and the river Tipas, ‘ Tyras,’ of Ptolemy, flowing into the Euxine, now called Dniester,
to he its geographical, as Thuras, Mars, was its mythio, correspondent.
TIRoaS, and Proas, in western Mysia, so closely resembling each other,_ it is not
impossible that the Troad is intended by the Hebrew writer ; especially since the Teucri
were perhaps pf Thracian origin: but no reasonable objection can be raised to the
usual attribution-of Tiras; and Thrace, the Thraces, or Thracians, may be safely
assumed as the-1“ ultima Thule ” of Hebrew knowledge, towards the north, in the time
of the writer of Xth Genesis ; whose dim horizon in that direction was doubtless similar
to that of the Egyptians during the XVIIIth dynasty. Sesostris (in this narrative,
Ramses II.) had pushed his conquests into Thrace, according to Herodotus and united
classical tradition. Thriksu, ‘ Thracians,’ are recorded in hieroglyphics at the ruined
temple north of Esneh, ¿mom; the conquests of Ptolemy Evergetes I.583
Cren. x. 3. — “lOj1 — BeKI-ClMR— ‘ A f f ilia tio n s o f the Crimea.’
3. — A S K N Z — ‘ A shk en a z .’
Indo-Germanic; and, although traced to a ‘ fire that distils,’ so alien to Hebrew,
that even Rabbinical philologers abandon it, as “„obscure.” In consequence, some
perceive the parent of the Germans !
Oriental Jews call those of their co-religionists who are settled-in Germany AsTike-
nazlm, which has been confounded with the ASKNZ of Xth Genesis ; whereas the real
source of this mistake lies in their intonation of .the Indo-Germanic name, Sassenach,
Sascenak, old form of our word Saxon.
ASKIN, ISQIN, in many dialectic varieties, is the national name of the Basques ;
and inasmuch as nobody seems to know whence they came to. Biscayan neighborhoods,
we pass on this suggestive similitude as cautiously as it was given to us.
Repeated in 1 Chron. i. 6, the “ Kingdoms of Ararat, Minni, and Ashchmaz,” seem
to have been limitrophic in the time of Jeremiah — 629 to 588 b . o ..— and hence the
province termed Asikinsene by Strabo has been looked upon as its. equivalent.
The Phrygians appear to have been anciently calléd Ascanians ; and footprints of
this migratory name are traceable throughout Bithynian vicinities, in Sinus-Ascanius,
Ascanius-lacus and amnis ; and likewise in Lesser Phrygia — Ascania, and Asçaniæ-
Insuloe. Â s c a n i u s , son of Æneas, bore the original patronyme from Troas to Latium.
Bordering on the Black Sea, these Ascanian similarities receive natural explanation
through Pliny, “ Pontus Euxinus, quondam AXENUS ; ” and Eyt-eivos, the Euxine, or
Black Sea, preserves a mnemonic of Ascanians and Ashkenaz.
Rawlinson perceives analogies between Askenaz and the Arzeskan .mentioned in cuneiform
inscriptions of the Nimroud obelisk, the date of which is now assigned to about
860 b , c.
“ Pontus,” says Bochart, “ olim Ascenaz, Græcè Ai-evoç, quasi inhospitalis dictus;”
which wears very much the guise of an Hellenic play upon a foreign word. Potocki,
followed by Dubois, “ finds the Askhanaz (Rheginians of Flavius Josephus) in the My
sian-Askanians, who camé from Great-Mysia, and established themselves in the Phry
gia of Olympus : it was a Germanic colony.” May not ASKN, as Ascanian, or as Euxine
be an adjective to aJL, the Asi? .*
Suffice it for our purposes, to accept, the southern coast of the Euxine as one of tht
pristine habitats of a people called A s h k e n a z . 584
9 . n c n — R I P T f — ‘ R i p h a t h . ’
Also Indo-Germanic; not ‘medicine,’ nor ‘pardon.’
