This page has been validated.
18
THE NEGRO'S ORIGIN.

have ever characterized it? Following the Hebrew idiom of naming things according to their quality, what other name would be so appropriate? It is thus the ancients have universally decided: Thus speaks the Septuagint;[1] thus speaks Josephus. [2] In the Index Biblicus of an authorized edition of the Vulgate we find this, "Æthiopia, Africœ provincia, eam circumit fluvius Gehon." After a most thorough research Gesenius says, "By the river Gihon most probably the Ethiopian Nile is to be understood, which does in fact surround Ethiopia." The identity of the Nile with the Gihon conceded, as well also from the other proofs given, the advent of Cush into Africa is assured, and the translation of the word, Ethiopia, is fully justified.

B. In regard to the advent of the son Mizraim into Africa, the Scriptures speak most definitely Indeed, Egypt is there only known by the name Mizraim. The word being dual it has been said of it, "Hence the dual Mizraim seems to have originally denoted upper and lower Egypt." Josephus says, "The memory also of the Mizraites is preserved in their name, for all who inhabit this


  1. Jer. ii. 18, Song of Sirach, xxiv. 27.
  2. Jos. B. L, 1, 3.