princes who constructed the most ancient parts of the palace of Karnac at Thebes. As far as Soleb on the Nile, 100 leagues to the south of Philæ the extreme frontier of Egypt, are found constructions bearing the inscriptions of an Egyptian king; evidencing that, during the period of which we have been treating, Nubia was inhabited by a people having the same language, the same belief, and the same kings as Egypt. To the south of Soleb, and for more than 100 leagues in ascending the Nile, in ancient Ethiopia, very recent travellers have discovered the remains of temples, of the same general style of architecture as those of Nubia and Egypt, decorated in the same manner with hieroglyphics representing the same mythology, and analogous to those of Egypt in the titles, and in the mode of representing the names and titles, of the sovereigns. But the proper names of the kings inscribed on the edifices of Ethiopia in phonetic characters, have nothing in common with the proper names of the Egyptian kings in the dynasties of Manetho; nor is one of the Ethiopian names found either on the monuments of Nubia or of Egypt. Thus there was a time when the civilized part of Ethiopia,—Meroe, and the banks [p185] of the Nile between Dongola and Meroe,—were inhabited by a people having language, writing, religion, and arts similar to Egypt; but, in political dominion, independent of that country, and ruled by kings of whom it does not appear that any historical record whatsoever has come down to us.