The following close translation of Isaiah's splendid summons (chap, xviii) to the Ethiopians, as auxilia- ries to the Egyptians in the struggle against Sennach- erib, is inserted here as graphic of many salient fea- tures of that warlike state :
llo! land of whirring wingp, That art across the rivers of Cush ;
That scndest on tlie sea ambassadors,
Kven in vessels of papyrus upon tlie face of the veatsrs. Go. je light messengers, To a nntion drafted and drilled. To a pt> jiIi; I'c.-ivl'nl hencefortli and onward,
A natinii inn-t valiant and dominant,
Whoso land rivers have split: All ye inhabitants of the world, And dwellers of the land,
At the lifting of the standard of the mountains you shall see.
And at the clanging of the trumpet you shall hear. For thus has Jehovah said to me : I will calmly look in my place —
Like serene heat above sunlight,
Like the cloud of dew in the heat of harvest; Vet before the harvest, when tlie blossom has grown perfect, Or a plump given giapi' can the flowei' become.
Then has one cut the shoots with the pruning-knives,
And the twigs has ho removed, lopped. And they shall bo left together for the buzzard of the moun- tains. And for the beast of the earth ;
And upon him shall the buzzard summer.
And every beast of tlie earth shall winter upon him. In that time shall a present be led to Jehovah of armies, Of a people drafted and drilled, Kven from a people feaiful henceforth and onward,
A nation most valiant and'dominaut,
Wliose land rivers have sjilit. To the place of the name of Jehovah of armies, Mount Zion.
The inhabitants of Ethiopia were a Hamitic race (Gen. X, C), and are described in the Bible as a dark- complexioned (Jer. xiii, 23) and stalwart race (Isa. xlv, 14, "men of stature;" xviii, 2, for "scattered," some substitute "tall"). Their stature is noticed by Herod- otus (iii, 20, 114) as well as their handsomeness. Not improbably the latter quality is intended by the term in Isa. xviii, 2, which iu the A.V. is rendered "peel- ed," but which maj' mean " tine-looking." Their ap- pearance led to their being selected as attendants in royal households (.Jer. xxxviii, 7). The Ethiopians are on one occasion coupled with the Arabians, as oc- cupying the opposite shores of the Red Sea (2 Chron. xxi, 10) ; but elsewhere they are connected with Afri- can nations, particularly Egypt (Psa. Ixviii, 31 ; Isa. XX, 3, 4: xliii,3; xlv, 14), Phut (Jer. xlvi, 9), Luli and Lud (Ezek. xxx, 5), and the Sukkiim (2 Chron. xii, 3). They were divided into various tribes, of whicn the Sabaeans were the most powerful. See Seba ; Snic-
KIIM.
The name Cush is found in the Egj-ptian kish, which is evidently a])plied to the same territor}', though we have the same difliculty in determining its limits, save on the north. The classical AiiMopia (Ai- Oimria) may have the same origin, through the Coptic ethos, of which, unless it be derived frc m t/io$, "a boundary," t'ae Sahidic form esos may Le the purest, and connect the classical with the ancient EgA'ptian name. The Greeks themselves regarded it as expres- sive of a dark complexion (from a'iOuj, " to burn," and ioil>, "a countenance"). In the Bilile there is no cer- tain notice of any Ethiopian race but Cushites.
According to Dr. Brugsch, the first country above Egypt was ta-meru-pet, cr T.v-iiEXS, corref ponding to Nubia, and extending, under the Pharaohs, at least as far south as Napata. Dr. Brugsch supposes that TA-KENS was, in the earlier times, the whole tract south of Syene under Egyptian rule [therefore gov- erned by the prince of kish, and corresponding to or included in that count) y], and, in the later times, little more than the Dodecascha?nus of the Ptolemies and Romans, the remains of the older territory (^Ge()(,ra- phische Inschriften, i, 100). As a nome. Nubia, before the formation of the Omliite Nome, included Cmbos, Silsilis being probably the first city of the Egyptian Apollinopolite Nome. Although it is not im])ossible that at Silsilis was anciently the great natural barrier of Egypt on the south, we think that this extension of Nubia was simply for purposes of government, as Dr. Brugsch seems to admit {Geogr. Inschr. i, 100). South of the Nubia of the Pharaohs he places a region of which the name perhaps reads pent-iien .'-xi'fp.e, which, however, was probably a district of the former country. Still further, and near ISIeroc, he puts the land of KisH, and in and about Meroc the land of the NEiisi or negroes. Others, however, think that KisH commenced immediately above Egypt, proba- bly always at the First Cataract, and included all the known countrj' south of Egypt, t.\-meru-pet or ta- icExs, save as a iKune, being a jjart of it, the modern Nubia. Names of conquered negro nations, tribes, or countries occur on the monuments of the empire : of these, the most suggestive are the barh-apyTA and TAKRERR (see Brugsch, Geogr. Inschr. i, 100-107, 150- 104 : ii, 4-13, 20 ; iii, 3, 4, and indices s. v. jEthiopien, Kes, etc.).
Ethiopia comprises two very different tracts. North of the region of tropical rains, it is generally an ex- tremely narrow strip of cultivated land, sometimes but a few yards wide, on both sides, or occasionally on one side only, of the Nile. Anciently the watered tract was much broader, but the giving way of a barrier at Silsilis (.Tebel es-Silsileh) or Syene (Aswan) has low- ered the level of the river for some distance above the First Cataract ; exactly how far cannot be accurately determined, but certainly for the whole space lielow the Third Cataract. The cultivable soil which was