CHAPTER XII.
ON THE SUPPOSED SEAT OF PARADISE.
Probability that the country about the sources of the Euphrates and Tigris is
the seat of Paradise.—The springs and separation of four great rivers in the
heart of the Old World.—Country about Sivas, and eastward of the Euphrates.—
Country round Lakes Van and Urumiyah.—The Halys and
Araxes shown to be the Pison and Gihon of the Scriptures.—Description of
the country westward of the Euphrates.—Havilah shown to correspond to
Colchis.—Bdellium.—Country of the Cosssei.—Dissemination of the Cushites.—
The Cush of Scripture shown to be near, and eastward of Colchis.
As, in the preceding chapters, some account has been given
of the regions watered by the Euphrates and Tigris, which
are universally admitted to be two of the four rivers of Paradise,
it may not be improper here to devote a chapter to
an inquiry concerning the presumed site of the garden of
Eden, and to a short notice of the countries which, in the
Scriptures, are mentioned in connexion with it. It must
be admitted, however, that in this investigation there is
little to guide the inquirer beyond the very brief description
which is contained in the book of Genesis; and the difficulty
of the research is the greater, as the designations given in. the
scriptures must be traced among those which were imposed by
a people, whose language, in all probability, differed from that
of the Pentateuch, and who, moreover, took possession of the
tracts about the Black and Caspian seas, after those tracts
had ceased to be called by their original names. It may be
added, in order to account for the uncertainty which prevails
respecting the Pison and Gihon, that the rivers which are
presumed to have borne those designations, flow in a direction
contrary to that of the Tigris and Euphrates, and watered