Searching for Ancient Evidence

WAS JESUS BLACK

The earliest gods and messiahs on all the continents were black Research has yielded an impressive amount of material on the subjectThe Messiahs some of whom lived many centuries before Christ had lives which so closely paralleled that of Christ that it seems most likely that the story of the latter was adapted from them Moreover the word Christ comes from the Indian Krishna or Chrisna which means The Black One

JA Rogers

Many of the madonnas painted in the earliest centuries of Christ- iandom were black according to historians and it wasnt until the Renaissance that it became popular to give the mother of Christ the features of a Florentine maiden [a white woman]

Washington Post (Religion) May 4 1979

Here in the United States well over 95 of the 27 to 30 million people of African descent are Christians and they joined most of the rest of the Christian world in observing the birth of Jesus on December 25 Christmas Day No other historical figure has received the recognition veneration and unquestioned loyalty of Black people in the Western world that Jesus has Yet despite their widespread respect for and worship of Jesus few Black people in the Americas or elsewhere ever have raised the question of whether He was Black and whether the doctrine He espoused was of African origin Trained by white theologians or taught in White owned controlled or financed seminaries the average Black minister will not only deny that Jesus was a black man and claim that it is sinful to raise the question of His color but also will insist that Jesus was colorless and declare that the blue- eyed blond painting of him hovering over the ministers pulpit is just a White reflection of Christs universality It is quite understandable then that the masses of Black Christians who generaLly hold their ministers in high esteem blithely continue to bow before pray to and worship a blue-eyed blond stranger whom they have come to know as Jesus without ever questioning this image and its impact on them their families and the Black race as a whole

Recognizing the historical significance of religion to Black people and observing its present role in their nations and communities the world over this writer feels that it is high time that the deeply-rooted religious beliefs of Blacks be fully examined by Black scholars with an eye toward freeing the race of false doctrines and misconceptions that were designed to perpetuate Black inferiority and servility Since religion plays a key role in molding Black opinion and guiding Black behavior in Africa and the diaspora the specific intent of this article on religion is to reveal what modern science is proving each day - that the roots of all major religions are traceable to the Black people of ancient Africa and that most of the worlds venerated religious leaders were Blacks It is hoped that these revelations will instill a sense of pride in Black people hasten the day when false images will be removed from their houses of worship and free them of the widespread assumption - which is deeply embedded in their individual and collective subconscious - that they are cursed and doomed to failure because they were not created in Gods image

Professor Locksley DM Geoghagen is one of the few black authorities on the origin of the Christian religion A scholar of African-Jamaican ancestry he has served as the Associate Director of the Educational Opportunities Program and a teacher in the Education Department at Cal Poly College San Luis Obispo California He is a learning specialist with expertise in

brain physiology especially the cerebral hemisphere and has teaching credentials on the community college level in psychology education political science counseling and pupil personnel Professor Geoghagen is also the coordinator of Leadership Programs at Cal Poly College

A rare pluridisciplinary scholar Professor Geoghagen has lectured broadly on subjects that range from melanin and the pineal gland to the African roots of civilization He has often lectured with the distinguished author and scholar Dr Donald Cheek and has traveled extensively especially in Africa with the world renowned historian Dr Yosef ben-Jochannan

Professor Geoghagen has completed the course requirements for the PhD in education at the University of California at Santa Barbara and he plans to soon enter the field of Egyptology as an understudy of Dr ben-Jochannan Professor Geoghagens expertise on early Christianity has been acquired over the past ten years during which time he has engaged in research lecturing and writing in the United Sates the Caribbean and Africa

The following is an interview with Professor Geoghagen on religion in general and the ancestry of Jesus in particular

MAAT Professor Geoghagen why dont I just start with the question before us Was Jesus a Black man

Geoghagen Yes unequivocally and beyond a shadow of doubt Jesus was a black man and there is much evidence to substantiate this However before I discuss this evidence I would like to consider in some detail who Jesus was and to focus on the history of Christianity because Jesus blackness will not be fully understood or accepted without this background

MAAT Okay just who was Jesus

Geoghagen That is a very difficult question to answer for Jesus was and still is many things to many people To Christians he is a part of the Godhead the Son of God the Son of Man the Prince of Peace the Word made flesh the messiah of Jewish expectations Hence through his trials sufferings temptations death and resurrection He provides for the remission of sins redemption and life eternal for those who follow his teachings and accept him as their personal savior To me he is one of the worlds 16 crucified saviors -- the last of them I might add - whose lives fit an almost identical pattern from the time of Horus in 4100 BC (according to the most ancient beliefs he was the first crucified savior) to the time of Judas Christas (Christ the anointed) in the pre-Christian era In essence the life that Jesus purportedly led the activities in which he engaged his teachings his trials and sufferings and eventual death and resurrection are identical to those of Horus and Osiris (two ancient Egyptian gods) and the other 14 crucified saviors This point of view or revelation though potentially shocking to the mass of believers is nevertheless common knowledge to scholars So Jesus and the belief system that he represents are thus a reappearance of one of the most beautiful ideas of the ancient black Africans of Ta-Merry - now called Egypt - which represented the eternal Father by the ever- coming Son as in the Child Horus This was the child of a mother who was the eternal virgin The doctrines of the Incarnation ie the word made flesh the virgin birth the resurrection the Father-God who is identical to his own son and other doctrines (believed to be specifically Christian) were Egyptian long before there was even the concept of Adam and Eve Judaism Christianity and Islam

MAAT Are you saying that Christianity as a religion had its origins in ancient Egypt

Geoghagen Yes In addition to what I have just stated in the Eschatology of the Egyptians is found a trinity and a unity and the Egyptians believed in punishment as well as everlasting happiness Not surprisingly then the doctrine of everlasting life and the belief in the resurrection of the Spiritual Body are according to Dr Albert Churchward(author of Signs and Symbols of Primordial Man Origins of Freemasonry The Origin And Evolution of Religion The Origin And Evolution of The Human Race etc) the brightest and most prominent features of the Egyptian religion and this we find was their belief before the time of the first king of the first dynasty The general teachings and cosmological world view of the Egyptians eventually filtered down and provided the foundation for later so-called Western Religions ie Judaism Christianity and Islam This point is thoroughly documented by the brilliant and prolific African scholar Dr Josef ben-Jochannan in an epic work African Origins of the Major Western Religions These teachings were handed down to the Essenes (a mythical Jewish sect in pre-Christian times) who were responsible for the development of many of the teachings and concepts attributed to Jesus

