Dr. Wells (approved by Forster) adduces other proofs with more or less effect; for instance, from the march of Tirhakah, king of Cush, against Sennacherib, king of Assyria, then engaged in the siege of Libnah, a city of Palestine (2 Kings xix. 9); and from the expedition of Zerah the Cushite, against Asa, king of Judah; both which passages, he thinks, show Arabia, not Ethiopia, to be designed by the name Cush; since the kings and armies of the African Ethiopia could reach Judea, only after a long, hazardous, and probably hostile march through the interposing kingdom of Egypt; - an expedition feasible to great conquerors only: whereas the kings and warlike tribes of Arabia lay immediately on its borders, or possessed ready access to Palestine. Forster (Geog. of Arabia,' i. 15) endeavours, but without success, to carry this argument still further, referring to 2 Chron. xiv. 14, 15. Winer, a far more trustworthy authority, says that Cush denotes the southwest of Arabia, but refers only to Gen. x. 7. Niebuhr, however, found in Yemen Beni Cushi, descendants of Cush. Ackermann ('Bibel-Atlas,' 8)- referring to Hab. iii. 7 and Herod. vii. 60 — is of opinion that the Cushites passed from Arabia into Africa, and settled in Ethiopia or the Modern Abyssinia. What Ritter has shown is worthy of notice; namely, that, on both sides of the Arabian Gulf, there are many names of tribes in which is found the syllable sab, which enters into the names of four sons of Cush (Gen. x. 7).

The more usual meaning assigned to Cush, however, is Ethiopia, or the country of Africa above Syene (Ezek. xxix. 10), including the islands belonging thereto, in the Arabian Gulf (Job xxviii. 19), and, besides Ethiopia proper, also the modern Nubia and Cordofan (Zeph. ii. 12. Amos ix. 7: see Rosenmüller). During the period of the later Jewish kings, the Cushites appear in connection with the Egyptians and Lybians (Nah. iii. 9. Ps. lxviii. 31. Isa. xi. 11; xx. 4; xliii. 3; xlv. 14. Ezek. xxix. 10; xxx. 4, seq.; xxxviii. 5. 2 Chron. xii. 3). This alliance depended on the political relations which subsisted between Egypt and Ethiopia. Winer finds one cause of it in Ethiopia having (as he holds) been the source of the population and culture of Egypt. The two peoples were certainly similar in customs and manners. Ethiopia, or a part of it, was also politically dependent on Egypt; and under Shishak (2 Chron. xii. 2), a contemporary of Jeroboam, and probably the Sesocchis of the twenty-second dynasty, Egypt (Upper Egypt) was subject to Egyptian princes; and from forty to forty-four years, till the time of Psammeticus, an Ethiopic dynasty of three kings- namely, Sabaco, Sevechus (So), and Tarakos (Tirhaka) ruled in Upper Egypt (2 Kings xix. 9. Isa.

xxxvii. 9; xviii. 1). In this period, Winer places the conquest of Thebes (Nah. iii. 8). Then a large portion of the Egyptian warrior-caste migrated into Ethiopia, and erected a state of their own, which was afterwards the dominant one. These statements are to be understood of the cultivated part of Ethiopia. Many other tribes of the widely extended country remained at large, wandering, warlike, owning no government, and connected with their neighbours only by occasional commercial transactions. When Egypt had fallen into the hands of Cambyses, that conqueror made his way into Ethiopia amid the greatest privations and difficulties, which Darwin has described:

'Slow as they pass'd, the indignant temples frown'd,
Low curses muttering from the vaulted ground;
Long aisles of cypress waved their deepen'd glooms,
And quivering spectres grinn'd amid the tombs;
Prophetic whispers breathed from Sphinx's tongue,
And Memnon's lyre with hollow murmurs rung;
Burst from each pyramid expiring groans,
And darker shadows stretch'd their lengthen'd
cones;

Day after day their deathful route they steer,—
Lust in the van, and rapine in the rear.'

The Persian dominion was not of long duration. The Ptolemies, down to Ptolemy Euergetes, appear to have gained no political influence in Ethiopia; but that monarch made himself master of Upper Ethiopia, about 223, A.C. Near the time of our Lord, we find the Ethiopians under their own monarchs; and an independent Ethiopian queen is mentioned in Acts viii. 27.

