40 THE BEGA, THE BLEMYES l. 3. xi.

neighbours of the Egyptians... iz</ on the left side of the course of the Nile Hve the Noubai..." (etc., as quoted in Chap. 2).

XII Having once settled on the river the Blemyes were strongly

influenced by the contemporary Ethiopian civilization of Meroe.

"It is certain," says Crowfoot, "that in the fifth century or earlier

Kinglets of the Blemyes used the Greek tongue and aped much of the complicated ceremonial of a Byzantine court... by virtue of a common script and mutual indebtedness to Egypt they stand in close relation with the

rulers of Meroe^."

XIII The account given by Olympiodorus at the beginning of the

fifth century, the terms of the peace recorded by Priscus as made a few years later between them and the Romans, and the inscription

of Talmis in the following century prove that they were still pagans

about the middle of the sixth century. Apparently they worshipped

Isis at Philae previous to their conversion^. But Procopius, writing

about the middle of the same century, and mentioning this, also adds

that they used to sacrifice men to the Sun^, and it is almost certain

that, as a matter of fact, their chief religious place was at Talmis where the temple is known to have been sacred to the Sun worshipped under the name of Mandoulis, and that for that reason Talmis was

chosen by the invading Silko as the site for his inscription*.

The Blemyes may have been converted to Christianity as a result

of Silko's expedition, or perhaps he or his successors so crushed them

that they ceased to exist as a separate race. In any case, when the Muhammadans, less than a century later, invaded the country south

of Aswan we hear nothing of "Blemyes," and the population was

simply "Nuba" and Christian^,

XIV An even more difficult problem is presented by the country which lay a little further south. As already mentioned the capital

of the Libyo-Nubian kings who conquered Egypt in the eighth and seventh centuries B.C. and of their immediate successors was at

^ Arch. Surv. Nub. xix, 35, 36. Cp. Hall (Man, May 1912); he says: " If the people of Karanog were Blemmyes the Blemmyes spoke and wrote in Meroitic."

- We have seen (Chap. 2) that the statement of Eusebius to the effect that as

early as the reign of Constantine Christianity had penetrated to the Ethiopians and Blemyes refers to the people of Abyssinia and the Troglodytic whom Frumentius converted, and not to the riverain Blemyes with whom Silko fought.

' De Bella Persicn, i, 60 of edn 1662, quoted by Quatremere (n, 133).

* Letronne, loc. cit. There were also at Meroe temples sacred to Isis and to the Sun respectively, dating from the sixth or seventh century B.C. (see p. 9 above).

" It may be noted here that Herodotus divided the Ethiopian race into Eastern Ethiopians with straight hair, that is the Bega and suchlike, and Western Ethiopians ("they of Libya") with curly hair, that is the negroids, each group speaking a

different language. (Bk. vn, 70. The context is the composition of the army of Xerxes.)