Chapter 4
Civilizations That Have Perished Through Contact With Colored Races: Egypt

The ancient Egyptian's absorption of Negro blood is so remote in its beginning that some historians, mistaking later mixture for the original stock, held the Egyptians to have been Negroid in origin. More recent investigations have brought much light upon the physical type of the earliest inhabitants of the Nile Valley, and Egyptologists are now agreed that the early type was Caucasic and the Negroid admixture is subsequent to the period of Egypt's greatness.

The best known authority upon Negro history (Sir Harry Johnston) tells us that the Egyptians were a Caucasian people and that their early contact with the Negro imparted to that race all the arts of civilization they possessed up to the coming of the Persians, Greeks, Romans, Arabs, and modern Europeans to the continent of Africa. Breasted, who is second to no other authority in matters pertaining to early Egypt, recognizes the early date of the beginnings of this admixture with the Negro peoples to the south of Egypt, but dismisses the assumption that the Egyptians were themselves a Negroid people with "The conclusion once maintained by some historians, that the Egyptians were of African Negro origin, is now refuted." (James Henry Breasted, History of Egypt, p. 28)

After following the history of Egypt during the period of greatness and through the decay to the time mulattoes were sitting upon the throne of the once illustrious Pharaohs, Breasted recognizes that Negro blood had reached the aristocracy, and concludes that it was this blood which rendered the Negroid dynasty unfit for progress. "It was indeed now patent that the Ethiopians were unfitted for the imperial task now before them. The southern strain with which their blood was tinctured began to appear as the reign of Shabatka drew to a close, about 688 B.C." (Ibid., p. 554)

The consolidation of the kingdoms of Upper and Lower Egypt by Menes, the first Pharaoh, occurred 3400 years B.C. The accession of Teharka, a mulatto, to the throne occurred about 688 B.C. "It was at this juncture that we can trace the rising fortunes of Prince Teharka...he was the son of a Nubian woman, and his features, as preserved in contemporary sculpture, show unmistakably Negroid characteristics." (Ibid., p.544) There is, then, an interval of some twenty-seven centuries between the first Pharaoh and the date when a mulatto inherits the throne. It was of this period, when Negroids were upon the throne, that Isaiah foresaw the downfall of Egypt, "At the same time spake the Lord by Isaiah, the son of Amos, saying, Go and loose the sackcloth from off they loins, and put off thy shoe from they foot. And he did so, walking naked and barefoot. And the Lord said, Like as my servant Isaiah hath walked naked and barefoot three years for a sign and wonder upon Egypt and upon Ethiopia; so shall the king of Assyria lead away the Egyptians prisoners and the Ethiopians captives, young and old, naked and barefoot." (Isaiah 20)

It was also of the Ethiopian supremacy that the officer of Sennacherib spoke to the ambassadors of Jerusalem, "Now, behold, thou trustest upon the staff of this bruised red, even upon Egypt; on which if a man lean, it will go into his hand and pierce it: so is Pharaoh king of Egypt unto all that trust on him." (II Kings 18:21)

In seeking an ally against the Assyrians, the Israelites were drawn to depend upon Egypt. In earlier times the fame of Egypt, its highly developed civilization, had cast a spell upon the ancient world. Remembering its might and glory, and unaware of its present impotence, the Israelites sought the aid of Egypt in their contest with the Assyrians.

A survey of this ancient civilization will show that its great achievements were in the earlier centuries. There was a prolonged period of decline. The inhabitants lost initiative and ingenuity, and at the coming of the Assyrians they could offer but feeble resistance. We will understand the situation if we grasp the fact that Egyptian civilization was not overthrown; it decayed. The trouble was internal.

Material of the greatest importance, which determines conclusively the race type of the earliest Egyptians known to history, is so recent in its discovery that few of the standard authors on Egyptian history have been able to profit by it. Explorations and excavations by Americans operating in Egypt have contributed much to this field of knowledge. Working mainly upon the results of the Hearst Expedition of the University of California, under the direction of Dr. Reisner of Harvard, professor G. Elliott Smith or England has published a small but valuable volume dealing with the physical type of the Egyptian people from the earliest times to the builders of the pyramids. With this, and kindred information, we know the race lineage of the Egyptians as well as if these ancient people were in our presence.

