-Egyptian kings, during their intrusive occupation of Egypt, would naturally, and indeed necessarily engage the neighbouring tribes, and especially such as were hostile to Egypt, as mercenary soldiers; and there are more than conjectural grounds for believing that the Negroes themselves were thus employed. We are told in the Sacred Writings (2 Chron. Chap. xii.) that when Shishak king of Egypt, who is identical with Sheshonk of the monuments,—went up against Jerusalem, he took with him “1200 chariots, and three-score thousand horsemen: and the people were without number that came with him out of Egypt; the Lubims, the Sukkiims and the Ethiopians.” Of this multitude we may presume that the horsemen, and people in chariots were part of the Egyptian army; the Lubims and Sukkiims are by most commentators regarded as Libyans and Meröites, while, as the Ethiopians are placed last on the list, and are designated in the Hebrew original by the name of _Cush_, it is not unreasonable to suppose that they were Negroes. This view is sustained by a passage in Herodotus,[121] who states that in the army of Xerxes which invaded Greece was a legion of _Western Ethiopians_, “who had hair more crisp and curling than any other men.”[122] Now if the army of Xerxes embraced a legion of African Negroes, it would not be remarkable if the Egyptian troops should have been composed in part of the same people; which, indeed, with respect to the Ethiopian dynasty, may be assumed as a thing of course: for the Meröites would naturally avail themselves of every expedient to establish their power by augmenting the number of their exotic confederates, and by extending to them