Although many obstacles present themselves to the supposition that direct intercourse subsisted between the Egyptians and the nations of Eastern Asia, there appear, even on a very superficial comparison, so many phenomena of striking con gruity in the intellectual and moral habits, and in the peculiar character of mental culture displayed by these nations, and particularly by the Egyptians when compared with the ancient Indians, that many persons have found it extremely difficult to refer all these analogies to merely accidental coincidence.