In tha Bible a Cushite appears undoubtedly to be ] all accounts agree: they were warlike, as, for instance, equivalent to a negro, from this passage, " Can the , we equally see in the defiance the Ethiopian king sent
to Caml)3'ses (Heiod. iii, 21), and in the charac- WI3P-^ Ai'iicr teristic inscription at Kalab'sheh of Silco, " king QiamXinKoc) of the Nubadse and all the Ethiopi- ans" {Modern Epypt and Thehes, ii, 311, 312), who is to be regarded as a very late Ethiopian king or chief in the time of the Roman empire. The ancients, from Homer downwards, describe them as a happy and pious race. In the Bible they are spoken of as "secure" or "careless" (Ezek. XXX, 9), but this maj' merely refer to their state when danger was impending.
Probablv the modern inhaliitants of Ethiopia give us a far better picture of their predecessors than we can gather from the few notices to which v,e have alluded. If we compare the Nubians with the representations of the ancient Egyptians on the monuments, we are struck by a similarity of type, the same manner of wearing the hair, and a like scantiness of clothing. There can be
Aucient Ktliioi i-inn, ns siippliant.-^.—Froni tha K^viitian Munu- ments. (The first cut shows their eoloK)
ETHIOPIA
328
ETHIOPIA
no question that the Nubians arc mainly descended from an Egyptianized Ethiopian people of two thou- sand 3'ears ago, who were very nearly related to the Egyptians. The same may be said of many tribes further to the south, although sometimes we find the Arab type and Arab manners and dress. The Ethi- opian monuments show us a people like the ancient Egyptians and the modern Nubians. The northern Nubians are a simple people, with some of the vices, but most of the vntues of savages. The chastity of their women is celebrated, and thej' are noted for their fidelity as servants. 15ut they are inhospitable and cruel, and lack the generous qualities of the Arabs. Further south manners are corrupt, and the national character is that of Egypt without its humanity, and untouched by any but the rudest civilization.
In speaking of the historj^ of the country, we may include what is known of its chronology, since this is no more than the order in which kings reigned. Un- til the time of the 12th dynasty of Egj'pt we have neither chronology nor history of Ethiopia. We can only speculate upon the earlier conditions of the coun- try with the aid of some indications in the Bible. The first spread of the descendants of Cush seems to be in- dicated by the order in which the Cushite tribes, fami- lies, or heads are enumerated in Gen. x. All the names, excepting Nimrod, might be thought to indi- catfe a colonization of Southern and Eastern Arabia, were there not good reason to suppose that Seba, though elsewhere mentioned with Sheba (Psa. Ixxii, 10), is connected with Ethiopia, and is probabh' the Hebrew name of the chief Ethiopian kingdom from the time of Solomon downwards. (Josephus calls Meroe Saba, Atit. ii, 10, 2, and Seba of Cush he calls Sabas, ib. i, G, 2.) If this be the case, it would be re- markable that Nimrod is mentioned at the end of the list and Seba at the beginning, while the intervening names, mostly if not all, are Arabian. This distribu- tion ma}' account for the stronglj'-Caucasiantype of the Abyssinians, and the greater indication of Nigi'itian influence in all the other Ethiopian races; for a curve drawn from Nimrod's first kingdom — there can, we think, be little doubt that the meaning in Genesis is, that he went northward and founded Nineveh — and extending along the South Arabian coast, if carried into Africa, Avould first touch Abyssinia. The connec- tion of Southern Arabia and Abyssinia has been so strong for about two thousand j'ears that we must ad- mit the reasonableness of this theor}- of their ancient colonization liy kindred tribes. The curious question of the direction from which Egyptian civilization came cannot here be discussed. It is possible that it may have descended the Nile, as was, until lately, supposed by manj- critics, in accordance with statements of the Greek writers. The idea or tradition on which these •writers probably build may be due to the Nigritian origin of the low nature-worship of the old Egyptian religion, and perhaps, as far as it is picture-writing, of the hieroglyphic system, of which the characters are sometimes called Ethio])ic letters by ancient writers.
The history of Ethiopia is closel}' interwoven with that of Eg^'pt. The two countries were not unfre- quently united under the rule of the same sovereign. The first Egyptian king who governed Ethiopia was one of the 12th d_ynasty, named Osirtasen I, the Se- Fostris of Herod, ii, 110. During the occupation of Egypt by the Hyksos, the 13th dynasty retired to the Etiiiopian capitiil, Napata ; and again we find the kings of the 18th and l!)th dynasties exercising a su- premacj' over Ethiopia, and erecting numerous tem- ples, the ruins of which still exist at Semneh, Amada, Soleb, Abusimbel, and Jebel Berkel. The tradition of the successful expedition of Moses against the Ethio- pians, recorded hy Josephus (Ant. ii, 10), was doubtless founded on the general superwrity of the Egyptians at that period of their history.
Under the 12th dynasty we find the first materials