"The hot, dry sands of Egypt have preserved through a span of more than sixty centuries the remains of countless multitudes of the earliest peoples known to have dwelt in the Nile Valley; and not the mere bones only, but also their skin, and hair, the muscles and organs of the body; and even such delicate tissues as the nerves and the brain, and, most marvelous of all, the lens of the eye, are available for examination today. We are able to form a very precise idea of the structure of the body of the Proto-Egyptian (First Egyptians)...it presented no resemblance whatever to the so-called woolly' appearance and peppercorn-like arrangement of the Negro's hair." (The Ancience Egyptians and Their Influence Upon European Civilization, 1911, by G. Eliott Smith, Professor of Anatomy in the University of Manchester, England.)

Of the remains exhumed, not more than two per cent showed definitely a Negro admixture, and possibly an additional two percent showed a suspicion of Negro blood. That this percentage, small as it is, is found in the prehistoric burial grounds is ample evidence of the remoteness of Egyptian contact with the Negro. We see how unfounded is the assumption that the early Egyptians were of African Negro extraction. Yet the remoteness of the first interbreeding with the Negro is well calculated to have led some authorities astray. It is as if some future archaeologist should explore the ruins of present day Washington, find that one-fourth of its inhabitants were Negroes, and conclude that the Americans of the great civilization were of Negro extraction. The proportion of the Negro here would be twelve times as great as in Ancient Egypt. Should he attribute the civilization of America to the Negro because of these remains? Would not the archaeologist be in keeping with American history if he stated that the Negro resided in America, enjoyed the emoluments of its civilization, but did not contribute an impulse to its progress?

The Egyptians were of the brunette race we now call "Mediterranean." They were not Negroes, nor were they Nordics, though individuals of both of these races were present. By reason of the fact that it is not to environment, but to race, that we must look for the major factor in the rise of great cultures, there has been a willingness on the part of some authorities to stress the Nordic influence in the higher Egyptian culture. Apart from the engineering skill shown in the building of the temples and pyramids the culture of the early centuries does not imply the influence of a race other than the Mediterranean. Pure Mediterraneans at the present time manifest cultural activities analogous to those of the ancient Egyptians. It is not sufficient to say that the present inhabitants do not contribute to cultural advancement, whereas the ancient Egyptians were leaders in civilization; for the present inhabitants of Egypt are not the pure descendants of the ancient Egyptians. The most highly constituted race, the most developed physically and intellectually, may, within a few generations, breed backward in the scale of evolution by absorbing the blood of an inferior race. Breeding backward! This is the nemesis of great cultures. Let us bear in mind that there is no natural law affecting mankind which necessitates retrogression in mind or body.

While the blood of the early Egyptian, is well diffused throughout Egypt, it is significant that the Copts, who are the purest representatives of the pre-Moslem Egyptian, are distinctly Negroid, more so than a large proportion of the Semitic newcomers.

As we know that the great mass of the people were of the Mediterranean race, the most that can be said with regard to the higher culture being influenced by foreigners is that such influence was through the aristocracy. The periods of creative activity which Egypt has experienced since the coming of the Assyrians and Persians did not have origin in the Egyptians proper, but were instituted by foreign aristocracies of whose coming and activities we have ample knowledge.

Alien aristocracies gave to India, Persia, Greece, and Rome their creative periods; and with the passing away of these aristocracies there is an accompanying subsidence of culture. Also, we have before us at present numerous examples of foreigners, or people semi-foreign in race and institutions, imposing their degree of civilization upon less capable races. The electric lights and railways of India; the Suez Canal and Aswan Dam of Egypt; the mines and plantations of Africa; the entire progress, economic, political and social, of the two Americas have their source in a people who are alien in race to the earlier inhabitants of these countries over whom they rule in fact, if not in theory, as an aristocracy.

We have seen that the Egyptians of the creative period were of the white race. It now remains for us to trace in outline their great culture in order to appreciate the heights from which they fell. At the same time, we will keep in mind that the Egyptian civilization decayed. When the Asiatic conquerors (white people; Assyrians and Persians) came, they found a corrupted mass bearing the name Egyptian, ruled by a mulatto Pharaoh.

