On the same side of Arabia, the city called Rhegma (the term by which the Septuagint translates Raamah), on the shore of the Persian gulf, mentioned by Ptolemy, is supposed to point out the place of Raamah's habitation.* Michaelis places the city of Raamah in Arabia Felix; and says it was a place of great trade, whose inhabitants were very black. The merchants of Sheba and Raamah, they were thy merchants: They occupied thy fairs with chief of all spices, and with all precious stones and gold.'+ And a little to the eastward on the same coast, another city called Dedan, the Daden of modern times, ascertains the settlement of Dedan, the son of Raamah and the brother of Sheba.+ The situation of Dedan was admirably fitted for the trade to India, which, as may be inferred from the language of the prophet, his descendants prosecuted with spirit and success: The men of Dedan were thy merchants: many isles were the merchandise of thy hand they brought thee for a present horns of ivory and ebony.' It is generally agreed that the horn mentioned in this text is the horn of the fish Monoceros, which is very like ivory, and which gave : Josephus, changed its name into Meroe, in honour of his sister. But besides that, the best historians assert, that Cambyses built Meroe on a spot where no town had existed before, and named it after his mother, Bochart assigns the following reasons, to prove that it was situated, not in Africa, but in the southern extremity of Arabia Felix. First, Sheba was commonly called by the orientals, the south country, and hence our Lord spoke according to the common fashion, when he called the Queen of Sheba the Queen of the South. Second, The Queen of Sheba in Arabia Felix, might be most properly said to come from the utmost parts of the earth (land), for these Sabeans occupied the remotest parts of Southern Arabia; whereas, the Ethiopians in Meroe had several nations to the south of them in Africa. Third, Arabia Felix abounded much more in gold and spices than Ethiopia is said to do. See also Edinburgh Evangelical Magazine, 1803.]-Editor. * Bochart. Phaleg. lib. iv. c. 7, p. 220, and c. 8, p. 221. + Ezekiel xxvii. 22. Bochart. Phal. lib. iv. c. 5, p. 218, and c. 6, p. 219. rise to the fable of the unicorn. The Monoceros is a native of the Indian seas. * On the same line of coast to the northward, stood the city of Saphtha, which so nearly resembles Sabtah, the name of another son of Cush, that he may reasonably be supposed to have settled in this district. Still farther to the north, along the river Pison (as we have shown already), lay the possessions of his brother Havilah. This fact has been ascertained from the names which ancient writers give to the inhabitants of the country, the Chautolæi, or Chablasii, or Chaulasii; all which are manifestly derived from Chavilah The possessions of Sabteca, another son of Cush, are omitted by the sacred writers, because these parts of Arabia lying next to the land of Canaan, are comprehended in the general allotment of Cush his father, who probably settled with him in this region.+ Dr Wells supposes that the descendants of Sabteca might be from him regularly enough styled at first by the Greeks Sabtacæni; which name might be afterwards softened into Saraceni: by which name, it is well known, the people of this tract were formerly denominated. And this, he thinks, is the more probable, because Stephanus mentions a country in those parts called Saruca. Bochart insists that the Saracens derive their name from Sarak, which in Arabic signifies to steal or rob; and that this name was given these people as being addicted to robbery. And perhaps, adds Dr Wells, this might be the reason of changing the original name Sabtaceni, into the nickname Saraceni. In whatever light the reader is disposed to view the conjectures of these learned writers, it must be admitted, that they perfectly correspond with the character and practices of the Saracens from the beginning of their history as a people. The true situation of Mizraim, the second son of * Michaelis Spicil. part i. p. 206. Ham, in the genealogy of Moses, is clearly determined in the Hebrew text; where the term Mizraim is generally employed to denote the land of Egypt. His family consisted of seven sons; the eldest of whom was Ludim, the father of the Ethiopians in Africa. That these Ethiopians are the Ludim, and their country the Lud of the sacred writers, is evident from the character which they give of that people: they are very skilful in drawing the bow ;'* an art in which, according to