An-Essay on the Superstitions, Customs, and Arts Common to the Ancient Egyptians, Abyssinians, and Ashantees.

Abstract

THE traditions of emigration, not of the whole population but of particular families, so current in Ashantee and the neighbouring nations, the numerous exceptions to the negro countenance, and the striking similitude of most of their more extraordinary superstitions, laws, and customs to those of ancient- Egypt, persuaded me that most of the higher classes are descended from eastern Ethiopians who had been improved by an intercourse with the Egyptian emigrants and colonists. The connection and intercourse of Egypt and Ethiopia seem, naturally, to have existed from the foundation of these kingdoms. The Greek writers agree, that the Ethiopians frequently bursting into Egypt with their vast armies, by the same route so fatal to the troops of Cambyses, subdued and occupied it for ages. The Ethiopic dynasties are recorded in the Egyptian chronicles: an Ethiopian had been elevated to the throne of Egypt long before the reign of Sesostris. A kind of Ethiopia, celebrated for his moderation and his prudence, was invited to expel and succeed the tyrant Amosis:another seized the throne which the Egyptians had before proffered or accorded to his countryman, emigration