MAAT Are you suggesting then that Jesus was an Essene

Geoghagan There is no doubt in my mind that Jesus was an Essene Essene doctrine is directly traceable to its African-Egyptian roots In short Jesus was one of the worlds 16 crucified saviors whose beliefs and teachings were founded on the doctrines and principles of the ancient African Mystery System and the events of his life directly parallel those of Horus (the first crucified savior) who lived at least 4100 years before Christ For example Horus was born of a virgin (immaculate conception) he disappeared at age 12 and reappeared at 30 he died at age 33 and descended into Hell On the third day he arose again and ascended into Heaven to sit on the right hand of his father etc Horus was cut into 14 pieces Jesus was stabbed fourteen times Horus mother could find only one piece of him his penis and so she built obelisks in his memory Jesus had the same phallic symbol associated with him ie he had no sexual relations (at least after the conference of Nicene in 325 AD) So as you can see Jesus and the other world saviors are copies of Horus Their biographical facts are the same only the names have changed

MAAT Are there parts of Jesus life that are generally unknown to the public

GEOGHAGEN Yes much if not most of the facts surrounding his life are absolutely unknown to the general public To be specific there is a twenty-one year period of his life that is completely unaccounted for in the Gospel These 21 years I would argue are of critical importance in understanding who Jesus was as well as the source inspiration and eventual development of his message and ministry The fact is that not only Jesus but also John the Baptizer and some of Jesusdisciples were taught by Egyptian priests some of the fundamentals of the African Mystery System which later through adaptations and distortions became the foundation for what is now known as Christianity in its various forms and manifestations The fact that Jesus was an initiate in the African Mystery System that Jesus was taught and did study at various subsidiary lodges of the Grand Lodge of Luxor in Africa and elsewhere (ie Tibet India etc) The fact that it was in Africa that Jesus became acquainted with the Essenes who were largely responsible for much of the teachings credited to Jesus

MAAT You keep mentioning the ancient African Mystery SystemCan you briefly tell us what this was

Geoghagen Basically the African Mystery System was the educational system of Africa It was called a mystery by E Budge the Famous Egyptologist and other Egyptian scholars but it was not a mystery to Africans It encompassed many branches of knowledge including all of the sciences philosophy physics all of the liberal arts and of course religion and metaphysics

The foundation of that which was later called Greek philosophy comes directly from the African Mystery System If an individual wants confirmation of this he can consult such books as GM James Stolen Legacy BD Alexanders History of Philosophy Alfred Webers History of Philosophy William Turners History of Philosophy and Zebers History of Philosophy

Included as a part of the ancient African Mystery System were the major beliefs contained in the so-called Western Religions of Judaism Christianity and Islam For those who want a closer look at this I would recommend the Egyptian Book of the Dead and The Ancient Mysteries by CH Vail Another book which provides great detail is Albert Churchwards Signs and Symbols of Primordial Man It lays out all of the Hebrew Christian and Hindu doctrines that come directly from the African Mystery System A comparable book also written by Churchward is Origin And Evolution of Religion

MAAT Speaking of references do you have any sources that support your shocking revelations concerning the life of Jesus

Geoghagen I most assuredly do The details of Jesus life from ages 12 to 33 are documented in the Aquarian Gospel of Jesus The Christ by Levi It gives an account of Jesus interaction with his African masters and the teachings which they bestowed on him Further it documents the travels of Jesus from Africa to India and his eventual return to Africa and confirms how Jesus acquired his cosmological world view in the process The Worlds Sixteen Crucified Saviors by Kersey Graves documents much of what Ive said thus far Stolen Legacy by George GM James The Kione Bible (the original new testament written between ca 50 AD - 100 AD) Anacalypsis by Godfrey Higgins The Black Messiah by Albert Cleage Jr and Jesus and The Zealots by SGF Brandon The Apocryphal New Testament by MR James Rahids Aquarian Gospel (another portion of the books removed from the Bible) The Secret Books of the Egyptian Gnostics by J Doresee There are literally hundreds of references to back up what I have said including the work of Gerald Massey EA Wallis Budge Joel A Rogers Albert Churchward and of course the works of Yosef ben- Jochannan These references that I have given will allow interested scholars and individuals to begin to scratch the surface of the wealth of material that is available on this subject

MAAT You keep mentioning the Essenes and the fact that Jesus was somehow connected with them Who are the Essenes and have there been Any scientific or archaeological discoveries that document their existence

Geoghagen A large portion of Western Culture is indebted to a little known secret cult (a direct offshoot of the African- Egyptian Mystery System) which was called Essene among other names This cult of Hebraic people has been identified by their occupation geographical location forms of worship and peculiarities of faith They have been variously known as The

Baptizers The Third Sect Men of Essa The Mystery Sect The Seers The Pious The Associates The Apron Makers The Propheciers Seekers Of The Prince of Righteousness The Essenes and The Ossenes Ancient documents indicate some of the earliest Essene origins Pliny the Elder (70-77 AD) called them the Hessenes Josephus (6-8 AD) labeled them the Essenes The same term was later used by Chrysostam Eusebius Porphery Hippolytus and many other ecclesias and chroniclers Many of the descriptions given by these writers particularly Eusebius and Pliny depict the Essenes as an awesome ascetic pietistic sect which might be viewed as the forerunner of todays mod communities This quotation is from Jesus Christ Super Psychic by TN Tiemeyer Anyway these and many other ancient references to the Essenes were fragmentary distorted and often inaccurate For example ancient writers reported that the Essenes lived without women having renounced all sexual love

Yet recent diggings in their ancient cemetery have so far unearthed a number of female skeletons Greek and Roman historians also failed to discern the religious and mystical element which were basic to Essene thought

MAAT But what is their relationship to Jesus and what evidence do you have to support it

Geoghagen Like you my primary concern with the Essenes is the relationship of their Order of Sect and how through their guidance and direction Jesus was able to develop his own spiritual talents For countless centuries scholars have suggested that many of the teachings attributed to Jesus were very much influenced by the teachings of the Essenes No doubt the expression of such a viewpoint subjects one to declarations of heresy by those in orthodox church circles In other words to even suggest that any part of the message of Jesus is or was less than original with Jesus is no doubt heresy But heresy or not the historical facts speak for themselves The discovery of the Dead Sea Scrolls by a young Bedouin Mohammad el-Deeb in 1945 did much to shed some light on this controversial topic These scrolls were discovered in the northwest part of the Dead Sea Valley near Jericho in a series of caves on the edge of a valley named Wali Qumran In the entire twentieth century no discovery has had a greater impact on Biblicists theologians and Judea-Christian exponents than the discovery of the Dead Sea Scrolls Most scholars greeted the news with exultation Such was not the case however for orthodox Christian believers in Jesus as the only begotten Son of the Father Hence their response to the discovery of the scrolls and its implications was less than joyful Ancient prophets such as Isaiah Moses and Zacharia had predicted the coming of the Messiah the Holy One of God the Prince of Peace etc And early Bible authorities were aware that the Essenes had prophesied the coming of a teacher of righteousness It was naturally assumed that this was a term equivalent to those in the scriptures and that Jesus was the fulfillment of the Essene prophecies as well But the Dead Sea Scrolls revealed that by the time of Jesus the teacher of righteousness had already come and gone Compounding this is the fact that the Dead Sea Scrolls were a source of further embarrassment to scholars of Biblicism because many of the sayings attributed to Jesus as original are found in the Essene records Among the expressions and sayings generally claimed by Christians as original with Jesus but yet contained in the pre-Christian Essene records are

