It is not the place here to enter upon the much vexed question as to the locality of the land of Cush, rendered in the Vulgate Ethiopia. As Cush was the eldest son of Ham, he must have had a primary settlement in the land of Babel, before his descendants went forth to people Arabia, or emigrate across the Red Sea to Ethiopia Proper. Nimrod was also a descendant of Cush, and he would have taken with him to the land of Asshur the idols of the Babylonian Cushites. Shal-maneser transplanted Cushites or Cuthites from Asia into the land of Israel, which he had desolated. (2 Kings xvii, 24-30.) From the intermixture of these colonists with the remaining natives sprung the Samaritans, who are called Cuthites in the Chaldee and in the Talmud, and, for the same reason, a number of non-Semitic words which occur in the Samaritan dialect are called Cuthian.

The Hamitic or Scythic element, which prevails in the most ancient cuneiform records throughout Babylonia and Susiana, has induced Sir Henry Rawlinson, the eminent decipherer of these inscriptions, to believe that in the earliest ages, previous to the historic period (which commenced with the empire of Nimrod), the Semitic race which dwelt in the region north of the Persian Gulf was gradually dispossessed by a powerful stream of invasion or colonization from the south, and that the said Hamitic or Scythic element pointed to Ethiopia as the mother country of the new settlers.

It is, however, well deserving of consideration how much the existence of a Hamitic race in the heart of Chaldaea, ex­tending itself to Assyria on the one hand, to Susiana on the other, and even transported into Israel, may have had to do with this original Scythic element in the oldest cuneiform inscriptions ; and if we do not invert the real state of things by supposing an Ethiopic invasion subsequent to a Semitic peopling by descendants of Shem. It is more probable, as advocated by most Biblical scholars, that the Cuthites peopled Susiana, Arabia, parts of Assyria, and Africa, than that Africans came to people their original country.

However this may be, the Izedis have, by their language and by their characteristic Nergal worship, a nearer relation­ship to the Cuthite Babylonians-the descendants of Ham and of Nimrod-than to the Semitic Babylonians; and this is pre­cisely what might be expected of an ancient people dwelling in Assyria Proper. In the Khaldis, Chaldaeans, or Nestorian Christians, we find apparently the representatives of the other race-the descendants of Semitic Chaldaeans or Assyrians.

Mr. Fraser remarks in his little work on Mesopotamia and Assyria (ed. of 1842, p. 327) of the Izedis, that they pay regard to sundry images of animals ; to that of the serpent, in memory of the seduction of Eve by that reptile, and to that of the ram, in remembrance of the obedience of Abraham.

When the writer visited Sheikh Adi, in 1846, he was much struck by finding rudely carved in the lintel of the doorway of the principal edifice a snake, an unknown animal, and a hatchet. It was impossible not to perceive that this rude carving of a snake, painted black, in such a place, was strongly corroborative of what had been reported of the regard paid to this well known symbol of evil.

Mr. Layard, who has since visited and explored this sanctuary more frequently and leisurely, discovered also carvings of a man and a comb. The animal he detected to be a lion. " Al­though," he says, " it might be suspected that these figures were emblematic, I could obtain no other explanation from Sheikh Nasr than that they had been cut by the Christian mason who repaired the tomb some years ago, as ornaments suggested by his mere fancy." Nineveh and its Remains, vol. i, p. 282. The reserve observed in this matter can, how­ever, be readily understood.

The Sheikh was exceedingly anxious not to offend the prejudices of his guest. This was particularly manifest in his carefully avoiding all allusions so the Evil Spirit. Yet an accident brought all the acuteness of their feelings upon this subject into full play. Whilst Mr. Layard was seated in the court, a boy had forced himself to the very end of a weak bough, immediately over the visitor's head, and threatened every moment to break under his weight. As he looked up, he saw the impending danger, and he made an effort, by an appeal to the chief, to avert it. " Is that young Shait"-he exclaimed, about to use an epithet in common use in the East, but he checked himself immediately. But, he says, it was too late; half the dreaded word had escaped. The effect was instantaneous; a look of horror seized those who were near enough to overhear him, and it was quickly communicated to those beyond. The pleasant smile which usually played upon the fine features of the young Bey gave way to a serious and angry expression.

Nothing can be more manifest than this regard for the Evil Spirit, and it is not likely that the Izedis would have permitted the carvings in question without a reason or without a sanction.

In the monuments at Konyunjik, which refer to the later Assyrian period after fire worship was introduced, two serpents attached to poles are seen as emblems or symbols, associated with two eunuchs, who are standing before an altar upon which is the sacred fire. This sculpture is figured in Layard's Nineveh and its Remains, vol. ii, p. 469. Hera, the same as Astarta, Mylitta, or Venus, held a serpent in one hand, and so she is represented in the Egyptian tablet of Ken, or Hera, in the British Museum, and figured by Layard (Nin., vol. ii, p. 212). Serpents were also emblems of the goddess Rbea, as we see in Diodorus and the rock sculptures of Malthaiyah. Ophiolatry no doubt existed, under one form or another, among the Assyrians, as among all ancient nations ; and, with the creeping in of corrupt ideas and practices, may like other things, as argued by Landseer in his Sabcean Researches, have assumed an astronomical character.

In reference to another carved symbol, the axe or hatchet, it may be observed that it was the attribute of the Baal or Belus of the Assyrians. This is particularly noticed in a passage in the Epistle of Jeremiah; " He hath also in his right hand a dagger and an axe ;" and it is illustrated by a bas relief, pro­bably of the later Assyrian period, discovered in the ruins of the south-west palace at Nimrud, and figured by Layard {Nineveh and its Remains, vol. ii, p. 456), in which a procession of warriors are carrying on their shoulders four images, one of which appears to be Baal, holding a hatchet in one hand and a bundle of sticks in the other.

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W. Francis Ainsworth, 1861

Primitive Christian Worship