4i THE ANCIENT EGYPTIANS. CHAP. I.
It has been the opinion of many that colonisation and civilisation descended the Nile from Ethiopia, and that the parents of Egyptian science came from the land of Cush. But this notion appears from modern investigation to be totally at variance with fact; and the specimens of art that remain in Ethiopia are not only inferior in conception to those of the Egyptian school, but are deficient in that character which evinces originality. In- deed, I question if the name Ethiopians was exclusively applied to the inhabitants of the coun- try lying beyond Syene ; and there is abundant reason to believe, as I shall presently show, that Ethiopia, when mentioned in the sacred history and by many profane authors, in conjunction with Egypt, frequently signified the Thebaid, the school of learning and the parent of Egyptian science.
Ethiopia, though a vague name, was applied to that country, lying beyond the cataracts, which in the Scriptures, and in the Egyptian language, is called Cush; and black people*, designated as natives of "the foreign land of Cush," are gene- rally represented on the Egyptian monuments, either as captives, or as the bearers of tribute to the Pharaohs.
That ciinlisation advanced northwards from the Thebaid to Lower Egypt is highly probable ; and the custom of giving precedence to the title
- ' Upper Country," in the hieroglyphic legends,
- Plutardi says K^jpt was called Clicmi (y'//*') from the blackness
(x«/it) of its soil. May not Ethiopia, 'the bidck country,' have been a translation of f 'hcnii ?