Peace on Earth and good will to men You are the salt of the earth you are the light of the world The thirst for righteousness The kingdom of God The Sons of light and the Children of darkness

These are just a few In addition I would like to paraphrase from TN Tiemeyers Jesus Christ Super Psychic Rev Tiemeyer states that the Dead Sea apocalyptical scrolls and The Book of Enoch which were found in the caves of Qumran beyond a shadow of doubt have been dated before Christianity However these writings contain numerous phrases and concepts similar to those in the Sermon on the Mount Also a list of selected Essene sayings compared to the Beatitudes of Jesus are remarkably similar Tiemeyer goes on to say that obviously the best explanation is that Jesus was taught in the training schools of the Essenes The evidence also points to New Testament persons as disciples of this same cult The Bible descriptions of John the Baptizer his life and personal habits conform to the practices of the Qumran community Again in my mind there is little doubt but that Jesus was an Essene who espoused Essene doctrine which originally came from the teachings of the African Mystery System and were later incorporated as part of the foundation of Christian thought

MAAT Now that you have made these astounding revelations concerning the life of Jesus and the origins of his teachings let us return to our original question Was this figure of world renown a Black man And if so are there any paintings statues or icons that portray him as such

Geoghagen Indeed Jesus was a Black man and there are numerous early paintings statues and icons that graphically depict both Mary and Jesus as Black people According to Godfrey Higgins (author of the monumental historical document Anacalypsis) who visited the cathedrals of Europe before the anti-religious period of the French Revolution all the madonnas and Christ-childs were depicted as black In all the Romish countries of Europe in France Italy Germany etc the God Christ as well as his mother are described in the old pictures to be black The infant God in the arms of his black mother his eyes drapery white is himself perfectly black If the reader doubts my words he may go to the cathedral of Moulins - to the famous chapel of the Virgin of Loretto to the Church of Annunciata the Church of St Lazaro or the Church of St Stephen at Genoa to St Francisco at Pisa to the Church of Brixer in the Tyrol and that of Padua to the Church of St Theodore at Munich etc This is further supported and documented by the work of JA Rogers Albert Churchward Yosef ben-Jochannan CW King JS Matthews Gerald Massey and various other writers who give detailed accounts of the original Black Mary and Jesus It was with the advent of Michaelango who used his family to pose for the paintings that he did of Jesus Mary Joseph etc - coupled with European white racism - that we begin to see Jesus portrayed as a white man But how could it be otherwise How could a group of people simultaneously proclaim and practice white racism and justify slavery under the guise of bringing the message of Christianity to the heathens or pagan black savages in Africa - and at the same time tell the truth that Jesus was a Black man and that in fact Christianity started in Africa where Panteus and Boteus reported that Jesus was born in a cave in Ethiopia And that it was not until the Nicene conference that Jesus birthplace was changed to a stable in Bethlehem

MAAT This is the second time you have mentioned the Nicene Conference Where was this conference held What was it about And who attended it

Geoghagen There were two councils of the Christian Church held in Nicea (Nice) in what is now northwest Turkey The most important was called in 325 AD by Constantine the Great and 219 bishops from all of the powerful Christian regions attended it It was the intent of Constantine to change Christianity into Christiandom In other words religion would now become the vehicle of government control over the people Achievement of this goal involved changing some of the tenets of Christianity Anyone who is interested can obtain a copy of the

proceedings of the Nicene Conference and see the tremendous political struggle that was going on between the Men of God

One will notice that at least 18 books - including the book of Mary - that were part of the Koin Bible (the original Bible up to that point) were removed from the canons Furthermore many of the ancient African teachings including the concept of reincarnation were removed from Christianity And it was at this time that they put into the new Bible the ancient African concept of the Immaculate Conception

MAAT Are you literally saying that the original Bible was changed at the Nicene Conference

Geoghagen Yes But this was not the first time that Church leaders had gotten together to fight over what was to be accepted as Christianity A similar conference was held in Jamnia in AD 90 at which time other changes were made

MAAT Getting back to the questions of whether Jesus was a Black man Some scholars of course would challenge your position that Jesus was a black man on the ground that he was Jewish and could not therefore have been Black

Geoghagen My opinion is that those would be very misinformed scholars because the original Jews were Black people

MAAT Some scientists today might also raise the point that the ancient Shroud of Turin which has been highly touted by the press and which many now claim bears the image of Jesus does not appear to depict a Black man What would be your response to this

Geoghagen It would be of little consequence as to whether the shroud of Turin appears to be Black Asian Caucasian or whatever because the only thing that scientists are able to determine at this point is that indeed this probably was a shroud that covered a human body and does not appear to be fake

But no Scientist alive of whom I am aware - racist or nonracist Christian or non-Christian - can in any way shape form or fashion document that the Shroud of Turin is the one that was placed over Jesus body at the time of his death

MAAT Was Jesus the only great religious leader who was Black

Geoghagen Absolutely not Most of the ancient prophets and saviors of most religions were depicted in their original form as Blacks

MAAT If all of these ancient prophets gods and goddesses were Blacks does this suggest a universal Black dominance in the ancient world

Geoghagen Most certainly yes One might read Gerald Masseys Egypt The Light of the World from archaeological and anthropological evidence alone there is no doubt that the race of Black people was the seed race for humanity In other words we were here before anyone else and our presence was felt and known throughout the world

We not only occupied Africa but our remains have been discovered from the Fiji Islands to Tasmania Melanesia India China Japan Mexico and even Europe Many scientists have shown that the original race of people in all of these areas was the Black race

MAAT Why is it that the facts that you have revealed here are unknown to the general public

Geoghagen They are intentionally kept from the public You take a situation where you have a group of people - namely white people - who have actually taken philosophy religion education science liberal arts everything that you can associate with the word culture from Black people They have taken it distorted it adopted it and used it against the very people from whom they received it as a justification for slavery So it was convenient to enslave Blacks in Africa under the guise of spreading Christianity when it fact the religion as developed in Africa (there were 27 bishops and seven Popes of the North African Church before the first one in Rome - this is documented in the book Libers Pontificals which when translated into English is Book of the Popes) I should also point out here that few references are made to the fact that three of the earliest fathers of the Christian church were Blacks St Augustine (born at Tagaste Numida North Africa in 354 AS) who set the moral doctrine of the Christian Church Tutillian and Cyprian How could white people tell Blacks that they had no history or culture other than that which Europeans gave them and at the same time tell them that Christianity was not only developed by Blacks but that its master Jesus was a Black man This could not be done

