The historians' history of the world in twenty-five volumes, volume 01 : $b Prolegomena; Egypt, Mesopotamia
History
The historians' history of the world in twenty-five volumes, volume 01 : $b Prolegomena; Egypt, Mesopotamia
World history
On the monuments the colour of the skin in male Egyptians, who in
ancient days went totally naked but for a loin cloth, is a red-brown.
On the other hand, the women, who were clad in a long robe and were not
equally exposed to the effects of air and sun, are painted in a lighter
brown or yellow. In quite similar fashion the Greeks of old represented
men on their vases as red and women as white. We should not forget that
the art of depicting the finer shades of colours in paint had not yet
been learnt.
Just as the Egyptians are distinguished from the population of
the interior of Africa, so they have their nearest kinsmen in the
inhabitants of the northern zone of the continent. West of them, on
the coast lands on the Mediterranean as well as in the oases of the
desert, dwell races which are comprehended by Egyptians under the term
Thuhen. Following the precedent of the Greeks, we have transferred to
all of them the name of the Libyans, that race which was settled in the
territory of Cyrene, where the Greeks first learned of their existence.
In Egyptian memorials we find them again under the name of Rebu (we
should observe here, once for all, that neither Egyptian speech nor
Egyptian writing has an L, and so in foreign words every R may be
read as an L). The name Rebu, as the Greek form of the name tells us,
was pronounced Lebu [Libu]. To the east of these Libyans proper, in
the desert plateau of the country of Marmarica, dwell the Tuhennu,
who spread as far as the borders of Egypt, and even also settled in
the western portion of the Delta. Further westward, presumably in
the neighbourhood of the Syrtes, we find the Mashauasha. The Greeks,
especially Herodotus, have preserved for us a great number of other
names. All these tribes, to which the dwellers in the oases also
belong, are most closely related to one another, and form, together
with the inhabitants of western North Africa, the Numidians and the
Moors, a great group of nations, which we denote by the term Libyan
or Moorish, or in modern terminology the group of Berber nations.
The Libyans are light in colour; on the Egyptian monuments they are
represented by a white-gray skin tint.
In the Moors the old type is to some extent still preserved. They
are warlike, brave tribes, not without talent. But none of them,
it is true, developed a high civilisation, although they adopted
certain elements of civilisation from the Egyptians, and later on, in
Mauretania, from the Carthaginians. According to the representations
on the monuments, the custom of tattooing their arms and legs ruled
amongst them; among the engraved signs we also meet with the symbol of
Nit, the patron goddess of Saïs, whose population would appear to have
consisted chiefly of Libyans.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
Reviews
Reviews
No reviews yet
Be the first to share your thoughts on this work.
Elsewhere in the archive
Join the Discussion
Join the discussion
Sign in to leave a comment or review.
Sign InorCreate an account