These African Cushites were black (Jer. xiii. 23), of large stature, long-lived, and great prowess. Individuals of the nation were found in foreign oriental courts, as eunuchs (Jer. xxxvii. 7).

CUTHA, a district of Asia, out of which Shalmaneser transported persons, in order to colonise the kingdom of Israel, which he had destroyed (2 Kings xvii. 24-30). By the intermixture of these foreigners with the native population arose at a later period the Samaritans, who are in the Talmud denominated Cuthaites. Josephus says, that those who in Hebrew (Chaldee) are called Cuthaites are in Greek called Samaritans (Antiq.' ix. 14. 3). Josephus fixes Cutha in Persia, where, he says, is a river of the same name.' The Cuthaites have been conjecturally identified with the Cossaei, whom Arrian and Diodorus Siculus place in Susiana. The appellation Cuthaites or Cutheans became a term of reproach. Josephus asserts, that they were in number five tribes; that they brought their own gods into Samaria; that they were punished of the Almighty by a plague for their idolatry. and, finding no cure for their miseries, sent. under the advice of the oracle, to the king of Assyria, requesting him to let them have some of the priests of the Israelites, whom he had taken captive; that the request was complied with, and suitable worship esta

blished when the plague ceased; and that, when they saw the Jews in prosperity, they claimed kindred with them, as if descended from a common ancestor, Joseph; but, when they saw the Jews in adversity, they disowned them, asserting their own origin to be foreign.

CUTTINGS IN THE FLESH were expressly forbidden by the Mosaic law, among other practices, such as using enchantment, making the forehead bald, printing marks on the person, which appear to have been in use among idolaters, as signs of contrition and grief, and tokens of devotement to their imaginary deities (Lev. xix. 26-28; xxi. 5. Deut. xiv. 1). In confirmation of this view, we find the sole Godhead of Jehovah emphatically declared in connection with the prohibitions. We also find it proclaimed, that Israel is a holy people to Jehovah (Lev. xxi. 6); and this proclamation may serve to show what is meant by Israel being God's chosen and peculiar people. The Hebrews were taken from the midst of an idolatrous world, to be educated in the grand doctrine of the Divine Unity. As thus chosen for God's own gracious purposes, they were redeemed from all idolatrous service, consequently bound to abstain from idolatrous practices, and to keep their homage exclusively for Him to whom they emphatically belonged.

These cuttings of the flesh were literal incisions made on the person, as an indication of grief, and a means of conciliating the favour of idol divinities. They thus form a part of that system of self-mortification which is found in all ages, in all quarters of the world, as a part- often a very prominent part- of systems of low and unworthy ideas of God. Thus the votaries of Baal, the impious rival of Jehovah in Syria,

-

when, in conflict with Elijah, they could not make their deaf, sleeping, or absent god hear their prayer, cut themselves, after their manner, with knives and lancets, till the blood gushed out upon them' (1 Kings xviii. 28). The general idea which lies at the bottom of these practices of self-mortification is, that the gods are unfavourably disposed to man, consequently jealous of bis happiness, and therefore alien from him unless when enduring voluntary pain. This most false and injurious idea is found in the classic nations, as well as among barbarous and semi-barbarous peoples. But in true religion it can have no place; for here the fundamental conception is, that God is love' (1 John iv. 8); and creation, with providence and grace, only an expression of his goodness. Hence Moses forbade these enttings in the flesh. And much to be regretted is it, that any views or practices borrowed from a sphere of thought so distant from the great ideas of his religion, and that of the Lord Jesus Christ, should

ever have found encouragement in the Christian church.