MAAT Why do you think that it is important for Black people to know that Jesus was a Black man and that Christianity is of African origin

Geoghagen I feel that this information is critical to the self- esteem and future of Blacks around the globe Our contributions as the originators of high culture or civilization have been systematically kept from us Our inventions our philosophies our religious concepts and

systems have been stolen co-opted distorted adopted and then used against us We as a people must begin to assert ourselves and to reclaim our history and our science and become knowledgeable about who we are whence we came and where we are going Without a thorough knowledge and understanding of African history (including the development of Christianity in Africa) our future as a people is at best bleak --------------------------------------------------------------------

Copyright 1997 Legrand Clegg II All Rights Reserved

Cheikh Anta Diop argues that many Ancient Egyptians were Black Africans the Greek debt to Egypt Peter Myers July 6 2002 update June 13 2004 My comments are shown thus Write to me at mailtomyerscyberonecomau

You are at httpuserscyberonecomaumyersdiophtml

The argument that Ancient Egypt was African deserves to be put

Of course there was also mixing with the Semitic-speaking peoples (the Akkadians Phoenicians and Hyksos the people of Babylonia and Assyria and later the invading Arab armies) and with Indo-Europeans (elements of the Mitanni Hyksos Hittites and Sea Peoples the invading Persian Empire the Greeks that came in Alexanders wake then the Romans)

(1) Cheikh Anta Diop The African Origin of Civilization (2) G K Osei a black American (3) DIODORUS OF SICILY (4) Herodotus Histories the Egyptians (235-91) (5) Martin Bernal puts the case for AfricanSemitic influence on the formation of Greek culture and institutions (6) Cyrus H Gordon on race-mixing in Egypt (7) Donald B Redford enters the Afrocentrist debate

(1) Cheikh Anta Diop The African Origin of Civilization edited and translated by Mercer Cook Lawrence Hill Books Chicago 1974

The Great Sphinx had a negro head diop1jpg

King Narmer long regarded as the first Pharaoh - with negro features diop5jpg

Pharaohs Zoser and Cheops diop6-7jpg

Pharaohs Mycerinus and Mentuhotep I diop8-9jpg

Pharaoh Sesostris I diop10jpg

Pharaohs Tuthmosis III and Taharqa diop12-13jpg

Egyptian women - note their wavy braided Afro hair egypt-womenjpg

Another painting of Egyptian women - 18th Dynasty c 1400 BC - from The British Museum Dictionary of Ancient Egypt by Ian Shaw and Paul Nicholson (The British Museum Press London 1995 pocket edition 2002) p 193 egypt-women-2jpg

Egyptian womens braided wigs diop25-6jpg

Im not trying to polemicise history as Martin Bernal is in his Black Athena series Bernal keeps accusing other scholars of Anti-Semitism making out that Jews are the saviors of the Black movement today Yet he ignores the Jewish Bibles responsibility for giving Ancient Egypt - its Pharaohs its religion its achievements - a bad reputation What else does Exodus mean but escape from Pharaonic Egypt The Jewish Bibles enmity towards Ancient Egypt was later taken up by Christians who stamped out the Egyptian religion and Moslems who pillaged the pyramids

Cheikh Anta Diop The African Origin of Civilization edited and translated by Mercer Cook Lawrence Hill Books Chicago 1974

p 1 What Were the Egyptians

In contemporary descriptions of the ancient Egyptians this question is never raised Eyewitnesses of that period formally affirm that the Egyptians were Blacks On several

occasions Herodotus insists on the Negro character of the Egyptians and even uses this for indirect demonstrations For example to prove that the flooding of the Nile cannot be caused by melting snow he cites among other reasons he deems valid the following observation It is certain that the natives of the country are black with the heat endnote 1 The History of Herododus translated by George Rawlinson New York Tudor 1928 p 88

To demonstrate that the Greek oracle is of Egyptian origin Herodotus advances another argument Lastly by calling the dove black they [the Dodonaeans] indicated that the woman was Egyptian endnote 2 Ibid p 101 The doves in question symbolize two Egyptian women allegedly kidnapped from Thebes to found the oracles of Dodona and Libya

To show that the inhabitants of Colchis were of Egyptian origin and had to be considered a part of Sesostris army who had settled in that region Herodotus says The Egyptians said that they believed the Colchians to be descended from the army of Sesostris My own conjectures were founded first on the fact that they are black-skinned and have woolly hair endnote 3 Ibid p 115 Finally concerning the population of India Herodotus distinguishes between the Padaeans and other Indians describing them as follows They all also have the same tint of skin which approaches that of the Ethiopians endnote 4 Ibid p 184

Diodorus of Sicily writes

quote The Ethiopians say that the Egyptians are one of their colonies which was brought into Egypt by Osiris They even allege that this country was originally under water but that the Nile dragging much mud as it flowed from Ethiopia had finally filled it in and made it a part of the continent They add that from them as from their authors and ancestors the Egyptians get most of their laws It is from them that the Egyptians have learned to honor

p 2 kings as gods and bury them with such pomp sculpture and writing were invented by the Ethiopians The Ethiopians cite evidence that they are more ancient than the Egyptians but it is useless to report that here endquote endnote 5 Histoire universelle translated by Abbe Terrasson Paris 1758 Bk 3 p 341

If the Egyptians and Ethiopians were not of the same race Diodorus would have emphasized the impossibility of considering the former as a colony (ie a fraction) of the latter and the impossibility of viewing them as forebears of the Egyptians

In his Geography Strabo mentioned the importance of migrations in history and believing that this particular migration had proceeded from Egypt to Ethiopia remarks Egyptians settled Ethiopia and Colchis endnote 6 Bk 1 Chap 3 par 10 Once again it is a Greek despite his chauvinism who informs us that the Egyptians Ethiopians and Colchians belong to the same race thereby confirming what Herodotus had said about the Colchians endnote 7 The Colchians formed a cluster of Negroes among white populations near the Black Sea

The opinion of all the ancient writers on the Egyptian race is more or less summed up by Gaston Maspero (1846-1916) By the almost unanimous testimony of ancient historians they belonged to an African race [read Negro] which first settled in Ethiopia

on the Middle Nile following the course of the river they gradually reached the sea Moreover the Bible states that Mesraim son of Ham brother of Chus (Kush) the Ethiopian and of Canaan came from Mesopotamia to settle with his children on the banks of the Nile endnote 8 Gaston Maspero Histoire ancienne des peuples de lOrient Paris Hachette 1917 p 15 12th ed (Translated as The Dawn of Civilization London 1894 reprinted New York Frederick Ungar 1968)

p 3 Besides Herodotus was not a credulous historian who recorded everything without checking he knew how to weigh things When he relates an opinion that he does not share he always takes care to note his disagreement Thus referring to the mores of the Scythians and Neurians he writes apropos the latter It seems that these people are conjurers for both the Scythi- ans and the Greeks who dwell in Scythia say that every Neurian once a year becomes a wolf for a few days at the end of which time he is restored to his proper shape Not that I believe this but they constantly affirm it to be true and are even ready to back up their assertion with an oath endnote 10 Herodotus p 236

