who wrote by his inspiration, not for himself, but for the faithful in after ages, to leave on record a map, by which, when the proper time comes, the exact locality of paradise may be again identified. Meanwhile, in general, the most learned and laborious researches seem to fix it down to some part of the region which the Euphrates and its hundred streams water, as they fall into the Persian Gulf.' With this very early connection of Cush, with the rivers which rise in Eden and water Paradise, we cannot err much in fixing upon the country lying at the head of the Persian Gulf, as the early home of Ham's eldest son. This country was originally called Khuzistan or Cushistan, and is the same as the Roman province of Susiana. The land of Havilah, mentioned also in connection with Eden, as watered by the Pison; and again in Gen. xxv., as one of the boundaries of Ishmael's territories, is the tract of Arabia near the Persian Gulf, commonly called Bahrein. This district was anciently watered, as we learn from Pliny, by a branch of the Euphrates, which diverged from its other channels, and fell into the Persian Gulf nearly opposite the Bahrein Islands, the principal of which is still called Aval. Here are the Chaulotheii of Eratosthenes identified with the Beni Khaled of the present day; and the Chaldei of Pliny, and from this country, we may, I think, legitimately suppose, than the Chaldeans came, who were brought by the Assyrians from the wilderness: see Isaiah xxiii. 13 : who like the other children of Ham, were deeply versed in magical arts; (Daniel i. 4; ii. 2. &c.) and who afterwards obtained the government of the country, and in the person of Nebuchadnezzar, executed the righteous vengeance of the Lord on his idolatrous people. The encampments of the Beni Khaled are still

found on both sides of the Euphrates, in the neighbourhood of Basra.* From Khuzistan, the early descendants of Cush seemed to have proceeded southward to Arabia, which they colonized largely, and where their settlements still remain in spite of the onward pressure of the Shemite families of Joktan, Ishmael, Esau, and the children of Keturah, by whom the great bulk of the Cushites were driven across the Red Sea, to their destined home in Africa. In Arabia only, do we find traces of Sabtah and Sabtecah the sons of Cush, and the whole peninsular abounds with names of which the words Ham and Cush form integral parts. Thus Oman is called by the Arabs Ammon, the well-known name of Ham, and on its iron bound coast, near the river Ammon, lies a tract of land called by Pliny, the land of Ham, (now Maham). In the fifth Century of our era, the Himayarites in the south of Arabia, were styled by Syrian writers, Cushoeans and Ethiopians. Indeed we find from the valuable Himayarite inscriptions so lately discovered near Aden, that the language called Ethiopic closely resembles in writing the old characters of the tongue of South Arabia, which lends great credit to the supposition that Habesh was peopled from that peninsula; in Job xxviii. 19, mention is made of the topaz of Ethiopia. The Isle of Topazes still keeps its name in the Red Sea, and was the frequent resort of the Cushites, who were famous for their love of commerce. The settlements destroyed by the Simeonites, 1 Chron. iv. 39-41 must have been Cushite, as it is

* According to the well known Assyrian custom of compulsory colonization after conquest, Samaria was peopled by Kuthites, brought most probably from Khuzistan. The Samaritans were thence called Kuthites, and the non Semitic words in their dialect called Cuthean. This is the opinion of Mr. Forster, to whose most interesting work on the Historical Geography of Arabia, I am much indebted for the materials of this paper.

expressly stated that they of Ham dwelt there of old. Moses' Midianitish wife is called by Miriam and Aaron a Cushite. Zerah, the Ethiopian, mentioned in 2 Chron. xiv. 12-15, must have been a dweller in Arabia, as he fled to Gerar which lay on the borders of the Amalekites and Ishmaelites; and, in 2 Chron. xxi. 16, mention is expressly made of the Arabians that were near the Ethiopians. Not to mention other reasons for considering Arabia as Eastern Cush, we may add, that the Chaldee paraphrast Jonathan, at Gen. x. 6, and another paraphrast at 1 Chron. i. 8, explain Cush by Arabia. We find from Jer. xiii. 23, that the Cushites were black: we know that their African descendants are so at the present time; but it is, perhaps, not so generally known, that a tribe of Bedaweens, called the Dowaser Arabs, found in the land of Omar, are also black. Their gigantic forms and sable features distinguish them from their Shemite neighbours, and point them out as most likely the Sabeans, men of stature (Isa. xlv. 14), destined at some future day to swell the triumphs of Israel. We know not when the Cushite emigration to Africa took place, probably it was continually going forward from the earliest periods. We know, however, that, in the time of Moses, African Ethiopia had risen to an important kingdom, for we learn from Josephus, that Moses, as Pharaoh's general, defeated the Ethiopians, and drove them to Meroë. We know also, that the Ethiopians worshipped Ammon, that their government was in the hands of the priests, and that they were alternately conquerors of, and conquered by Egypt. Now having, as we hope, proved that Cush was an Asiatic, as well as an African power, it remains to be considered to which of these countries the Holy Scriptures allude, and here we may lay down one very simple rule for the

guidance of the young student of Scripture, viz. that when either in history or prophecy Cush is spoken of in connection with Egypt or Lybia, as in Ezek. xxx. 5, African Ethiopia, or Abyssinia, is allied to, but where it is mentioned with Midian, or other Arabian tribes, as Hab. iii. 7, then Asiatic Ethiopia or Arabia is intended. Thus, we find in Zeph. iii. 10, that the Jews are to be brought from beyond the rivers of Cush; from Gen. ii. we find the names of these rivers, and from Rev. xvi. 12, we learn that the Euphrates, the chief of them, is to be dried up for the triumphant march of the kings of the East. Fearing to make my chapter too long, I must reserve what more is to be gathered from Scripture, as to the future destiny of Cush, till I comé to treat in another chapter of his son Raamah and his children.

X. Y. Z.

FRAGMENTS.

THE THINGS THAT ARE.

THE closing of a stormy night-the wrecks
Of many tempests stranded on the shore
Of Time's mysterious sea-and yet no break,
No far blue vista in the storm-tost drifts
Of clouds that gather blackness ever and aye
Close round the wild horizon. If a star
With trembling light, and that the light of tears,
Gleams for a moment through the vault of gloom,
The swift clouds envying Hope's sweet messenger,
Quick shifting dim its radiance, and the void
Of darkness reigns supreme. Perchance, anon,
A meteor with its dazzling train shoots by,
And hurries into nothingness-a dream
Of dying human glory—a bright torch
To light ambition to its starless tomb.-
Once more the eye looks up as if in fear
Of that which shall be, for the lightnings now
Are all abroad upon the winds of night,
Writing, in vivid characters of flame,
Truths words might never utter, truths intense,
Of man's strange destiny and future worlds
Prophetic-brief their tale, as it is bright;
And after them, dim thunder sounds far off,
Like waters, or the wail of nations come,

From the lone caverns of chill shadowy mountains,