In the phonetic character is found the expression M-S-R as a designation for that land. It is synonymous with the Arabic _Misr_, the Jewish _Mizraim_, _Mazor_, and the Syriac _Mezren_. Various explanations are given of this word, according to the significations it has in the various dialects. According to some it means "stronghold," while according to others, it signifies "extension;" by the Hebrews it was applied to Egypt, or, as some commentators assert, to the Egyptians. Other appellations for the land of Egypt are found in the hieroglyphs and in phonetic groups. This is the case, for instance, with the group _Nehi_, signifying the sycamore, which is believed to be indigenous in Egypt. None of these names, however, had any historical signification, so that it still remains a mystery what the native name for the primitive civilizers of the Nile valley was. As for the name _Egypt_, _Egyptians_, this was bestowed on them by the Greeks; and some attempt to deduce it from _Phtha_ or _Ptah_, a divinity of the city and township of Memphis; and the denomination, _Land of Ptah_, is supposed to have been used in a generic sense. The advantage of thus exploring those historical and philological labyrinths will make itself clear in succeeding chapters. Philology has explained the signification of various other ancient ethnic and national names, among others, "Hebrews," "Aryas" or "Aryans," "Pelasgi," "Greeks," "Canaanites," etc., and such explanations have frequently proved of the highest value in letting us into the secret of their origin, character, and the direction of their activity. But there is no vestige of the antique language of the Egyptians that would lead us to suppose that absolute distinctions of race, or chattelhood based thereon, formed features of the primitive life in the Nile valley. From various paintings, inscriptions, and philological data, science has endeavored to reconstruct the ethnological conceptions entertained by the Egyptians seventeen centuries B.C. The _red_ race occupied Egypt (chiefly lower Egypt), Arabia, and part of Babylonia; the _yellow_ race was spread over Palestine and Syria, reaching Africa; the _white_ race stretched north and north-west of Egypt, inhabiting a part of Libya and the islands of Rhodes, Cyprus, Crete, etc.; the _black and brown_ race occupied Egypt, Abyssinia, Nubia, and Southern Arabia. _Nah es. u_ or _Nah si. u_ was the name given to all negroes or blacks who were not Egyptians, while to the whole red-colored race they applied the term _ret_, _ret-u_, signifying "germ."