|
There can be no doubt that the Colchians are an Egyptian race.
Before I heard any mention of the fact from others, I had remarked
it myself. After the thought had struck me, I made inquiries on the
subject both in Colchis and in Egypt, and I found that the
Colchians had a more distinct recollection of the Egyptians, than the
Egyptians had of them. Still 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, which certainly amounts to but
little, since several other nations are so too; but further and more
especially, on the circumstance that the Colchians, the Egyptians,
and the Ethiopians, are the only nations who have practised
circumcision from the earliest times. The Phoenicians and the
Syrians of Palestine themselves confess that they learnt the custom of
the Egyptians; and the Syrians who dwell about the rivers Thermodon
and Parthenius, as well as their neighbours the Macronians, say that
they have recently adopted it from the Colchians. Now these are the
only nations who use circumcision, and it is plain that they all
imitate herein the Egyptians. With respect to the Ethiopians,
indeed, I cannot decide whether they learnt the practice of the
Egyptians, or the Egyptians of them - it is undoubtedly of very
ancient date in Ethiopia - but that the others derived their knowledge
of it from Egypt is clear to me from the fact that the Phoenicians,
when they come to have commerce with the Greeks, cease to follow the
Egyptians in this custom, and allow their children to remain uncircumcised.
|
|