26^ THE ANCIENT EGYPTIANS. CHAP. XIII. 



that Ham (Khem) colonised the lands of Cush 

 (Ethiopia), Mizraim Lower Egypt and the Thebaid* 

 Phut Libya ?, and Canaan Syria ; the four being 

 mentioned as " sons of Ham ;" which may refer 

 to the migration of an Asiatic tribe to those coun- 

 tries, and tend to confirm my opinion respecting 

 the Oriental origin of the inhabitants of the valley 

 of the Nile. Ham or Khem may have been the 

 original name of that tribe which settled in the 

 two districts called Mizraim ; and the Egyptians 

 may have retained the appellation which they had 

 as conquerors, in preference to that of the country 

 they occupied. 



The progeny of Cush is equally remarkable. 

 Cush * is the name of Ethiopia, both in Scripture, 

 and in tlie hieroglyphics of the earliest periods ; 

 and was applied to that country lying above the 

 second cataracts t, inhabited, as at present, by 

 a copper-coloured race. After the Bible has 

 enumerated the sons of Cush, it mentions an 

 offset in Nimrod, who founded the kingdom of 

 " Babel, and Erech, and Accad, and Calmeh in 

 tiie land of Shinar," from which country the Assy- 

 rian founders of Nineveh emigrated, t This con- 

 nection between an African and Asiatic Ethio- 

 pian race, is the more remarkable, as the same is 

 noticed by profane writers : the Ethiopian Mem- 



* In Hebrew it signifies " blackness," therefore applied to the " black 

 country," like the word Ethiopia. 



f Tirhakah was King of Cush. 2 Kings, xix. 9. The capital of Tir- 

 hakah's dominion was at El Berkcl, the ancient Napata. Sulpitius 

 Severus calls him Tirchac. 



:|: Genes, x. 8. 10. 



