CHAPTER II.

THE ETHIOPIANS.

SECTION I.-Geographical Outline. Natural History.

THE eastern districts above the Nile, now called Núbia and Sennáar, have been possessed from a remote age by two different races, the Ethiopian and the Arabian, which are even now but partially blended. The country is full of historical monuments, chiefly erected on the banks of the Nile. There were, in these countries above Egypt, all the gradations from the complete savage to the hunting and fishing tribes, and from them to the wandering herdsman and shepherd; but there was also a civilized Ethiopian people, dwelling in cities, possessing a government and laws, acquainted with the use of hieroglyphics, the fame of whose progress in knowledge and the social arts had, in the earliest ages, spread over a considerable portion of the earth.

The Nile, before its confluence with the Astab'oras (Mugrúm), runs through a very irregular valley formed by two chains of hills, which sometimes retire back, and sometimes advance to the very margin of the river. The soil of this valley was once as fertile as the richest part of Egypt, and where protected, it still continues so; but the hills on both sides are bordered by sandy deserts, against which they afford but a scanty protection. The Nubian valley below the junction of the Nile and the Astab'oras appears to have been sometimes subject to the Ethiopians of Meroë, and sometimes to the Egyptians. The navigation of the Nile is here impeded by the windings of the river, and by the intervention of cataracts and rapids; so that intercourse is more generally maintained by caravans than by boats. At the southern ex

tremity of the valley, the river spreads itself, and encloses a number of fertile islands. Along the whole course of the Nubian valley is a succession of stupendous monuments, rivalling those of Thebes in beauty, and exceeding them in sublimity.

The productions of the Ethiopian and Nubian valleys do not differ materially from those of Egypt. The island of Meroë, as it was called from being nearly surrounded with rivers, possessed an abundance of camels, which, as we have seen, were little used in Egypt; but the ivory, ebony, and spices, which the Ethiopians sent down the river, were probably procured by traffic with the interior of Africa. Meroë had better harbors for Indian commerce than Egypt: not only were her ports on the Red sea superior, but the caravan-routes to them were shorter, and the dangerous part of the navigation of that sea was wholly avoided.

The wild tracts in the neighborhood of Meroë are tenanted by animals whose chase afforded employment to the ancient, as it does now

to the modern hunting tribes; especially that singular creature the giraffe, or camelopard, so recently known in Europe. The elephant is found in Abyssinia, not far from the southern confines of the state of Meroë.

SECTION II.-History of the Ethiopians.

THE early history of Meroë is involved in impenetrable obscurity. Its monuments bear evident marks of being the models for the wondrous edifices of Egypt; but, shut out from all intercourse with civilized nations by the intervention of the Egyptians, it is only when they were invaded, or became invaders, that we can trace the history of the Ethiopians. It has been already mentioned that several of the Egyptian monarchs carried their arms into Ethiópia, and became for a time masters of the country. In the eleventh century before the Christian era, the Assyrian heroine Semir'amis is reported to have attempted its conquest; but there is some doubt of the truth of this, as indeed of many other exploits attributed to this wonderful queen. But we have certain information of the Ethiopians being a powerful nation (B. c. 971) when they assisted Shishak in his war against Judæa "with very many chariots and horsemen." Sixteen years after this, we have an account of Judæa being again invaded by an army of a million Ethiopians, unaccompanied by any Egyptian force.* From the Scripture narrative, it appears that the Ethiopians had made considerable progress in the art of war, and were masters of the navigation of the Red sea, and at least a part of the Arabian peninsula. The kingdom must have been also in a very flourishing condition, when it was able to bear the cost of so vast and distant an expedition.

The Ethiopian power gradually increased until its monarchs were enabled to conquer Egypt, where three of them reigned in succession, Sab bakon, Sev'echus, and Tar'akus, the Tirhákah of Scripture.† Sev'echus, called So in Scripture, was so powerful a monarch, that Hoshéa, king of Israel, revolted against the Assyrians, relying on his assistance; but was not supported by his ally. This, indeed, was the immediate cause of the captivity of the Ten Tribes; for "in the ninth year of Hoshéa, the king of Assyria took Samária, and carried Israel away into Assyria," as a punishment for unsuccessful rebellion. Tirhákah was a more warlike prince: he led an army against Sennach'erib, king of Assyria, then besieging Jerusalem; and the Egyptian traditions, preserved in the age of Herod'otus, give an accurate account of the providential interposition by which the pride of the Assyrians was humbled.

In the reign of Psammet'ichus, the entire warrior-caste of the Egyptians migrated to Ethiopia, and were located at the extreme southern frontier of the kingdom. These colonists instructed the Ethiopians in the recent improvements made in the art of war, and prepared them for resisting the formidable invasion of Camby'ses.

2 Chron. xiv. 8-13.

Mr. Hawkins, in his recent work on Meroë, identifies Tirhákah with the priest Séthos, on what we deem very insufficient grounds.

2 Kings, xvii. 4.

§ 2 Kings, xix. 9.

