Page:Light and truth.djvu/49

Rh believes that a colony of Cushites settled in the northern part of Assyria on the Araxes—the present Aras or Araxis—a river which rises near the Euphrates and falls into the Caspian sea. Gihon, (Gen. ii. 13,) one of the rivers of Eden, was supposed by some to be the Araxes, which empties into the Caspian sea. Gihon signifies impetuous; and this is the course of the Araxes.

In Zeph. iii. 10, where the prophet speaks of Judah's return from captivity, it refers probably to the country east of the Tigris, the principal seat of the captivity, which is called Cuthah.—(2 Kings xvii. 24. Comp. Ps. lxviii. 31 and Isa. xviii.) Profane writers call this country Ethiopia, or Cush, from which the modern name Khusistan is derived.

In Num. xii. l, the word Ethiopia is applied to a country of southern Arabia, lying along the Red Sea, elsewhere called Cushan, (Hab. iii. 7,) in which last passage allusion is made to the portion of history recorded in Num. xxxi.

Ethiopia, (Isa. xi. 11,) a country in Arabia Petrea, bordering on Egypt, of which Zipporah, the wife of Moses, was a native.

. South of Egypt there was once a very large empire, consisting of 45 kingdoms, according to Pliny. The region is very mountainous. In it were two noted cities, Axuma and Meroe, which could furnish at least 250,000 soldiers, and 400,000 who were artificers, manufacturers and forgers. Some of these mountains abound in salt, others in iron, copper, gold, &.c. The chief river of Ethiopia is the Nile; it receives most of the inferior streams of that region, and is greatly swollen by the immoderate showers that fall in Ethiopia, in the months of June and July The middle portion of Ethiopia, called Lower Ethiopia, was very little known to the Europeans; it was computed to contain 1,200,000 square miles. Abyssinia, or Upper Ethiopia, is about 900 miles in length, and 800 in breadth.

The northern part of Ethiopia was called by the Hebrews, Seba, (Isa. xliii. 3,) after the eldest son of Cush, (Gen. x. 7,) and by the Romans. Meroe. The inhabitants are said to have been men of stature, (Isa. xlv. 14,) and this is confirmed by an eminent Greek historian, who says they are "the tallest of men."