However far back written records conduct us in an investigation of the early history of mankind, it can no longer be maintained that they cover but a small portion of man's existence on the globe. That human racial characters were broadly marked, some 6000 years ago, has been surmised from an analysis of the ancient wall paintings of Egypt. Thus, in the tombs of the kings at Thebes are to be seen, to this day, coloured and highly expressive portraits of the four principal races who then frequented the Nile valley; and it is a remarkable fact that their distinguishing peculiarities, as depicted in the conventional eye and reddish-brown colour of the Egyptian, the fair-skinned and blue-eyed Lybian, the aquiline profile of the Semite, and the thick lip and curly hair of the Negro, are equally descriptive of their modern representatives.