describe them as being black? Count constantin de volney e
"The ancient Egyptians were true Negroes of the same type as all native-born Africans. That being so, we can see how their blood, mixed for several centuries with that of the Greeks and Romans, must have lost the intensity of its original color, while retaining nonetheless the imprint of its original mold.
Just think that this race of Black men, today our slave and the object of our scorn, is the very race to which we owe our arts, sciences, and even the use of speech! Just imagine, finally, that it is in the midst of Americans who call themselves the greatest friends of liberty and humanity that one has approved the most barbarous slavery, and questioned whether Black men have the same kind of intelligence as whites!""
"Why are the Ethiopians and Egyptians bandy-legged? Is it because
of that the body of itself creates, because of disturbance by heat, like
loss of wood when they become dry? The condition of their hair supports
this theory; for it is curlier than that of other nations..." (Aristotle,
_Problemata_ 909, 7)
This Egyptian boy is not merely black; he has thick lips and his legs are too thin and his hair worn is curly.
Lycinusthis
n to Egypt
and spent some time with the priests there...," (Diogenes
Laertius, I. 2-29)
"This is also confirmed by the most learned of Greeks
such as Solon, Thales, Plato, Eudoxus, Pythagoras, and
as some say, even Lycurgus going to Egypt and conversing
with the priests; of whom they say Euxodus was a hearer
of Chonuphis of Memphis, Solon of Sonchis of Sais, and
Pythagoras of Oenuphis of Heliopolis. Wherefore the last
named, being, as is probable, more than ordinarily admired
by the men, and they also be him imitated their symbolic
and mysterious way of talking; obscuring his sentiments
with dark riddles. For the greatest part of Pythagoric
precepts fall nothing short of those sacred writings they
call hieroglyphical..." (Plutarch, _Morals_, 10)