He always distinguishes carefully between what he has seen and what he has been told After his visit to the Labyrinth he writes

quote There are two different sorts of chambers throughout Ntilde half under ground half above ground the latter built upon the former the whole number of these chambers is three thousand fifteen hundred of each kind The upper chambers I myself passed through and saw and what I say concerning them is from my own observation of the underground chambers I can only speak from report for the keepers of the building could not be got to show them since they contained as they said the sepulchers of the kings who built the Labyrinth and also those of the sacred crocodiles Thus it is from hearsay only that I can speak of the lower chambers The upper chambers however I saw with my own eyes and found them to excel all other human productions endquote endnote 11 Ibid pp 133-134

Was Herodotus a historian deprived of logic unable to penetrate complex phenomena On the contrary his explanation of the inundations of the Nile reveals a rational mind seeking scientific reasons for natural phenomena

quote Perhaps after censuring all the opinions that have been put forward on this obscure subject one ought to propose some theory of ones own I will therefore proceed to explain what I think to be the reason of the Niles swelling in the summertime During the winter the sun is driven out of his usual course by the storms and removes to the upper parts of Libya This is the whole secret in the fewest possible words for it stands to reason that the coun-

p 4 try to which the Sun-god approaches the nearest and which he passes most directly over will be scantest of water and that here streams which feed the rivers will shrink the most To explain however more at length the case is this The sun in his passage across the upper parts of Libya affects them in the following way As the air in these regions is constantly clear and the country warm through the absence of cold winds the sun in his passage across them acts upon them exactly as he is wont to act elsewhere in summer when his path is in the middle of heaven Ntilde that is he attracts the water After attracting it he again repels it into the upper regions where the winds lay hold of it scatter it and reduce it into a vapor whence it naturally enough comes to pass that the winds which blow from this quarter

Ntilde the south and southwest Ntilde are of all winds the most rainy And my own opinion is that the sun does not get rid of all the water which he draws year by year from the Nile but retains some about him endquote endnote 12 Ibid pp 88-89

These three examples reveal that Herodotus was not a passive reporter of incredible tales and rubbish a liar On the contrary he was quite scrupulous objective scientific for his time Why should one seek to discredit such a historian to make him seem naive Why refabricate history despite his explicit evidence

Undoubtedly the basic reason for this is that Herodotus after relating his eyewitness account informing us that the Egyptians were Blacks then demonstrated with rare honesty (for a Greek) that Greece borrowed from Egypt all the elements of her civilization even the cult of the gods and that Egypt was the cradle of civilization Moreover archeological discoveries continually justify Herodotus against his detractors Thus Christiane Desroches-Noblecourt writes about recent excavations in Tanis footnote Tanis the Biblical Zoan at the mouth of the eastern branch of the Nile Delts Herodotus had seen the outer buildings of these sepulchers and had described them [This was the Labyrinth discussed above] Pierre Montet has just proved once again that The Father of History did not lie endnote 13 Sciences et Avenir No 56 October 1951 It could be objected that in the fifth century BC when Herodotus visited Egypt its civilization was already more than 10000 years old and that the race which had created it was not necessarily the Negro race that Herodotus found there

But the whole history of Egypt as we shall see shows that the

p 5 mixture of the early population with white nomadic elements conquerors or merchants became increasingly important as the end of Egyptian history approached According to Cornelius de Pauw in the low epoch Egypt was almost saturated with foreign white colonies Arabs in Coptos Libyans on the future site of Alexandria Jews around the city of Hercules (Avaris) Babylonians (or Persians) below Memphis fugitive Trojans in the area of the great stone quarries east of the Nile Carians and Ionians over by the Pelusiac branch Psammetichus (end of seventh century) capped this peaceful invasion by entrusting the defense of Egypt to Greek mercenaries An enormous mistake of Pharaoh Psammetichus was to commit the defense of Egypt to foreign troops and to introduce various colonies made up of the dregs of the nations endnote 14 Cornelius de Pauw Recherches philosophiques sur les Egyptiens et les Chinois Berlin 1773 II 337 Under the last Saite dynasty the Greeks were officially established at Naucratis the only port where foreigners were authorized to engage in trading

After the conquest of Egypt by Alexander under the Ptolemies crossbreeding between white Greeks and black Egyptians flourished thanks to a policy of assimilation Nowhere was Dionysus more favored nowhere was he worshiped more adoringly and more elaborately than by the Ptolemies who recognized his cult as an especially effective means of promoting the assimilation of the conquering Greeks and their fusion with the native Egyptians endnote 15 J J Bachofen Pages choisies par Adrien Turel Du Regne de la mere au patriarcat Paris F Alcan 1938 p 89

These facts prove that if the Egyptian people had originally been white it might well have remained so If Herodotus found it still black after so much crossbreeding it must have been basic black at the start

p 27 Before examining the contradictions circulating in the modern era and resulting from attempts to prove at any price that the Egyptians were Whites let us note the astonishment of a scholar of good faith Count Constantin de Volney (1757-1820) After being imbued with all the prejudices we have just mentioned with regard to the Negro Volney had gone to Egypt between 1783 and 1785 while Negro slavery flourished He reported as follows on the Egyptian race the very race that had produced the Pharaohs the Copts

quote all have a bloated face puffed up eyes flat nose thick lips in a word the true face of the mulatto I was tempted to attribute it to the climate but when I visited the Sphinx its appearance gave me the key to the riddle On seeing that head typically Negro in all its features I remembered the remarkable passage where Herodotus says As for me I judge the Colchians to be a colony of the Egyptians because like them they are black with woolly hair In other words 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 Romans and Greeks must have lost the intensity of its original color while retaining nonetheless the imprint of its original mold We can even state as a general principle that the face is a kind of monument able in many cases to attest or shed light on historical evidence on the origins of peoples endquote

