Mizraim and
Thoth.
The Sukkims,
&c. of Scripture.
doubtless, also, with a knowledge from tradition of the fertility
of those regions, it is not surprising that the followers of
Mizraim and his son Thoth should have crossed the straits of
Bab-el-Mandeb by means of boats or rafts, to the western
shores of the Red Sea. After peopling this tract, which was
at first regarded as part of Arabia,1 and spreading into the
interior, they at length arrived on the banks of the Nile or
Cali, giving the name of Sanc’ha-dwipa to the country. This
was Cusha-dwipa (without), and included Ethiopia and Abyssinia:
his (Charma’s) descendants were called in the Sanscrit
Hasyasilas, and in the spoken dialects, Hasyas and Habashi.2
By those descendants of Charma, the African Negroes are
meant, and they are supposed to have been the first inhabitants
of Abyssinia, or the Sukkims of Scripture,3 because after
quitting Arabia, or Cusha-dwipa, to cross over, they dwelt as
Troglodytes in sucas,4 or dens on the opposite side: and it may
be added, the Abyssinians say that they came from Arabia.6
But, adds Lieutenant Wilford, it is probable that the posterity
of Pingacsha (Phoenicians), or the Yellow Hindus, divided,
and proceeded in two bodies, the one to Phoenicia, and the
other along the Arabian shores.6
The region called Sanc’ha-dwipa, in a confined sense,
meant the whole of the eastern shore; whilst, in a more extensive
acceptation, it comprised all Africa,^ being the last
place to which the name of Cush has been applied: and the
former, or Cusha-dwipa (within), extended from the shore of the
Mediterranean and the mouth of the Nile, to the district of
Sirhind, on the borders of Hindustan.7
It appears that the inhabitants of Arabia and of the eastern
parts of Africa, were, in early times, intimately connected; for
the Homeritse and the Sabsei, according to Procopius, were
1 See Lieut. Wilford on Egypt and other Countries, from the Ancient
- Books of the Hindus : Asiatic Researches, vol. I I I .
2 Ibid., pp. 302, 313, 330. 3 2 Chron., chap. X I I ., v. 3.
4 I t is probable that the word Sucas signified an arbour or booth, as well
as a den, though it was originally taken in the sense of a cave, from Sanc'ha.
—Asiatic Researches, vol. I I ., p. 342.
5 Michaelis, Spicilegium Hebrte, p. 147.
6 Asiatic Researches, p, 322. 7 Ibid., p. 301.
one and the same people, being merely separated by the Red
Sea; 1 and Meroe itself once bore the name of Saba.2
One branch of the Sabseans under the name of Agaazi, Arabians and
, n j Abyssinians founded Axum, the capital of Habesh, where they were found the same
at a later period still speaking the dialect of Geez, which is peopIe-
pure Arabic: they also claimed to descend from the Arabians,3
and used the Axumitic, or Amharic nail-headed characters.4
Moreover, Ludolphus states, that their ancient language, which
we call Ethiopia, approaches very nearly to the Arabic,
without being so much like it as to denote a late transmigration.
And the people themselves resemble the Arabs in complexion,
as well as in following many of their customs.5 It is remarkable
that the name of Habashi, which is applied to the people
in this part of Africa, is to be found in Sanscrit ;6 and the circumstance
indicates an eastern or Assyrian origin.
From Habesh, the tide of emigration was evidently northward,
along the valley of the Nile ; for, according to tradition, Egypt peopled
Osiris led a colony from Ethiopia into Egypt, which country bys"
received from the parent state the practice of deifying kings,
together with hieroglyphical writing, the usage of embalming,
the forms of their sculptures, andthe whole sacred ri tual.7
Pritchard, in his elaborate work,8 considers that Egypt was
peopled from the regions towards the south, and this supposition
has been followed subsequently by Heeren, as well as by Jahn,9
and a recent traveller, Mr. Hoskyns, Heeren endeavours to
show that it is deducible from monumental evidence, as well as
from written testimony, that in Africa, Upper Egypt was the
first seat of civilization, which was afterwards extended by
means of- colonies, sent out from thence towards the north;
also that in the same regions a priest-class was first established.10
1 Procopius, Gazaous in Comm, ad 3 Reg. X. I . to the Queen of Saba.
2 Jos., lib. I., cap. x.
3 Mich., Spicil. Geogr., lib. I ., p. 47, from Dionysius and Syncel. Chro.
4 See Ludolpli., Grammatica. Amharii, cap, I .
5 Ludolphus, Hist. Ethiop., 1.
6 Dissert, on the Babylonian Inscriptions, by Joseph Hager, D.D., p. 41.
7 Diod. Sic., lib. I I I ., cap. ii.
8 Pritchard's Physical History of Mankind, vol. I., p. 384, London, 1812.
8 Jahn’s Hebrew Commonwealth, p. 8.
10 Heeren’s African Researches, vol. I ., p. 339, et seq.