Drawing, in the main, upon "History of Egypt" (Breasted)* but disclaiming any purpose to identify this authority with any opinion here presented, saw inasmuch as data given by him is inseparable form the conclusions we reach, we now will observe the salient outlines of Egyptian culture.

*(History of Egypt, from the Earliest Times to the Persian Conquest, by James Henry Breasted, Professor of Egyptology and Oriental History in the University of Chicago, Second Edition, 1909. The value of this work is not surpassed by any publication dealing with early Egypt.

Thirty-four hundred years B.C. the kingdoms of Upper and Lower Egypt were consolidated under the rule of Menes, the first Pharaoh. It was the Northern Kingdom, the Delta region, farthest removed form the Negro to the south and in close contact with the other white peoples of North Africa and Asia Minor, that at the time of the consolidation was most advance, "That civilization was probably earlier and more advanced than that of the valley above. Already in the forty-third century B.C., the men of the Delta had discovered the year of three hundred and sixty-days and they introduced a calendar year of this length...it is the civilization of the Delta , therefore, which furnishes us with the earliest fixed date in the history of the world." (Brested, James Henry, History of Egypt, p. 32)

This same Menes, who appears in history as the first Pharaoh, "carried his arms southward against northern Nubia, which then existed below the first cataract as far northward as the nome of Edfu and built a dam above the city of Memphis to divert the waters of the Nile to gain more room for that city. The swamp lands of the Delta were being reclaimed as before the consolidation of the two kingdoms, and the rich lands obtained drew to the Delta a rapidly increasing population." (Ibid., p. 37)

The first Pharaoh is seen to have reigned over a people able to divert the waters of the Nile, reclaim the swamp lands of the Delta, and, important for our consideration, to wage warfare against the Negroid peoples of Nubia. The inhabitants of Nubia were less Negroid at this and earlier periods. Some authorities think that the draining of the Delta swamps led to a rapid movement of the inhabitants northward to that region, leaving behind the more feeble, and that these latter were not able to stem the migration into Nubia of the highly Negroid populations which connected white Egypt with Negro Africa. (G.E. Smith, The Anceint Egyptians)

That portion of Egyptian history covered by the reign of the Pharaohs is divided into thirty dynasties or family reigns. The greater number of these families were related more or less closely by blood ties. Space prevents detailed reference to the material culture of the unknown period of time referred to as the Prediagnostic Age. The first pharaoh, Menes, came into possession of a kingdom far removed form barbaric conditions. We are not to trace a civilization in its rudiments, but one possessing an already well established background of tradition and attainment.

In addition to those attainments implied in the activities already mentioned, the people under the first pharaoh are known to have used not only the hieroglyphic, but a cursive hand as well, and thus to have antedated by more than twenty-five hundred years the use of alphabetic signs by any other people.

The Second Dynasty erected stone temples, Namar, an early king, took 120,000 Libyans captive, and of their herds "one million four hundred and twenty thousand small, and four thousand large cattle." There is evidence that "the kings of this time maintained foreign relations with far remoter people" than the Bedouins of the Sinitic Peninsula, and that they were in commercial relations with the peoples of the northern Mediterranean in the fourth millennium B.C.

Dynasties three to six inclusive (2928-2475 B.C.) form that period known as the Old Kingdom. In religion, government, society, industry, and art, the Old Kingdom is revealed as a well-constituted state, exhibiting rapidly developing culture, physical and spiritual, superior to the culture of the dynasties to follow.

The Egyptians were a religious people, who at this remote date devoutly believed in the resurrection of the body after death and in the immortality of the soul. Osiris was their god of the dead, "king of the glorified." Of a just man they said, "As Osiris lives, so shall he live; as Osiris died not, so shall he also not die; as Osiris perished not, so shall he also not perish." (From the "Pyramid Texts," engraved upon the passages of the Fifth and Sixth Dynasty pyramids, Brested, History of Egypt, pp. 66-67) They believed that a ferryman would row the departed to the land of the glorified, but that this ferryman would receive only those of whom it was said "There is no evil which he has done." This is the "earliest record of an ethical test at the close of life making the life hereafter dependent upon the moral quality of the life lived in this world." It will doubtless surprise the average reader to learn that such exalted religious teachings were held by the Egyptians more than four thousand years ago At a later period their religion became debased, "the animal worship which we usually associate with ancient Egypt, as a cult, is a late product, brought forward in the decline of the nation at the close of its history." (See also, Race or Mongrel, by Alfred Schultz, chap. "Egypt.")