After illustrating this proposition by citing the case of Normans who still resembled the Danes 900 years after the conquest of Nor- mandy Volney adds

quote But returning to Egypt the lesson she teaches history contains many reflections for philosophy What a subject for meditation to see the present barbarism and ignorance of the Copts descendants of the alliance between the profound genius of the Egyptians and

p 28 the brilliant mind of the Greeks 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 ana even the use of speech Just imagine finally that it is in the midst of peoples 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 endquote endnote 7 C F Volney Voyages en Syrie et en Egypte Paris 1787 I 74-77

p 28 In 1799 Bonaparte undertook his campaign in Egypt Thanks to the Rosetta stone hieroglyphics were deciphered in 1822 by Champollion the Younger who died in 1832 He left as his calling card an Egyptian grammar and a series of letters to his brother Champollion-Figeac letters written during his visit to Egypt (1828-1829) Thesc were published in l833 by Champollion-Figeac From then on the wall of the hieroglyphics was breached unveiling surprising riches in their most minute details

p 46 Let us start with the oldest of these theses that of Champollion the Younger set forth in the thirteenth letter to his brother It concerns bas-reliefs on the tomb of Sesostris I also visited by Rienzi These date back to the sixteenth century BC (Eighteenth Dynasty) and represent the races of man known to the Egyptians This monument is the oldest complete ethnological document available Here is what Champollion says about it

quote Right in the valley of Biban-el-Moluk we admired like all previous visitors the astonishing freshness of the paintings and the fine sculptures on several tombs I had a copy made of the peoples represented on the bas-reliefs At first I had thought from copies of

these bas-reliefs published in England that these peoples of different races led by the god Horus holding his shepherds staff were indeed nations subject to the rule of the Pharaohs A study of the legends informed me that this tableau has a more general meaning It portrays the third hour of the day when the sun is beginning to turn on its burning rays warming all the inhabited countries of our hemisphere According to the legend itself they wished to represent the inhabitants of Egypt and those of foreign lands Thus we have before our eyes the image of the various races of man known to the Egyptians and we learn at the same time the great geographical or ethnographical divisions established during that early epoch Men led by Horus the shepherd of the peoples belong to four distinct families The first the one closest to the god has a dark red color a well-proportioned body kind face nose slightly aquiline long braided hair and is dressed in white The legends designate this species as Rot-en-ne-Rome the race of men par excellence ie the Egyptians There can be no uncertainty about the racial identity of the man who comes next he belongs to the Black race designated under the general term Nahasi The third presents a very different aspect his skin color borders on yellow or tan he has a strongly aquiline nose thick black pointed beard and wears a short garment of varied colors these are called Namou Finally the last one is what we call flesh-colored a white skin of the most delicate shade a nose straight or slightly arched blue eyes blond or reddish beard tall stature and very slender clad in a

p 47 hairy ox-skin a veritable savage tattooed on various parts of his body he is called Tamhou I hastened to seek the tableau corresponding to this one in the other royal tombs and as a matter of fact I found it in several The variations I observed fully convinced me that they had tried to represent here the inhabitants of the four corners of the earth according to the Egyptian system namely 1 the inhabitants of Egypt which by itself formed one part of the world 2 the inhabitants of Africa proper Blacks 3 Asians 4 finally (and I am ashamed to say so since our race is the last and the most savage in the series) Europeans who in those remote epochs frankly did not cut too fine a figure in the world In this category we must include all blonds and white-skinned people living not only in Europe but Asia as well their starting point This manner of viewing the tableau is all the more accurate because on the other tombs the same generic names reappear always in the same order We find there Egyptians and Africans represented in the same way which could not be otherwise but the Namou (the Asians) and the Tamhou (Europeans) present significant and curious variants Instead of the Arab or the Jew dressed simply and represented on one tomb Asias representatives on other tombs (those of Ramses II etc) are three individuals tanned complexion aquiline nose black eyes and thick beard but clad in rare splendor In one they are evidently Assyrians their costume down to the smallest detail is identical with that of personages engraved on Assyrian cylinders In the other are Medes or early inhabitants of some part of Persia Their physiognomy and dress resemble feature for feature those found on monuments called Persepolitan Thus Asia was represented indiscriminately by any one of the peoples who inhabited it The same is true of our good old ancestors the Tamhou Their attire is sometimes different their heads are more or less hairy and adorned with various ornaments their savage dress varies somewhat in form but their white complexion their eyes and beard all preserve the character of a race apart I had this strange ethnographical series copied and colored I certainly did not expect on arriving at Biban-el-Moluk to find sculptures that could serve as vignettes for the history of the primitive Europeans if ever one has the courage to attempt it Nevertheless there is something flat-

p 48 tering and consoling in seeing them since they make us appreciate the progress we have subsequently achieved endquote endnote 3 Champollion-Figeac Egypte ancienne Paris Collection lUnivers 1839 pp 30-31

For a very good reason I have reproduced this extract as Champollion-Figeac published it rather than take it from the new edition of the Letters published in 1867 by the son of Champollion the Younger (Cheronnet-Champollion) The originals were addressed to Champollion-Figeac therefore his edition is more authentic

p 49 Champollions conclusion is typical After stating that these sculptures can serve as vignetles for the history of the early inhabitants of Europe he adds if ever one has the courage to attempt it Finally after those comments he presents his opinion on the Egyptian race

quote The first tribes that inhabited Egypt that is the Nile Valley between the Syene cataract and the sea came from Abyssinia to Sennar The ancient Egyptians belonged to a race quite similar to the Kennous or Barabras present inhabitants of Nubia In the Copts of Egypt we do not find any of the characteristic features of the ancient Egyptian population The Copts are the result of crossbreeding with all the nations that have successively dominated Egypt It is wrong to seek in them the principal features of the old race endquote endnote 4 Champollion-Figeac ibid p 27

p 50 Champollions opinion on the Egyptian race was recorded in a memoir prepared for the Pasha of Egypt to whom he delivered it in 1829

p 63 In Les Egyptes a volume published around 1880 Marius Fontanes attacks the same problem

quote Since the Egyptians always painted themselves red on their monu- ments partisans of the southern origin had to point out a great number of interesting peculiarities likely to help solve the ethno-graphical problem Near the Upper Nile today among the Fulbe whose skin is quite yellow those whom contemporaries consider as belonging to a pure race are rather red the Bisharin are exactly of the same brick-red shade used on Egyptian monuments To other ethnographers these red men would probably be Ethiopians modified by time and climate or perhaps Negroes who have reached the halfway mark in the evolution from blackness to whiteness It has been noted that in limestone areas the Negro is less black than in granitic and plutonic regions It has even been thought that the hue changed with the season Thus Nubians were former Blacks but only in skin color while their osteology has rcmained absolutely Negritic The Negroes represented on Pharaonic paintings so clearly deline- ated by engravers and named Nahasou or Nahasiou in the hiero- glyphics are not related to the Ethiopians the first people to come down into Egypt Were the latter then attenuated Negroes Nubians Lepsiuss canon gives the proportions of the perfect Egyptian body it has short arms and is Negroid or Negritian From the anthropological point of view the Egyptian comes after the Polynesians Samoyeds Europeans and is immediately fol- lowed by African Negroes and Tasmanians Besides there is a scientific tendency to find in Africa after excluding foreign influences from the Mediterranean to the Cape from the Atlantic to the Indian Ocean nothing but Negroes or Negroids of various colors The ancient Egyptians were Negroes but Negroes to the last degree endquote endnote 20 Marius Fontanes Les Egyptes (de 5000 a715) Paris Ed Lemerre nd pp 44-45

end of quotes

(2) G K Osei a black American (LLB LLM PhD) wrote in his 1983 Introduction to G Elliot Smiths booklet The Influence of Ancient Egyptian Civilization in the East and in America (New York 1983 I have this booklet but its publisher details are unclear I obtained it from a Black American bookstore most likely AampB Books Publishers Brooklyn NY 11201)

