The central Presbyterian. [volume] (Richmond, Va.) 1856-1908, 1881-04-20
Biblical Research.

DIR. Lepsius has lately published, as a
sort of excursus to his Nu6ische Gram
maatik, or Nubian Grammar, discussion
of African philology. In it he takes up
the difficult question of the Cushites
We quote the abstract in the London
Times:
"These Kushites, called in hieroglyph-
les, Kash or Kish, are separated from
Egypt proper by the old intrusive Negro
population, and, though closely connected
with the Hamitic occupants of the Nile
valley, they had migrated, SO Professor
Lepsius thinks, from Arabia by sea, with
out passing through Egypt Their origi-
nal home was in Asia, and thence they
moved on in parallel columns, with the
ancestors of the Egyptians and Libyans
toward the west, followed after a time
by their old neighbors, the Shemites.
They occupied the south of Arabia, and
then passed on to the opposite coast of
Africa. They thus became the first
great maritime nation, extending their
navigations over the Red Sea, the Persian
Gulf, and the Indian Ocean They were,
in fact, according to Lepsius, the real
ancestors of the Ph@nicians The Phm-
nicians, on the Mediterranean coast,
though they had adopted Scientific Ian
guage, were known to Herodotus as emf
grants from the coasts of the Red Sea,
and in the Bible the Canaanites are men
toned among the sons of Kush; while
IN Egyptian monuments the Southern
Kushites, both on Africa and Arabian
coasts, are known by the name of Puma
=. C., Pnni and Phenicians, the red
sailors of the Red Sea, as distinguished
from the Kefa, the Ph9nicians sailors of
the Mediterranean. In Greek mythol-
ogy KePheus is used anonymously with
Phoenix, the husband of Kassiopeia, the
daughter of Arabos These Kefa races,
originally Kushitic, are traced by Pro
fessor .Lepsius in Kepheis, the old name
Of Ethiopia, and in the Ethiopian Keep
henes, of Babylon, town founded by
Nimrod, the Kushite, the beginning Of
whose kingdom was Babel, and Erech,
and Accad, and Calneh, in the land OF
Shinar." The Chaldeans of Babylon are
called Kephenes by Hellanicus, while
Kush (Ethiopia), compassed by the
Gihon, must be in Mesopotamia, where
Herodotus, too, knows of the country Of
the Kissians.
After thus tracing the presence Of
the Kushites in Asia, Arabia, Ethiopia,
and Ph@nicia, Professor Lepsius takes
another step, AID boldly declares the
civilization of Babylon as the work OF
Kushite colonists, who carried the seeds
Of Egyptian culture back from Africa to
Asia This fact is reported in the legend
OF Cannes, the fshman-i. e., the sailor
from the Red Sea, who taught the Baby
lonians the arts, of civilized life. Reject
ing as altogether fanciful the theory of
Turanian or Accadian civilization
anterior to that Of Babylon, Professor
Lepsius holds that the hieroplyphics
from which the cuneiform alphabets are
derived were Egyptian, that the Baby
onian astronomy was Egyptian, the
Babylonian measures Egyptian. the
Babylonian architecture Egyptian, their
temples, pyramids, obelisks, all imper-
feet limitations of Egyptian models
Here the gauntlet has been thrown down
to nearly the whole army of Babylonian
scholars, and we may look forward be-
fore long to a lively combat between
them and their bold assailant. 1t is a
pity that Professor Lepsius should not