cient
terms for Noah, and whence was derived Deus--Nusus compounded of Dios
and Nusos, which gives us Dionysus, the Bacchus of the Greeks, and the
chief god of the heathen world. Bacchus was, properly speaking, Cush
(the son of Ham, and grandson of Noah), though both Dionysus and Bacchus
are, by ancient writers, frequently confounded with one another.

The resting of the Ark upon Mount Baris, Minyas, the Ararat of Moses in
Armenia, the dispersal of the flood, the multiplication of the families
of the earth, and the migration from the plains of Shinar of the
descendants of the sons of Chus or Cush (as it is sometimes written),
and called Chushites or Cushites, to different parts of the world, being
joined by other nations, particularly those of the descendants of Ham,
one of the sons of Noah. They were the first apostates from the truth,
but being great in worldly wisdom and knowledge they were thought to be,
and looked upon as a superior class of beings. Ham they looked upon as a
divinity, and under the name of Ammon they worshipped him as the Sun,
and Chus likewise as Apollo, a name which was also bestowed by the
Ancients upon Noah. The worship of the sun in all probability originated
the eastern position in our churches.

Another of the ancient deities worshipped by the Ammonians was Meed, or
Meet, the Cybele of the Phrygians, the nurse of Dionysus, and the Soul
of the World.

Nimrod, the "mighty hunter" (who possessed the regions of Babylonia and
Chaldee), and one of the sons of Cush, was the builder of that seminary
of idolatory the City and Tower of Bel, and erected in honour of the god
Bel, and another name for the sun. Upon the confusion of tongues when
hitherto "The whole earth was of one language, and of one speech," it
came to be known as Babylon, "The City of Confusion." Homer introduces
Orion (Nimrod) as a giant and a hunter in the shades below, and the
author of the "Pascal Chronicles" mentions that Nimrod taught the
Assyrians or Babylonians to worship fire. The priests of Ammon, named
Petor or Pator, used to dance round a large fire, which they affected in
their dancing to describe. Probably from this the Dervish dances all
over the East may be traced to this source.

Kennedy observes, of the confusion of tongues at Babel, that it was only
a labial failure, so that the people could not articulate. It was not an
aberration in words or language, but a failure and incapacity in labial
utterance. Epiphaniu