The Great kings of Africa peacefully spread the African civilization to other parts This peaceful process was disturbed by the coming of the Hyksos into Egypt These people conquered lower Egypt and ruled it for nearly two hundred years They were eventually expelled by a king from Upper Egypt The kings who came after the explusion of the Hyksos extended the boundaries of Egypt into Asia Many nations in Asia came under the direct control of Egypt At this time Egypt was the most powerful country in the world African culture spread to those conquered nations until a mad half-cast (mulatto) came on the throne This mad king was non other than Amenophis IV also known as Akhanaten

Akhanaten when he mounted the mighty throne deserted the old culture He changed the religion of Egypt and he married a white woman from Mitanni His wifes name was Nefert-iti (The Fair One Comes) It was the Egyptians who called Tadukhipa Dushrattas daughter Nefer-iti She was at first sent to Egypt to marry Amenophis III but when she arrived the king had died so she had to marry the kings son -Akhenaton Akhenaton changed his wifes name from Nefertiti to Nefer-neferu-Aten Aten is the Fairest of the Fair It is very important to state here that the decline of the mighty Kingdom began from the time Akhenaton came on the throne The royal blue blood that ran through the veins of those mighty kings had become diluted by the end of the eighteenth Dynasty The Kings were the sons of white women from Asia It must be remembered that the mother of Akhenaton was a white woman called Tyi or Tii Queen Tii was a foreign woman whose fathers name was Iuya and came from Asia Minor The marriages of the Pharoahs to foreign women shocked the priests of Amen The priests told Akhenaton that the dynastic miracle of the divine birth should continue but this mad king Akhenaton paid them no attention Instead the priests were persecuted and Amen was deserted by the King Akhenaton built a new capital where he started to worship his god The history of the African Race would be different today if Akenaton had not abandoned the old African Culture to embrace that of a foreign country He failed to send the army to defend the frontiers his great and proud ancestors had established As a result of his negligence the mighty empire of Africa fell to pieces The present day (1983) African leaders must never marry white women White women will never help them to build Africa to become once again the teacher of the world We will teach the African to see beauty in himself

Osei was introducing G Elliot Smiths booklet THE INFLUENCE OF ANCIENT EGYPTIAN CIVILIZATION IN THE EAST AND IN AMERICA before-columbushtml

I do not post ALL of Diops material The fact that he and Elliot Smith overstated their case that they were wrong about some things does not undo the ways in which they were right The reaction against Diffusion has gone too far

(3) DIODORUS OF SICILY tr CH Oldfather Harvard University Press (Loeb) Cambridge Ma 1968 Written about 56 BC

BOOK I chapter 96 in Volume 1 of the Loeb series

p 327 96 But now that we have examined these matters we must enumerate what Greeks who have won fame for their wisdom and learning visited Egypt in ancient times in order to become acquainted with its customs and learning For the priests of Egypt recount from the records of their sacred books that they were visited in early times by Orpheus Musaeus Melampus and Daedalus also by the poet Homer and Lycurgus of Sparta later by Solon of Athens and the philosopher Plato and that there also came Pythagoras of Samos and the mathematician Eudoxus note 1 as well as Democritus of Abdera and Oenopides note 2 of Chios As evidence for the visits of all these men they point in some cases to their statues and in others to places or buildings note 3 which bear their names and they offer proofs from the branch of learning which each one of these men pursued arguing that all the things for which they were admired among the Greeks were transferred from Egypt

Orpheus for instance brought from Egypt most of his mystic ceremonies the orgiastic rites that accompanied his wanderings and his fabulous account of his experiences in Hades For the rite of Osiris is the same as that of Dionysus and that of Isis very similar to that of Demeter the names alone having been interchanged and the punishments in Hades of the unrighteous the Fields of the Righteous and the fantastic conceptions current among the

translators notes 1 The famous astronomer geographer and mathematician of Cnidus pupil of Plato His stay in Egypt is well attested 2 Cp p 336 n 1 3 For instance according to Strabo (17 1 29) in Heliopolis were pointed out the houses where Plato and Eudoxus had stopped end notes end Diodorus

Read the original - from Diodorus diodorus-v21jpg

(4) Herodotus Histories the Egyptians (235-91)

from httpwwwrichmondedu~wstevensgrvaltextsherodotus2html

it is by mere coincidence that the Bacchic ceremonies in Greece are so nearly the same as the Egyptian - they would then have been more Greek in their character and less recent in their origin Much less can I admit that the Egyptians borrowed these customs or any other from the Greeks My belief is that Melampus got his knowledge of them from Cadmus the Tyrian and the followers whom he brought from Phoenicia into the country which is now called Boeotia

Almost all the names of the gods came into Greece from Egypt My inquiries prove that they were all derived from a foreign source and my opinion is that Egypt furnished the greater number For with the exception of Neptune and the Dioscuri whom I mentioned above and Juno Vesta Themis the Graces and the Nereids the other gods have been known from time immemorial in Egypt This I assert on the authority of the Egyptians themselves The gods with whose names they profess themselves unacquainted the Greeks received I

believe from the Pelasgi except Neptune Of him they got their knowledge from the Libyans by whom he has been always honoured and who were anciently the only people that had a god of the name The Egyptians differ from the Greeks also in paying no divine honours to heroes

Besides these which have been here mentioned there are many other practices whereof I shall speak hereafter which the Greeks have borrowed from Egypt The peculiarity however which they observe in their statues of Mercury they did not derive from the Egyptians but from the Pelasgi from them the Athenians first adopted it and afterwards it passed from the Athenians to the other Greeks For just at the time when the Athenians were entering into the Hellenic body the Pelasgi came to live with them in their country whence it was that the latter came first to be regarded as Greeks Whoever has been initiated into the mysteries of the Cabiri will understand what I mean The Samothracians received these mysteries from the Pelasgi who before they went to live in Attica were dwellers in Samothrace and imparted their religious ceremonies to the inhabitants The Athenians then who were the first of all the Greeks to make their statues of Mercury in this way learnt the practice from the Pelasgians and by this people a religious account of the matter is given which is explained in the Samothracian mysteries

In early times the Pelasgi as I know by information which I got at Dodona offered sacrifices of all kinds and prayed to the gods but had no distinct names or appellations for them since they had never heard of any They called them gods (Theoi disposers) because they disposed and arranged all things in such a beautiful order After a long lapse of time the names of the gods came to Greece from Egypt and the Pelasgi learnt them only as yet they knew nothing of Bacchus of whom they first heard at a much later date Not long after the arrival of the names they sent to consult the oracle at Dodona about them This is the most ancient oracle in Greece and at that time there was no other To their question Whether they should adopt the names that had been imported from the foreigners the oracle replied by recommending their use Thenceforth in their sacrifices the Pelasgi made use of the names of the gods and from them the names passed afterwards to the Greeks