Turning from the high spiritual conceptions of the ancient Egyptians we are struck with no less wonder when we behold their social and material culture. Within the home, the wife was in every respect the equal of the husband, and was treated as such. Filial affection and obedience to parents were enjoined upon all youths, and a favorite tomb inscription was, "I was one beloved of his father, praised of his mother, whom his brothers and sisters loved."

But it is not in their religious or their social attainments that the Early Egyptians were most conspicuous. Their use of metal tools dates back to such early times that some capable authorities assert that the Egyptians initiated the Age of Metals. Let us not fail to appreciate the importance of such a step in the history of man. Prior to the invention of metal implements, the tools used in the industries and the arts were those made from stone, reed and bone. Consider the limitations upon the individual and upon the nation imposed by such possessions. It required infinite patience to fashion these tools and to make advantageous use of them. Industrial progress, of necessity, would be slow. But with the use of metals, industry would take a rapid course upward, and the people in possession of such culture would become strong in war as well as the arts of peace. So Egypt's visible greatness descends to us as the result of the early use of metal tools. "They brought from the first cataract granite blocks twenty or thirty feet long and fifty or sixty tons in weight. The drilled the toughest stone, like diorite, with tubular drills of copper, and the massive lids of the granite sarcophagi were sawn with long copper saws, which, like the drills, were reinforced with sand or emery."

With creative genius awakened, and conscious of their constructive talent, the Egyptians sought yet greater triumphs. Their kings, through a not always generous rivalry, wished to build imperishable monuments to their power, and this desire to live in the eyes of posterity gradually found expression in the pyramid tomb. A succeeding Pharaoh, viewing the tombs of his predecessors and profiting by the increase of wealth and architectural knowledge, would demand a yet greater monument to his glory. The existing generation would subscribe to his aspiration, for the pyramids were recognized as national achievements. So the age of the mighty pyramids was ushered in. These are the most conspicuous evidence of Egyptian greatness; and in the ability of the engineers in planning and overseeing, and the organized power of the Pharaohs in bringing them to perfection, we catch a glimpse of the Caucasian civilizers of Egypt which must forever impress us with the height of their power and make it an absorbing study to discover the causation of their decline.

Zoster, the first Pharaoh of the "Old Kingdom" (2980-2475 B.C.) made his capital at Memphis. It was the Old Kingdom "in which art and mechanics reached a level of unprecedented excellence never later surpassed." With Zoster, as with Menes (3400 B.C.), we have record of the extension of Egyptian influence over the mulatto tribes of Nubia. At the accession of Menes, the Nubian frontier extended northward beyond the nome of Edfu. During the reign of Zoster, Egyptian conquest had quelled the turbulent mongrel tribes of Northern Nubia; and peaceful navigation of the Nile was possible for a distance of seventy-five miles south of the first cataract. From Menes to Zoster intervene more than four hundred years. Within these four centuries the southern frontier had been extended but little. Sesostris III of the Twelfth Dynasty, who came to throne in 1887 B.C., completed the conquest of Nubia. Between Menes and Sesostris III there is a period of fifteen hundred years. This evidence of the slow conquest and absorption of the Negroids to the south of Egypt should not escape our attention. These centuries cover the period of Egypt's greatness. Egypt was still white! During this period, and before it, the Egyptians were in constant contact with the Libyans to their west and with other Caucasian peoples to their north and east. From these they gave and received, and their civilization flourished. Their extension southward was slow, very slow, and to this they owed their long-lived civilization.

Before the time of Zoster, the royal tombs were constructed of sun-dried brick, but this king, desiring a more auspicious and permanent memorial, built a terraced pyramid of stone 195 feet in height. He became the first Pyramid Builder. Later kings of this dynasty erected the great stone pyramids of Dashur and Sneferu, and the last king constructed vessels 170 feet long for traffic on the Nile.

