geodesy in Egypt-we cannot but avow that the dignified agnomen Euergertes was most justly accorded to him.

I had given Mehemmed Ali the fac-simile of the gold plate which Sir Sidney Smith conceded to me, as stated in the Edes; but in the mean time Dr. Lee had procured another copy-from which the foregoing illustration is carefully engraven-imitated on gilt cardboard accurately executed at Paris, and which is now ensconced among the Egyptian relics in the Hartwell Museum, although the record is in Greek characters.

§ 3. ANALOGIES OF EGYPT AND MEXICO.

This is a topic exciting grave meditation on pre-historic records. In the Edes (page 181) mention is made of the resemblance of a Tlascaltecan lady to a couple of small figures in the possession of Dr. Lee, and which were brought from Egypt by the Duke of Northumberland. I also alluded to certain coincidences of Egyptian and Mexican mannerism, which amount to a correlation almost too tenacious to be the effect of mere accident. Such was their triune worship, pyramidal style of architecture, mummyfying the dead, hieroglyphic writings, making paper from vegetable substances, division of the people into castes, similarity in their systems of astronomical notation, and, though employing the precious metals profusely for ornamental uses, their ignorance of coined money, both nations substituting nuts and seeds for cash.* I also mentioned (page 211) the removal of a huge block of stone by the Mexicans, on the authority of a manuscript shown me by Sir Thomas Phillipps, as being precisely similar to the Egytian operations. Those observations as to their locomotive prowess might be strengthened by several additions, which have recently been brought to notice, were such requisite here.

* This admirable invention, it seems, is due to a merchant-nation. The Phoenicians-according to Alcidamus, the wisest and most cunning of the barbarians-brought forward the coining of money. Neither Pharaonic Egypt, nor Assyria, nor Babylonia, nor the Hebrew kingdoms, knew the use of coins: their precious metals were bartered by weight.

Even so late comparatively as the Aztec ages, there are traces of still earlier customs in affinity with the Oriental world; for instance their worship of the flamingo and the ibis, their modes of barter, and their established grades of social rank. In the Aztec picture-writings preserved in the Museum at Mexico is a list of the tribute paid to the sovereign, the different articles being depicted with numbers against each to show the quantities to be severally exacted, as seen also in the Egyptian inscriptions.

The uraus, or sacred asp, as a symbol of greatness when appended to the caps or crowns of Egyptian kings and queens, is so well known as to be barely citable here, except for its affording another clue in the argument before us. At page 185 of Mr. Tylor's recent work on Mexico, is a representation of a bas-relief on the pyramid of Xochicalco, which is repeated eight times on that edifice. Here we see a man seated somewhat in Eastern style, wearing a plumed helmet and eye-protectors, and from the front of his head-gear protrudes a serpent, just where in Egyptian sculptures the royal "basilisk" or uraus is placed. This fact being very remarkable, we submit the two heads in adversa, as a numismatist would say:

FROM XOCHICALCO.

FROM KARNAK.

Another step towards identity was the mutual custom of fitting the human body with the head of a strange beast or bird, in their representations. The

Egyptians, we know, made masks of papyrus and other substances, in the shape of heads of lions, wolves, hawks, and the like, which were worn by kings and priests upon occasion; and the late Duke of Sussex showed me a specimen from Karnak, neatly carved in sycamore wood, and entirely coated with polished turquoises. Etruria and Greece adopted masks for their actors, and very expressive some of them are, notwithstanding their fixed features and enormous mouths; the latter, however, are presumed to have contained some kind of apparatus suited to assist the voice, and surely the aperture is large enough for such a contrivance. So in Mexico we find that masks were anciently used in religious ceremonies, and they were made of stone, wood, or terra-cotta. A fine sample of their work, in brown lava, is given in Tylor's book; and, as it is somewhat cognate with an oscillum found at Herculaneum, and now in the Museo Borbonico at Naples, we will here place their respective portraitures:

At some of these indications of the probable existence of an ancient connexion between the peoples of Asia and America we cannot help wondering, however difficult to explain; but it is clear that they open up an extensive field for ethnological research. Among other relations, it is no small matter of surprise to find that much evidence is derivable from fragile pottery, the which is found to endure even where marble and brass have succumbed. Some of these wares were for ornature and some for domestic purposes; in both we are struck

with the similarity of taste and design in the fictile utensils, which is traceable in the aforesaid widely-separated regions, although-as we are not sure about the Aztec cognoscence of the cereals-their food, condiments, and drinks might have materially differed. On page 211 of the Edes, we placed some "miniature" representations of vases transmitted from the East and West ancients; but, as these were considered rather too small for due comparison, it appeared desirable to reproduce them here on a larger scale; and to the two of Hellenic manufacture, which I acquired by excavation, a terra-cotta from Mr. Burckhardt Barker's collection enables me to add a Syro-Egyptian specimen. Here then will follow a curious, though inconsiderable, exhibition of cognate taste in keramic flasks, among people who were divided by the Atlantic Ocean :-

The artistic glance will here remark the same arched eye-brow, and expanded forehead, in both these females, so much admired in days of yore as typical of intelligence; though our Anglo-Saxons rejoice more frequently in a rather horizontal brow, as indicative, perhaps, of calm reflection and steadiness of purpose. A similar partiality for natural foliage is shown in

both; and, though the fair Syro-Egyptian has a very Isis tendency, she yet suggests an arrival from Greece, rather than from the land of Ham.

Another cause of astonishment is the fact of the ancient Mexicans having made an extraordinary advance in astronomy; insomuch that they knew the cause of eclipses, and had a more accurate calendar-one better adjusted by intercalation---than those of the Egyptians or Greeks. This is altogether an enigma: but the indefatigable Humboldt went far to prove that the system of cycles in reckoning years, as well as resemblance in the signs used by the Americans and Asiatics, were too approximate for mere chance. Eliminating, therefore, casual features and local causes of customs in both hemispheres, we cannot but think the preponderance favours the hypothesis of there having been a communication between the old world and the new.

$4. CERTAIN EGYPTIAN RELICS.

In this Section I propose to add a few new particulars, and also to correct some inadvertencies which have crept into the recently printed catalogue of