Whence the gods severally sprang whether or no they had all existed from eternity what forms they bore- these are questions of which the Greeks knew nothing until the other day so to speak For Homer and Hesiod were the first to compose Theogonies and give the gods their epithets to allot them their several offices and occupations and describe their forms and they lived but four hundred years before my time as I believe As for the poets who are thought by some to be earlier than these they are in my judgment decidedly later writers In these matters I have the authority of the priestesses of Dodona for the former portion of my statements what I have said of Homer and Hesiod is my own opinion

The following tale is commonly told in Egypt concerning the oracle of Dodona in Greece and that of Ammon in Libya My informants on the point were the priests of Jupiter at Thebes They said that two of the sacred women were once carried off from Thebes by the Phoenicians and that the story went that one of them was sold into Libya and the other into Greece and these women were the first founders of the oracles in the two countries On my inquiring how they came to know so exactly what became of the women they answered that diligent search had been made after them at the time but that it had not been found possible to discover where they were afterwards however they received the information which they had given me

This was what I heard from the priests at Thebes at Dodona however the women who deliver the oracles relate the matter as follows- Two black doves flew away from Egyptian Thebes and while one directed its flight to Libya the other came to them She alighted on an oak and sitting there began to speak with a human voice and told them that on the spot where she was there should henceforth be an oracle of Jove They understood the announcement to be from heaven so they set to work at once and erected the shrine The dove which flew to Libya bade the Libyans to establish there the oracle of Ammon This likewise is an oracle of Jupiter The persons from whom I received these particulars were three priestesses of the Dodonaeans the eldest Promeneia the next Timarete and the youngest Nicandra- what they said was confirmed by the other Dodonaeans who dwell around the temple

My own opinion of these matters is as follows- I think that if it be true that the Phoenicians carried off the holy women and sold them for slaves the one into Libya and the other into Greece or Pelasgia (as it was then called) this last must have been sold to the Thesprotians Afterwards while undergoing servitude in those parts she built under a real oak a temple to Jupiter her thoughts in her new abode reverting - as it was likely they would do if she had been an attendant in a temple of Jupiter at Thebes - to that particular god Then having acquired a knowledge of the Greek tongue she set up an oracle She also mentioned that her sister had been sold for a slave into Libya by the same persons as herself

The Dodonaeans called the women doves because they were foreigners and seemed to them to make a noise like birds After a while the dove spoke with a human voice because the woman whose foreign talk had previously sounded to them like the chattering of a bird acquired the power of speaking what they could understand For how can it be conceived possible that a dove should really speak with the voice of a man Lastly by calling the dove black the Dodonaeans indicated that the woman was an Egyptian And certainly the character of the oracles at Thebes and Dodona is very similar Besides this form of divination the Greeks learnt also divination by means of victims from the Egyptians

The Egyptians were also the first to introduce solemn assemblies processions and litanies to the gods of all which the Greeks were taught the use by them It seems to me a sufficient proof of this that in Egypt these practices have been established from remote antiquity while in Greece they are only recently known

The Egyptians do not hold a single solemn assembly but several in the course of the year Of these the chief which is better attended than any other is held at the city of Bubastis in honour of Diana The next in importance is that which takes place at Busiris a city situated in the very middle of the Delta it is in honour of Isis who is called in the Greek tongue Demiter (Ceres) There is a third great festival in Sais to Minerva a fourth in Heliopolis to the Sun a fifth in Buto to Latona and a sixth in Papremis to Mars

With respect to the Egyptians themselves it is to be remarked that those who live in the corn country devoting themselves as they do far more than any other people in the world to the preservation of the memory of past actions are the best skilled in history of any men that I have ever met The following is the mode of life habitual to them- For three successive days in each month they purge the body by means of emetics and clysters which is done out of a regard for their health since they have a persuasion that every disease to which men are liable is occasioned by the substances whereon they feed Apart from any such precautions they are I believe next to the Libyans the healthiest people in the world - an effect of their

climate in my opinion which has no sudden changes Diseases almost always attack men when they are exposed to a change and never more than during changes of the weather They live on bread made of spelt which they form into loaves called in their own tongue cyllestis Their drink is a wine which they obtain from barley as they have no vines in their country Many kinds of fish they eat raw either salted or dried in the sun Quails also and ducks and small birds they eat uncooked merely first salting them All other birds and fishes excepting those which are set apart as sacred are eaten either roasted or boiled

In social meetings among the rich when the banquet is ended a servant carries round to the several guests a coffin in which there is a wooden image of a corpse carved and painted to resemble nature as nearly as possible about a cubit or two cubits in length As he shows it to each guest in turn the servant says Gaze here and drink and be merry for when you die such will you be

The Egyptians adhere to their own national customs and adopt no foreign usages Many of these customs are worthy of note among others their song the Linus which is sung under various names not only in Egypt but in Phoenicia in Cyprus and in other places and which seems to be exactly the same as that in use among the Greeks and by them called Linus There were very many things in Egypt which filled me with astonishment and this was one of them Whence could the Egyptians have got the Linus It appears to have been sung by them from the very earliest times For the Linus in Egyptian is called Maneros and they told me that Maneros was the only son of their first king and that on his untimely death he was honoured by the Egyptians with these dirgelike strains and in this way they got their first and only melody

There is another custom in which the Egyptians resemble a particular Greek people namely the Lacedaemonians Their young men when they meet their elders in the streets give way to them and step aside and if an elder come in where young men are present these latter rise from their seats In a third point they differ entirely from all the nations of Greece Instead of speaking to each other when they meet in the streets they make an obeisance sinking the hand to the knee

They wear a linen tunic fringed about the legs and called calasiris over this they have a white woollen garment thrown on afterwards Nothing of woollen however is taken into their temples or buried with them as their religion forbids it Here their practice resembles the rites called Orphic and Bacchic but which are in reality Egyptian and Pythagorean for no one initiated in these mysteries can be buried in a woollen shroud a religious reason being assigned for the observance

The Egyptians likewise discovered to which of the gods each month and day is sacred and found out from the day of a mans birth what he will meet with in the course of his life and how he will end his days and what sort of man he will be - discoveries whereof the Greeks engaged in poetry have made a use The Egyptians have also discovered more prognostics than all the rest of mankind besides Whenever a prodigy takes place they watch and record the result then if anything similar ever happens again they expect the same consequences

With respect to divination they hold that it is a gift which no mortal possesses but only certain of the gods thus they have an oracle of Hercules one of Apollo of Minerva of Diana of Mars and of Jupiter Besides these there is the oracle of Latona at Buto which is held in