Across the Nile from modern Cairo (ancient Gizeh) the numerous tourists who frequent Egypt will get their first glimpse of the might and power of the civilization that has perished. There, among others, is the Great Pyramid, built by Khufu (Cheops). This is the mighty structure near which is located the Sphinx, the pictorial representations f which have long been familiar to the civilized world. "How strong and effective must have been the organization of Khufu's government we appreciate in some measure when we learn that this pyramid contains some two million three hundred thousand blocks, each weighing on the average two and a half tons...The blocks were taken out of the quarries on the east side of the river south of Cairo, and at high water, when the flats were flooded, they were floated across the valley to the Base of pyramid hill. Here an enormous stone ramp or causeway had been erected, a labor of ten years, if we are to believe Herodotus, and up this incline the stones were dragged to the plateau upon which the pyramid stands. Not merely was this work quantitatively so formidable, but in quality, also, it is the most remarkable material enterprise known to us in this early world, for the most ponderous masonry in the pyramid amazes us by its fineness...The pyramid is, or was, about four hundred and eighty-one feet high, and on its square base measured some seven hundred and fifty-five feet on a side, but the average error is less than ten thousandths of the side in equality, in squareness and in level'...Some of the masonry finish is so fine that blocks weighing tons were set together with seams of considerable length, showing a joint of one ten-thousandth of an inch and involving edges and surfaces equal to opticians' work of the present day, but on a scale of acres rather than feet or yards of material."

From the great pyramids let us turn to other activities which give insight into the wide range of Egyptian culture. The sculpture of the Old Kingdom exhibits the highest technical skill, and compares favorably with the work of modern artists. The temples of the period mark the greatest architectural attainments. Egypt is the source of calumniated architecture. This country, at the close of the fourth millennium B.C., had "solved the fundamental problems of great architecture, developing with the most refined artistic sense and the greatest mechanical skill the treatment of voids." The art of weaving was highly developed, so much so that the fabrics are a source of wonder to the modern beholder, while the goldsmiths were capable of producing the most exquisite ornaments, many of which have survived to the present day.

Toward the close of the Old Kingdom there is evidence of the weakening of the central power, but Egyptian culture did not suffer. Race is more than politics, religion or art. These are but the expression of race.

The rise of the official class to greater influence and the consequent lessening of the Pharaoh's power would not then, of itself, have led to a lessening of cultural activities. Instead, this period was "of significant political development, and in material civilization one of distinct progress. Art and industry flourished as before, and great works of Egyptian sculpture were produced."

The Sixth Dynasty, last of the Old Kingdom, marks a foreign policy of increasing vigor. The Negro tribes of the south were compelled to contribute quotas to the Egyptian armies; and the use of these levies against white neighbors with whom the Egyptians were at war marks an unsavory epoch in the history of the contact of races. The non-creative races, compelled to rely upon their own resources in war or in peace, are insignificant competitors with the white man. But armed with the white man's inventions, they are transformed into formidable competitors, immediately attaining rank which evolutionary forces have not conferred upon them and assuming an influence which they are incapable of maintaining. The Pharaohs' use of multitudes of Negro troops against the enemies of Egypt had much to do with the final decay of Egyptian civilization. This custom continued for centuries. It became so universal that the Egyptian word for soldier is derived from the name of a powerful Negro tribe long accustomed to furnishing levies for the Egyptian word for soldier is derived form the name of a powerful Negro tribe long accustomed to furnishing levies for the Egyptian armies. "We know little of the Negro and Negroid tribes who inhabited the cataract region at this time. Immediately south of the Egyptian frontier dwelt the tribes of Wawat, extending well towards the second cataract, above which the entire region of the upper cataracts was known as Kush...In the upper half of the huge S' formed by the course of the Nile between the junction of the two Niles and the second cataract, was included the territory of the powerful Mazoi, who afterward appeared as auxiliaries in the Egyptian armies in such numbers that the Egyptian word for soldier ultimately became Matoi,' a late (Coptic) form of Mazoi. Probably on the west of the Mazoi was the land of Yam, and between Yam and Mazoi on the south and Wawat on the north, were distributed several tribes, of whim Irthet and Sethut were the most important...They dwelt in squalid settlements of mud huts along the river, or by wells in the valleys running up country from the Nile." (The names and locations of these tribes will be of service in understanding the next chapter)

