yet most mysterious of nations. In the earliest traditions of nearly all the more civilized nations of antiquity, the name of this distant people is found. The annals of the Egyptian priests were full of them; the nations of inner Asia, on the Euphrates and Tigris, have interwoven the fictions of the Ethiopian with their own traditions of the conquests and wars of their heroes; and, at a period equally remote, they glimmer in Greek mythology. When the Greeks scarcely knew Italy and Sicily by name, the Ethiopians were celebrated in the verses of their poets; they are the remotest nation, the most just of men; the favorites of the gods. The lofty inhabitants of Olympus journey to them, and take part in their feasts; their sacrifices are the most agreeable of all that mortals can offer.' And when the faint gleam of tradition and fable gives way to the clear light of history, the luster of the Ethiopians is not diminished. They still continue the object of curiosity and admiration, and the pen of cautious, clear-sighted historians often places them in the highest rank of knowledge and civilization."* Some abatement must be made from these remarks, in view of the fact that the ancients applied the term Ethiopian to the black inhabitants of the Indian peninsula, as well as to the natives of interior Africa. Thus Herodotus says, "The eastern Ethiopians have straight hair, while they of Lybia are more woolly-haired than any other people in the world."+ But these Ethiopians proper-the 'black, woolly-haired race, whose home was to the south of Egypt-figure in ancient history as a nation great and powerful in arts, in commerce, and in arms. The ancient Egyptians in their geographical distri bution of mankind, made four leading races-the Red or ruddy complexion, which was their own type, extending also over Arabia to Mesopotamia-the Yellow or tawny, such as the Canaanites the White, skirting the northern shore of Africa and the opposite coast of Europe, and the Black, occupying territory to the South. All these are to be seen distinctly drawn and colored upon the monuments and tombs of Egypt. *Heeren, Researches, vol. iv. + B. 7, c. 70. See copies of these monumental types, and maps of their distribution, in Brugsch Geographische Inscriften, Altägypt. Denkmäler, Vol. II. The Ethiopians or Cushites sometimes appear there as captives gracing the triumph of an Egyptian Pharaoh. But it is a fact well established, that in the seventh century before Christ, Ethiopian kings reigned over Egypt for fifty years; and that centuries before, the Ethiopians were a famous and powerful nation, disputing the supremacy of Egypt in arts as well as in arms. So profound an historian as Niebuhr gives it as his opinion that the hieroglyphic writing, and "all that we afterwards find as Egyptian civilization "* originated with the Ethiopians. Lepsius reverses this opinion, and traces the civilization of Ethiopia to Egypt. Be that as it may, the fact remains, that within the tropics, south of Egypt, and stretching from the Red Sea westward toward the desert, in what is now the region of Nubia, Sennaar, Kardofan, there was for centuries a civilized state of native Ethiopians, Cushites, the direct 'descendants of Ham. The capital of their kingdom was Meröe, built upon a large island formed by two main branches of the Nile, or made an island by the overflow. Numerous pyramids and remains of temples, especially of the great temple of Jupiter Ammon, still testify to the grandeur and wealth of this Ethiopian city. Meröe was a principal depot of the caravan trade between India, Africa, and Europe. The treasures of India and Arabia were brought to ports of Ethiopia, [Adule and Azub], on the Red Sea, opposite Arabia Felix, and thence were transported by caravans to Meröe, and with the exchange of commerce were forwarded to Egypt and even to Carthage. It was of this people and their country that Herodotus wrote, "Where the South declines towards the setting sun, lies the country called Ethiopia, the last inhabited land in that direction. There gold is obtained in great plenty, huge elephants abound, with wild trees of all sorts, and ebony; and the men are taller, handsomer, and longer-lived than anywhere else." This is confirmed by the prophet Isaiah, who says, "The labor of Egypt, i. e. the produce of its labor, and merchandise or the gains of Ethiopia and of the Sabeans, men of stature, shall come ever unto thee." Sabeans is another name for Ethiopians, from Saba, * Lectures on Ethnography, 2, 341. + B. 3, c. 114. the son of Cush. Isaiah knew Ethic pia as a land of merchandise, and its inhabitants as "men of stature.”* The native Nubians still answer to this description. The finest physique I ever saw was that of Hassan the Nubian, my pilot on the Nile,-tall, stalwart, well-proportioned, dignified, intelligent, graceful,-yet "black he stood as Night."