many writers of antiquity, the Ethiopians were eminently distinguished. Again, the prophet Isaiah, in the passage quoted in the margin, speaks of Phut and Lud as if they were two adjoining nations. But Phut may be considered as denoting the city and country of Philæ, not far from Syene on the borders of Ethiopia. It is also worthy of remark, that the prophets Jeremiah and Ezekiel join Lud or Ludim with Cush and Phut. But by Cush these inspired writers mean Arabia, together with the opposite coast of Africa; and by Phut, as shall be shown immediately, the inhabitants of the country beyond Cyrene; therefore, by Lud, may be meant the Ethiopians, who are the same with the Abyssinians, that lie nearly between the two former. The kingdom of Lydia, in the Lesser Asia, as it is rendered in our version, it cannot be; for that country is at too great a distance from Cush and Phut, to admit of co-operation. + The learned Bochart places the Anamim, in the country about the temple of Jupiter Ammon; and in confirmation of his opinion, observes, that Herodotus expressly asserts the Ammonians to be descendants partly of the Egyptians, and partly of the Ethiopians. From these Anamim or Ammonii, the same writer thinks the Nazamones, with their neighbours, the *Isaiah lxvi. 19; Jeremiah xlvi. 9. + Bocharti. Phaleg. lib. iv. c. 26, p. 263; Wells' Geography, vol. i. p. 104. Amantes, the Garamantes, and the Hammanantes, mentioned by several ancients, are descended.* The Lehabim, an adjoining nation, probably settled in the country of Libya Proper, or as it has been called Cyreniaca; and the Naphtuhim, towards Egypt, in the neighbouring country of Marmarica. The situation of the latter, is partly confirmed by some remainder of the name, in a place called Aptuchifanum. This opinion receives some countenance from the heathen fables, in which Aptuchus or Aphtuchus, is said to be the son of Cyrene, from whom the city and country of Cyrene took its name.‡ The Pathruism, or descendants of Pathros, mentioned next by Moses, are the inhabitants of Upper Egypt or Thebais, where Ptolemy places Pathyris, an inland town, not far from Thebes. Of this opinion were the Seventy interpreters; for they render the Hebrew term Pathros, by the Greek Pathyris.§ The Casluhim probably settled in the country on the other side of Egypt, named Casiotis, where also mount Casius is placed; both retain somewhat of the name Casluhim. But the situation of this people is placed beyond a doubt by the remark of Moses, that from them sprang the Philistines, who, in process of time, seized on a narrow stripe of country in Palestine, stretching along the shores of the Mediterranean, and made a conspicuous figure in the subsequent history of that interesting part of the earth.|| The Caphtorim were situated near to the Casluhim : for they are placed next to each other in the sacred text; and the Philistines, who are said to be descended from the Casluhim, ¶ are in another passage denoted * Bochart. Phaleg. lib. iv. c. 30, p. 284. + See Michaelis Spicil. part i. p. 262; Wells' Hist. Geog. vol. i. p. 106. Bochart. Phaleg. lib. iv. c. 28, p. 279. § Ibid. c. 27, p. 274; Michaelis Spicil. part i. p. 271; Wells' Hist. Geog. vol. i. p. 106. 1 Wells' Hist. Geog. vol. i. p. 107. ¶ Genesis x. 14. by the name of Caphtorim.* Hence it may be inferred that these two nations were near neighbours; and, united in the closest bonds of peace and amity, were at last blended into one people.t The name of Caphtor seems to be preserved in an old city of Egypt called Coptus. From this name the Christians in Egypt are still called Cophtes or Copts, and the whole country Egyptus, for Ægophtus, or the land of Coptus. The inheritance of Phut, the only remaining son of Ham, is placed, with great probability, in the region adjoining to the western border of Cyrene. For, in Africa, properly so called, below Adrumetum, was a city named Putea, mentioned by Pliny; and in Mauritania, into the western parts of which the possessions of Phut extended to some length, is a river mentioned by Ptolemy, called Phut. Jerome asserts that the river still retained the name in his time, and extended it to the whole country round, which from it was called the country of Phut. These are the plantations of the sons of Noah; and in this manner was the earth divided among the renovated nations, after their expulsion from the vale of Shinar. * Deuteronomy ii. 23; see also Jeremiah xlvii. 4. + Wells' Hist. Geog. vol. i. p. 107. + Michaelis Spicil. part i. p. 166; Bochart. Phal. lib. iv. cap. 33, p. 294. |