The Old Kingdom ended with the Sixth Dynasty (2475 B.C.). Space will not permit an attempt to portray the heights of Egyptian culture during that succeeding period known as the Empire. Let us omit, say, a thousand years of history and search for light upon the Egyptian Negro problem. This omission will bring us to approximately 1500 B.C. The Negro policy of the Empire will be found to be not radically different from that of the white nations now ruling Africa. We do not believe that the modern European has taken a leaf out of Egyptian history and modeled his Negro policy accordingly, but there is a striking similarity in method and intent. "Egyptian temples had now sprung up at every large town, and the Egyptian gods were worshiped therein; the Egyptian arts were learned by Nubian craftsmen, and everywhere the rude barbarism of the upper Nile was receiving the stamp of Egyptian culture. Nevertheless, the native chieftains, under the surveillance of the viceroys, were still permitted to retain their titles and honors, and doubles continued to enjoy at least a nominal share in the government...The annual landing of the viceroy of Thebes, bringing the yearly tribute of all the Nubian lands, was now a long established custom."

The gradual diffusion of Caucasian culture and the utilization of native chiefs, under direction of white colonial governors, was characteristic of the first attempt to implant civilization in Negro Africa, as it is of the present effort on the part of modern white nations.

We have seen that the earliest period of Egyptian history reveals a slight Negroid mixture in the populations of southern Egypt. Possibly some five percent of the inhabitants were Negroes or tinged with Negro blood. At the period we now have under consideration (1500 B.C.), there is no way in which it is possible to tell the exact extension of Negro blood, but as Egyptians were constantly going into the South and peoples from the South constantly coming into Egypt proper, it is not likely that more than half the population of the southern half of Egypt was still white. Blood admixture has without exception been the inevitable result of long continued race contact; and, as we know a mulatto inherited the throne a few centuries later, a guess that forty or fifty percent of the ;population was Negroid should be considered conservative. Constant immigration from west and east, armed and peaceful, had augmented the Caucasic element, and this would have tended to prolong the civilization.

Now, if we drop down another long period (800 years), we shall have passed though the age of decay to the point where a mulatto has become the Pharaoh.

From prehistoric time the Negro had sifted into the country. Many thousands came as soldiers for the Pharaohs of old, just as some modern rulers of Europe found it less costly to employ Negro mercenaries than white troops. Countless numbers had come as slaves; many included in the yearly tribute of the southern dependencies, others as captives taken in war; while the large levies for purposes of labor, even if not forcibly retained by Egyptian authorities, would find the Egyptian environment superior to their squalid settlements, and seek to remain.

Certain of the Pharaohs sought to prevent the mongrelization of Egypt by restricting Negro immigration, even to the extent of inflicting the death penalty upon the immigrant. But the Negro was a docile, subservient workman and soldier, and these characteristics created a demand to the influence of which less enlightened Pharaohs succumbed. So they came for centuries; not by force of arms in battle array, but as a subjugated and enslaved people. That the blood of a people who had not produced a civilization should have been instrumental in lowering the status of the Egyptians so that progress ceased, is a lamentable event in world history. Negro blood made the proud Egyptian a mongrel. For three thousand years the same Nile has flowed, the same richly laden soils from its upper reaches annually have inundated the land, but the Negro Egyptian has known no progress. Thirty centuries have demonstrated that the mulatto of the Lower Nile, like the true Negro of its equatorial branches, is below the level of progress. The Caucasian at best progress but slowly; mixed with the Negro he progresses not at all.

The Moslem Arab's conquest of North and East Africa has resulted generally in the mongrelization of the Arab. Thus is added another culture of the Caucasian race engulfed by miscegenation. The comparatively recent interbreeding of the Arab with his African subjects is an event which may serve to illustrate the factor determining the decay of early Egyptian culture.