JAPETIC STOCK. 247 



family of languages, have arisen purely from ignorance, or an extremely 

 superficial acquaintance with that language ; and that every person com- 

 petent to form an opinion, knows that Coptic and Hebrew have not the 

 slightest radical affinity ; and that, although some words occur in the 

 former which resemble Semitic vocables, they are to be attributed to the 

 influence which the proximity and intercourse of Semitic nations has 

 exercised on the idiom of the native Egyptians. 



That the Coptic is essentially the language which was spoken in 

 Egypt before and during the time of Moses, although it has undergone 

 many modifications during the succession of ages, and through the influ- 

 ence of various causes, is generally admitted. Many Coptic words have 

 been recognised in the Book of Genesis, not as Hebrew words, but as 

 borrowed terms, to denominate some of the natural productions of Egypt, 

 and the local peculiarities of that country a circumstance corroborative 

 of the opinion.* 



If the ancient Egyptians, or Mizrai'm of the Scriptures, be regarded as 

 constituting a branch (though not a normal branch) of the Caucasian or 

 Iranian stock, to the same stock the ancient Ethiopians, or Cush, must 

 also be referred, since the consanguinity of the two people is allowed by 

 all authorities. Each nation, indeed, claimed the distinction of the elder, 

 the honours of the parent stock, whence the other had branched off, 

 so that Cush and Mizraim were rivals as well as brothers.-)- 



Under the general term Coptic, are included the Bashirjc, or Memphitic dialect; the Sahidic, or 

 Theban, and the Bashmuric. Both the Memphitic and Sahidic dialects have been long extinct ; the 

 latter was, however, in use in the ninth century of the Hegira, but the former had generally ceased to 

 be spoken in the twelfth century of our era. The Sahidic was much softer than the Memphitic, desti- 

 tute of harsh aspirations, and intermixed more fully with Greek words. At what period the Scriptures 

 were translated into Memphitic and Sahidic is not very clear. Georgi and Michaelis consider that a 

 translation in the dialect of Upper Egypt existed in the third century. Of the Bashmuric nothing is 

 accurately known ; according to the Coptic grammarians, and among them Athanasius, Bishop of Kris, 

 it was a distinct language from the Coptic, or, at least, had little in common with either of the above 

 dialects. Georgi, however, considers it to have been that of the Ammonians, and identical with a 

 dialect intermediate between the Memphitic and Sahidic, the only relic of which is preserved in the frag- 

 ment of a version of the New Testament, and part of the First Epistle to the Corinthians, now in the 

 library of Cardinal Borgia. Though this newly-discovered dialect may be the Ammonian, it is not 

 likely, if we credit the statements of the Coptic grammarians, that it is the Bashiric, or Psammyrian. 

 The Ammonians were converted to Christianity in the reign of Justinian, and were under the ecclesias- 

 tical government of a bishop, certainly in the year 553. They inhabited the Oasis of Augila, and, as 

 Herodotus says, were " a colony of mingled Egyptians and Ethiopians, using a language compounded 

 from those of both people :" their name had reference to Ammoun, or Jupiter, whom they specially 

 worshipped. The utter loss of an army sent against the Ammonians by Cambyses, which was over- 

 whelmed by a whirlwind of sand in the desert, is related by the same author. 



t " The name of Cush," says Dr. Prichard, " in the Hebrew Scriptures, is rendered by the 

 Septuagint Ai&oTrer, or Ethiopians. The people generally so termed in Egypt were the Ethiopians 

 of Meroe, the subjects of Queen Can dace ; but the same name, as we learn from its use by Diodorus, 

 was extended to some of the neighbouring nations, but always restricted to black people. Cush, in 

 the older historical parts of the Old Testament, is, however, applied evidently to nations living to the 

 eastward of the Red Sea. Hence an ambiguity of meaning in some passages. The subject has been 

 discussed by Bochart and Michaelis. Among the Hebrew writers of later times, there can be no 

 doubt that this name belongs exclusively to African nations. The Ethiopians, who were connected 

 with Egypt by political relations, are termed by these writers Cush. Thus Tirkahah, the Cushite 

 invader of Judah, may be identified with Tearchon, an (Ethiopian chief mentioned by Strabo, and 



