will matter little if we accept
that view, which, however, I think less probable, that it was placed
in the lower part of the valley of the Euphrates. I may merely mention
one particular of the Biblical description, because it throws light on
the great antiquity of this geographical delineation, and has been
strangely misconceived by expositors--the relation of those rivers to
Cush or Ethiopia and Havilah, a tribal name derived from that of a
grandson of Cush. On consulting the tenth chapter of Genesis, it will
be found that the Cushites under Nimrod, very soon after the deluge,
are stated to have pushed their migrations and conquests along the
Tigris to the northward, and established there the first empire. It is
probably this primitive Cushite empire, called Ethiopia in our
translation, which in the epoch of the description of Eden occupied
the Euphratean valley, and being bounded on one side by the river
called Gihon, was thus believed to extend over the old site of Eden.
Thus the Cush or Ethiopia of the description has no direct connection
with the African Ethiopia, and speculations based on such a supposed
connection are groundless. On the other hand this feature furnishes an
interesting coincidence with other parts of Genesis, and throws light
on many obscure points in the early history of man; and since this
Cushite empire had perished even before the time of Moses, it
indicates a still more ancient tradition respecting the primeval abode
of our species.

2. Before the deluge this region must have been the seat of a dense
population, which, according to the Biblical account, must have made
considerable advances in the arts, and at the same time sunk very low
in moral debasement.[101] Whether any remains of the central portions
of this ancient population or its works exist will probably not be
determined with absolute certainty till we have accurate geological
investigations of the whole country in the neighborhood of the Caspian
Sea and along the great rivers of Western Asia, though there is
nothing unreasonable in the belief that some of the old prehistoric
men whose remains are discovered in caves and river gravels in Europe
may belong to the antediluvian race. Should such remains be found, we
might infer, from the extreme longevity and other characteristics
assigned to the antediluvians, that their skeletons would present
peculiarities entitling them to be considered a well-marked variety of
the human species