By the Rev. J. L. Ross. 159 
out of Ur of the Chaldees: this Ur or Aur we have strong grounds 
for believing was a country or district rather than a city or town, 
and that it was situated between Persia and Hindostan. “By en- 
quiring,” says Taylor in his continuation of Calmet, ‘‘who were 
the Babylonians, we may somewhat approach to determining who 
were the Chaldeans; and if we look to Gen. xi, 7., we shall find 
that the inhabitants of this country journeyed from the East, from 
Kedem, which Kedem we have fixed in the neighbourhood of Cau- 
casus. We are next to remember that these Chaldees worshipped 
fire and light, under the name of Aur, Ur, Ar, or Our, all words of 
the same sound, and varied only in'spelling or in writing, by dif- 
ferent nations; so that whether we find Aurite or Ourite, the 
meaning is the same. The following are testimonies to our purpose: 
“Upon the banks of the great river Ind 
The southern Scuthz dwelt: which river pays 
Its watery tribute to that mighty Sea, 
Styl’d Erythrean. Far removed its source, 
Amid the stormy cliffs of Caucasus : 
Descending thence through many a winding vale, 
It separates vast nations. To the west 
The Orite live. 
“Meaning that the Auritae live west of the source of the Indus, 
in Mount Caucasus; which the reader will find agrees with our 
position of Kedem. This is Mr. Bryant’s version of a passage in 
the poet Dionysius.!_ Mr. Bryant says,? ‘The Chaldeans were the 
most ancient inhabitants of the country called by their name; there 
are no other principals, to whom we may refer their original. They 
seem to have been the most early constituted and settled of any 
people on earth, and to be the only people who did not emigrate at 
the general dispersion. They extended to Egypt west, and east- 
ward to the Ganges.’ 
“But we think, by means of Capt. Wilford’s account of Cauca- 
sus”’’ (formerly referred to), “we, may conceive without much 
danger of error, of the Sanscreet Chasas, C’hasyas, and the Scrip - 
ture Chasdim as being closely related, if not the same people, 
1 Anc, Myth. vol. iii. p, 226, 2 Obs. 253. 
* Which extended from India to the shores of the Mediterranean and Euxine 
