There is really no reason to suppose that the type of face presented by
Nefret, Usertsen, and Amenemhat is not purely Egyptian. It may be seen
in many a modern fellah, and the truth probably is that the sculptors
have in the case of these rulers very faithfully and carefully depicted
their portraits, and that their faces happen to have been of a rather
hard and forbidding type. But, if we grant the contention of Messrs.
Newberry and Garstang for the moment, where is the connection between
these XIIth Dynasty kings and the Hyksos? All the Tanite monuments with
this peculiar facial type which would be considered Hyksos are certainly
of the XIIth Dynasty. The only statue of a Hyksos king, which was
undoubtedly originally made for him and is not one of the XIIth Dynasty
usurped, is the small one of Khian at Cairo, discovered by M. Naville at
Bubastis, and this has no head. So that we have not the slightest idea
of what a Hyksos looked like. Moreover, the evidence of the Hyksos names
which are known to us points in quite a different direction. The Kheta,
or Hittites, were certainly not Semites, yet the Hyksos names are
definitely Semitic. In fact it is most probable that the Hyksos, or
Shepherd Kings, were, as the classical authorities say they were, and as
their name (_hiku-semut_ or _hihu-shasu_,) "princes of the deserts" or
("princes of the Bedawin") also testifies, purely and simply Arabs.
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