OF MITZRAIM PROPER.

309

also know that bricks were made in Tahpanhes in the time of the prophet Jeremiah',-it is scarcely to be expected that substantial and well-preserved memorials should have existed through ages, like those of the stone erections of the adjoining country of Egypt; so that, even if upon a closer investigation of the country to which they belong any remains of these cities should yet be discovered, we can scarcely expect that the means will be afforded us of identifying and correctly distinguishing them'. But without a particular acquaintance with the country, an approximation may be made towards determining the positions of several of these cities; for we know that Migdol was at the northern extremity of the Gulf of Akaba, and Zoan upon or near the yeór which flowed through Mitzraim; whilst, as Pithom and Rameses (or the latter at least,) were built in the province of Goshen or

1 Jer. xliii. 9.

2 Some of these names are supposed to be merely different appellations of one and the same city; for instance, On and Bethshemesh but it is much to be doubted whether two totally distinct names were at one time applicable to the same place. In Taylor's Calmet's Dictionary, (art. AMMON), No and Noph are considered to be identical; but this is totally irreconcilable with Ezek. xxx. 13—16, (and particularly the last verse,) where the two names are mentioned together as applicable to two different cities; in addition to which the names (No) and (Noph) are manifestly dissimilar in the Hebrew, however they may resemble each other in their appearance in English, and even in sound.

310

CITIES OF MITZRAIM PROPER.

Rameses, in which Zoan was situate, those cities, therefore, were doubtless at no great distance from that capital.

66

An important guide in determining the relative positions of the several divisions and places of Mitzraim, would appear to present itself in the passage which I have cited from the Book of Judith'; in which passage, as the various places out of Mitzraim are mentioned in regular order from north and east to south and west, we may fairly conclude that "the stream of Mitzraim, and Tahpanhes, and Rameses, and all the land of Goshen until you come beyond Zoan, and Noph, . . . until you come "to to the borders of Cush"", or " of the two seas"", are named in regular order in the direction above alluded to under which view Tahpanhes would be the city of Mitzraim nearest to Judea; Zoan, as I have already remarked, would be within the land of Goshen, towards the centre of the country; and Noph would be the last city of Mitzraim westward, before reaching the Isthmus of Suez and the confines of Egypt.

1 See Page 296, note. 2 Judith i. 9, 10. 3 Judith i. 12.

[ 311 ]

APPENDIX A.

OF THE SITE OF THE GARDEN OF EDEN, AND OF THE RESIDENCE OF MANKIND BEFORE THE FLOOD.

IN the second chapter of this Volume', the opinion is expressed that "if the names of the coun"tries mentioned in the Book of Genesis in con"nexion with Eden, be those of countries existing " and known under those names when that book was composed, and if their correct situations be discoverable, it would seem that the locality of "the habitation of our first parents might yet, at "least approximately, be ascertained." At the time when that opinion was formed, I had no intention whatever of attempting to proceed with the subject, or of entering at all into the investigation of any matters connected with the history of the antediluvian world: for I felt (as indeed I still continue to feel) the many difficulties which attend it. During the construction, however, of the Geographical Sketch of the Dispersion of Mankind which is prefixed to this Volume, I found, on 1 Page 14.

312

APPENDIX A.

referring to the late Major Rennell's valuable Map of the Comparative Geography of Western Asia, from which the outline of that Sketch is in great part compiled, that the two rivers Al Huali and Khabour, the one of which, in accordance with the principles of Geography enunciated in this Work, compasseth the whole land of Havilah', whilst the other 'compasseth the whole land of Cush',-have their rise in the immediate vicinity in which are also the respective sources of a branch of the Tigris and a branch of the Euphrates'.

This remarkable coincidence has led me to infer that the garden of Eden must have been situate where the heads of these four rivers are found; and, if I am not mistaken, the position thus resulting as being that of the residence of our first parents (whatever difficulties,—and there are many,—may yet attend the full consideration of the subject), is far more reconcilable with the Scriptural History than any other locality which has been attributed to it.

Having hence been led to the more particular investigation of the Scriptural History contained in the second, third, and fourth chapters of the Book of Genesis, so far as that History relates to

1 By an accurate admeasurement upon Major Rennell's Map, the distance between the head of the Khabour and that of the River Kokdje (the branch of the Tigris)—being the two which are the most remote from each other-does not exceed eighteen geographical miles.

LOCALITY OF MANKIND BEFORE THE FLOOD. 313

the geography of the antediluvian world, I have now to detail the results at which I have arrived in doing which I will confess that I am (as will be perceived,) far from being able to offer, or even to attempt, an explanation of all the circumstances connected with it: nor, considering the mysterious nature of that early portion of the Sacred History, are the suggestions which I have now to offer advanced with that degree of confidence which I feel that I am justified in entertaining with respect to the opinions announced in the body of the present Volume.

In the first place, then, we are told that "the "Lord God planted a garden eastward (DP mikkédem) in Eden; and there He put the man whom "He had formed"": the literal meaning of which statement would seem to be, that in a country bearing the name of Eden, and lying to the eastward of the place in which that statement was written,— the locality of which country was (apparently) well known both to the writer of that early portion of the Book of Genesis, and likewise to the persons for whose immediate information it was written,the Lord formed a residence for Adam, suited to his wants, and adapted to the circumstances under which he had been created.

Now since this portion of the Book of Genesis was, as I would contend, written in Ur of the Chal

1 Gen. ii. 8. See, as to the proper signification of the preposition, Page 15', note.