Scarcely had the Persian dynasty been established in Egypt, when Camby'ses set out to invade Ethiopia, without preparing any store of provisions, apparently ignorant of the deserts through which it was necessary for him to pass. Before he had gone over a fifth part of the route from Thebes, the want of provisions was felt; yet he madly determined to proceed. The soldiers fed on grass, as long as any could be found; but at length, when they reached the deserts, so dreadful was the famine, that they were obliged to cast lots, that one out of every ten might be eaten by his comrades.

It is said that the king of Ethiópia was always elected from the priestly caste; and there was a strange custom for the electors, when weary of their sovereign, to send him a courier with orders to die. Ergam'enes was the first monarch who ventured to resist this absurd custom: he lived in the reign of the second Ptol'emy, and was instructed in Grecian philosophy. So far from yielding, he marched against the fortress of the priests, massacred most of them, and instituted a new religion.

Queens frequently ruled in Ethiopia: one named Candace made war on Augus'tus Cæ'sar about twenty years before the birth of Christ, and though defeated by the superior discipline of the Romans, obtained peace on very favorable conditions. During the reign of another of the same name, we find that the Jewish religion was prevalent in Meroë, probably in consequence of the change made by Ergam'enes; for the queen's confidential adviser went to worship at Jerusalem, and on his return (A. D. 53) was converted by St. Philip, and became the means of introducing Christianity into Ethiopia.

*

These are the principal historical facts that can now be ascertained respecting the ancient and once powerful state of Meroë, which has now sunk into the general mass of African barbarism.

SECTION III.-Arts, Commerce, and Manufactures of Meroë.

THE pyramids of Meroë, though inferior in size to those of Middle Egypt, are said to surpass them in architectural beauty, and the sepulchres evince the greatest purity of taste. But the most important and striking proof of the progress of the Ethiopians in the art of building, is their knowledge and employment of the arch. Mr. Hoskins has stated that these pyramids are of superior antiquity to those of Egypt.

The Ethiopian vases depicted on the monuments, though not richly ornamented, display a taste and elegance of form that has never been surpassed. In sculpture and coloring, the edifices of Meroë, though not so profusely adorned, rival the choicest specimens of Egyptian art.

We have already noticed the favorable position of Meroë for commercial intercourse with India and the interior of Africa: it was the entrepôt of trade between the north and south, between the east and west, while its fertile soil enabled the Ethiopians to purchase foreign luxuries with native productions. It does not appear that fabrics were woven in Meroë so extensively as in Egypt; but the manufactures of metal must have been at least as flourishing. But Meroë owed its greatness less to the produce of its soil or its factories, than to its poActs vii. 33.

sition on the intersection of the leading caravan-routes of ancient commerce. The great changes in these lines of trade, the devastations of successive conquerors and revolutions, the fanaticism of the Sar'acens, and the destruction of the fertile soil by the encroachments of the moving sands from the desert, are causes sufficient for the ruin of such a powerful empire. Its decline, however, was probably accelerated by the pressure of the nomad hordes, who took advantage of its weakness to plunder its defenceless citizens.

CHAPTER III.

BABYLONIA AND ASSYRIA.

SECTION I.-Geographical Outline.-Natural History.

BABYLONIA, or Chaldæ'a, was situated between two great rivers, the Euphrátes on the west, and the Tígris on the east. The bed of the Tígris is much lower than that of the Euphrátes, its channel much deeper, and the banks so precipitous, that it very rarely overflows them.

Babylónia was properly the country on the lower Euphrátes: north of it were the extensive plains of Mesopotámia, and beyond these, the mountainous districts of Arménia, supposed by many writers to have been the first habitation of the posterity of Noah, after the Flood.

Beyond the Tígris was the region properly called Assyria, a tableland, bounded on the north and east by chains of mountains, which have afforded shelter to plundering nomad tribes from the remotest antiquity. The soil, though not so rich as that of Babylónia, was generally fruitful. But almost ever since the fall of the Assyrian empire, the country has been devastated by wars between powerful monarchies and nations; and it is now little better than a wilderness, save that some patches of land are cultivated in the neighborhood of the few inconsiderable towns within its precincts.

Babylonia, in the neighborhood of the Euphrátes, rivalled the fertility of the valley of the Nile: the soil was so peculiarly suited for corn, that the husbandman's returns were sometimes three hundred fold, and rarely less than two hundred fold. The rich oily grains of the panicum and ses amum were produced in luxuriant abundance; the fig-tree, the olive, and the vine, were wholly wanting; but there were large groves of palm-trees on the banks of the river. From the palms they obtained not only fruit, but wine, sugar, and molasses, as the Arabs do at the present time. Dwarf cypress-trees were scattered over the plains; but these were a poor substitute for other species of wood. To this deficiency of timber must be attributed the neglect of the river navigation, and the abandonment of the commerce of the Indian seas, by the Babylonians.

Stone and marble were even more rare in this country than wood, but the clay was well adapted for the manufacture of bricks. These, whether dried in the sun, or burnt in kilns, became so hard and durable, that now, after the lapse of so many centuries, the remains of ancient walls preserve the bricks uninjured by their long exposure to the atmosphere, and retaining the impression of the inscriptions in the arrow-headed character as perfectly as if they had only just been