Owing to the slight distinction between the letters 1, resh, B, and 1 , daleth, D, of the
modern sguare-letter character in which the Hebrew text is written, some copyist has
bequeathed to ns a dilemma - whether the Riphath of Gel x. 3, should be Diphath,
■ or the Diphath of 1 Chron. i. 6, Riphath ! Commentators agree, however :in preferring
Biphath; and, while some, following the pseudo-Josephus, have identified the name
with Great Britain, there are many claimants for France I The LXX read t^ad, in
^ o s^ p h u s ’ restricts the name to Paphlagonia; in which country Mela places the
^ion sN iph a te s (snoWy), in Armenia, through the substitution of n for r, has learned
defenders. But the Ptn-am opv, the Riphceis montibus, and the Rhipceas placed by Pto-
lemy where no mountains exist, near his imaginary sources of the Tanais, or Don, are
the favorite localities chosen for Biphath.
To this view there are weighty objections. If the Montes Bhipxi, or Hyperborei, be
the Ural chain, they were too remote even for the vision of geographers who wrote
at least nine centuries later than the author of Gen. x. The mere accidental analogy
6f a proto-syllable— RIP-«to with R IP -aT i-w h en the second radically differs, (the
only ground upon which the hypothesis rests,) cannot be allowed as negative proof
against simpler reasons; especially when the geographical' position of the Riphman
mountains, save as the tenebrous hyperborean limit of Greek geognosy, is utterly
unknown. - . .„ .
The writer of Xth Genesis must have had some reason-, more or less scientific, for
the order in which he mapped out the nations he enumerates. In the present instance,
among the “ -affiliations of the Cimmerian," or-Crimea, he places Biphath between the
Euxine (Ashkenaz) and Armenia (Toganna); confirmed by Latin writers who station the
Rhibii east of the Euxine. .
I Riphath,” adds Dubois, from the authentic researches of Potocki, “ is the veritable
and most ancient name of the people Shlave. ESnites and Eonoriates are but transla- .
tions of a Sclavonian word which signifies honored, distinguished.” The Latins added
a letter to Enbtes; which, becoming Venetes, Venedes, Vendes, Vinides, and Wends, was
'the title of those Wendo-Shlaves from whom descended the ancient Prussians, together
■with the present Lithuanians, and -whence Venice inherits her name. . ^
Paphlagonia for the country, and Biphaces for its inhabitants, corroborated by the
opinions of Josephus end Mela, sufficiently define the position of R ip h a th .^ *
10. HD-Un — T iG B M H — I T ogarmah.’
Indo-Germanic, or Scythic; not, ‘ which is all bone ’ !
“ They of the house of Togarmah traded,’’ in the fairs of Tyre, “ with horses, horse-
men, and mules,” in the time of Ezekiel xxvn. 14; and, based upon this text, Moses
Chorenensis derives the Armenians, Georgians, &c., from T h a b g a m o s , grandson of
Noah. _ „
Its classical similitudes are visible in the Trocmi, Trogmi, about Pontus and Cappa-
docia; and, at the Council of Chalcedon, there was a bishop, rp,Xi>aSuv, of the Trog-
niades. Josephus makes Aram, Minyas; and Ehoul, adjacent to Togarmah.
M tt name of Armenia now is Arhan, identical with IRAN, Iriana, original cradle
of Persians. , .
The “ History of Georgia,” compiled1,in the reign of Vakhtang V., King of Karthli,
in 1703-21, is one of the rarest works. Dubois translates some curious extracts of
its commenc ement:-“ According to these traditions, the Armenians, the Georgians,
the inhabitants of Rani (Arran); of Movakanl (Chaki, Chinan, nn&Mougan), of IKrbthi
(Oakheth), the Lesgians, the MingreliSns,,and the Caucasians, all descend from the
same-father, who was called T h a b g am o s . . This Thargamos was the son of Tarchis, son
of Avanan, son of Japhel, son of Noah, and was a valiant man." Like Moses of Cho-
rene, in the fifth century, Vakhtang wished to hitch his local traditions on to Biblical
origins. The former historian metamorphosed the names Zrouan, Didan, and Habc