+ As far back as the time of Job we find Ethiopia known as a land of precious stones. "The topaz of Ethiopia shall not equal wisdom." The Ethiopians not only sent out caravans, but established commercial ports in various parts of the world, as in modern times English and Dutch merchants have established factories in India, China, and Japan. The wealth and power of Ethiopia are strikingly portrayed by Isaiah in the 18th chapter of his prophecy,-where the English reader should follow the marginal readings of the received version, which now have the sanction of the best scholars. It is a land the moving of whose ships, or the noise of whose armies, is like rustling wings; a land that sends out ambassadors or commercial envoys by sea; a people that navigate the rivers in boats of papyrus; a people out-spread and polished,-or tall and imposing, as Herodotus describes them; a people terrible from their beginning onwards; having a name in history as a nation that meteth out and treadeth down-trampling its enemieswhose land the rivers spoil; i. e. tear by the violence of floods and cataracts. Gesenius, who is still the highest authority upon Isaiah, makes the subject of this 18th chapter the people and kingdom of Tirhaka in Upper Egypt, which comprised both Ethiopia and Egypt. Where the English version reads "scattered and peeled," he translates rüstigen und tapfernrobust or vigorous and valiant or courageous. Instead of "a nation meted out and trodden down" he translates in the active sense, dem starken, alles zermalmenden Volke-to the lusty, allcrushing nation. In this reading he is followed substantially by Alexander and others. In his Thesaurus, Gesenius allows the meaning "drawn out," in v. 2, as given in the margin of the English version as the alternative of scattered. "The * Isaiah xlv, 14. Egypt, Past and Present, p. 39. Ethiopians are called in Isaiah xviii, 2, a people drawn out, extended, i. e. tall of stature, a quality ascribed to them. Isaiah xlv, 14, Herodotus 3, 20." There can be no doubt that the Ethiopians were a stalwart race, terrible in war. The character of the Ethiopians appears in their proud answer to the Persian invader, Cambyses, who, having conquered Egypt, sent ambassadors to Ethiopia as spies: "Go tell your king he is not a just man-else he had not coveted a land not his own, nor brought slavery on a people who never did him. any wrong. Bear him this bow"-a long, tough weapon, in the use of which the Ethiopians excelled-" and say, the king of the Ethiops thus advises the king of the Persians-when the Persians can pull a bow of this strength thus easily, then let them come with an army of superior strength against the long lived Ethiopians-till then, let them thank the gods that they have not put it into the heart of the sons of the Ethiops to covet countries which do not belong to them." Such were the Ethiopians 2400 years ago-tall, noble, independent, resolute, wealthy, powerful, able to bring 200,000 warriors into the field, ready to fight against injustice and oppression,though they were only "the accursed seed of Ham," with the blackest skin and the woolliest hair of any people. So clearly is it established upon the evidence of history, that black menthe seed of Ham, with all the physical characteristics of the negro race, can form and maintain a civilized and commercial state upon the continent of Africa and under a tropical sun. The conquest of Egypt by the Ethiopians in the year 715 B. C., has already been referred to;-the Ethiopian dynasty in Egypt continued until 665 B. C. In the grand temple of Medenet-Abou, upon the western bank of Thebes, are sculptures commemorating the victories of Taharuka-the Tirhakah of the scriptures-the greatest of these Ethiopian conquerors of Egypt. He is represented as offering up his vanquished enemies at the shrine of Jupiter Ammon, and among these are captives from Phenicia. The land of Cush or Ethiopia, which in earlier monuments appears at the head of countries conquered by Egyptian Pharaohs, here stands forth with Egypt as its cap tive. Strabo states that this Tirhakah extended his victories even to the pillars of Hercules. The Assyrian invader of Israel, Sennacherib, began to retreat with his immense army, when he heard that Tirhakah, king of Ethiopia, was coming to the help of Hezekiah. Such was the military fame of Ethiopia. "Even as late as the time of the Ptolemies," says Niebuhr, "Meröe was a wealthy city of a great state." In addition to this unquestioned Ethiopian dynasty in Egypt, the XXV, the kings of dynasty XVIII, the most illustrious in Egyptian history, were half Ethiopian in their descent. The priests of Memphis told Herodotus that there had been in all eighteen Ethiopian kings in Egypt. "The kings of dynasty XVIII, all reigned over Nubia as well as Egypt, and its founder was connected by origin and intermarriage with Nubian and even with black Nubian blood. This Nubian connection of the dynasty explains in some degree the great development given in some monuments and documents to the genealogy derived from Ameneruhe I. It explains also the wide-spread notion of later times, that the monarchy, civilization, and religion of Egypt had descended the valley of the Nile from Ethiopia, that is, from Nubia to Thebes."* In the time of Christ we find Ethiopia still a prominent kingdom, under the dynasty of Candace. Her lord treasurer had become a proselyte to the Jewish faith, and a little after our Lord's crucifixion, perhaps at Pentecost, went up to Jerusalem to worship. He made the journey in state, traveling the land-route from Egypt to Jerusalem with his own chariot. At Jerusalem he must have heard something of the story of Christ, and on his homeward journey he gave himself to the investigation of prophecy. At this point Philip, prompted by the Spirit, drew nigh. With what dignity and courtesy the Ethiopian receives him! With what intelligence and humility he listens to the exposition of the scriptures! And how touching the sight, when the inspired evangelist goes down to the water-side with the princely Ethiopian to baptize him in the name of Christ! May we not accept this as a joyful omen * Palmer's Egyptian Chronicles, Vol. I, p. 174. |