But the practice we speak of had not only a general, but a specific reference. The cuttings were for the dead;' and, as such, they were marks of grief. Here they assume a less offensive character, forming a part of that circle of usages which originated in the desire, on the part of survivors, not only to give utterance to their regrets, but to manifest their regards to the departed. When suffering deeply under a bereavement, we are not only physically unfit for pleasure, but feel all grateful emotions to be a kind of injury done to the memory of the dead. It seems to us wrong to be even capable of any enjoyment, after the loss we have undergone; and so long as the image of our deceased child or partner remains prominent before our minds' eye, and the memory of him is fresh and vivid, we think it right to indulge grief; we feel justified, if not required, to welcome privations; and so are easily led to find merit in self-inflicted sufferings. Such feelings, natural as they may be, are not Christian; and, if justifiable at all, would go far to authorise the entire system of self-mortification which Moses has so properly condemned, and which can prevail only in religions which stand far below the gospel. These cuttings, however, thus originated and sanctioned, passed into a general observance. The practice is so spoken of by Jeremiah (xvi. 6; xli. 5), whose language may warrant the conclusion, that the prohibition of Moses had not found universal observance among his professed adherents. The custom still exists in countries bordering on Palestine. Schubert thus speaks of it as exhibited in caravans setting off from Cairo to Mecca: 'Then came the herd of fanatical and wrapt dervishes, riding on wretched camels, and proceeding with wild contortions of their limbs. Some had pieces of iron and knives struck through their arms and cheeks: others were encircled by serpents' (ii. 214).

1

Intimately connected with these lacerations stands tatooing (Lev. xix. 28), — 'Nor print any marks upon you,' which also is a religious custom, designed to signify that the person belonged to the master or idolgod, whose name or insignia he thus bore. This has been a very general observance. It exists, indeed, wherever false religious views prevail. Most extensively practised among the South Sea islanders, it is nearly universal with the Bedouins. In Catholic countries, images of the Virgin are tatooed on the limbs; pilgrims to the Holy Land have commemorated their zeal by imprinting some suitable token on their persons; and few English sailors are wholly free from similar specimens of picture-writing. Michaelis, accordingly, says of the passage under consideration: The reference is

1

to the custom of Orientals to burn on their right hand memorials of various sorts with henna, which gives an unfading colour; and this they do to the present day. They are further accustomed to write on pieces of cloth, which they wear as ornaments on their forehead, all kinds of proverbs, and not seldom magical words, which were held to be preservatives against evil.' Among other authorities, we cite the words of Maundrell:- The pilgrims had their arms marked with the usual ensigns of Jerusalem. The artists who undertake the operation do it in this manner:- - They have stamps in wood of any figure that you desire, which they first print off upon your arm with powder of charcoal; then, taking two very fine needles tied close together, and dipping them often like a pen in certain ink, compounded, as I was informed, of gunpowder and ox-gall, they make with them small punctures all along the lines of the figure which they have printed; and then, washing the part in wine, conclude the work. These punctures they make with great quickness and dexterity, and with scarce any smart, seldom piercing so deep as to draw blood' (Journey from Aleppo to Jerusalem,' 100).

Bruce mentions a ceremony, called 'incision,' observed by the Abyssinian Jewish women:-'As soon as a near relation dies, a brother or parent, cousin or lover, every woman in that relation, with the nails of her little fingers, which she leaves long on purpose, cuts the skin of both her temples, about the size of a sixpence; and therefore you see either a wound or a scar in every fair face in Abyssinia.'

CYMBALS. See MUSIC.

CYPRESS stands for three Hebrew words, Gopher (see CAMPHIRE), Beroth (Cant. i. 17), Tirzah (Isa. xliv. 14). Out of the first was the ark constructed by the direction of the Divine Being. The command - Make thee an ark of gopher-wood' (Gen. vi. 14) - gives a peculiar interest to the question, what that wood was; and, since the subject has been treated by the justly celebrated Karl Ritter (Erdkunde,' xi. Theile, p. 567, seq.), it may be considered as finally decided in favour of the cypress. The word, indeed, occurs but once in the Bible, in the passage to which we have just referred; but, as the learned Bochart has observed, gopher and cypress (in the original Greek, kupar) are clearly the same. The original Shemitic name of the tree, Gopher, passed with such slight variations as diversity of nation, locality, and culture, occasioned, through the Phoenicians to the Western world; - for the ships of those traders were for the most part built of gopher-wood; and the island at a later period, called by the Hebrews and Phoenicians Kiltim, became known to the Greeks through the cypress-trees which formed its wealth, and hence was named

Kupros, the land of the cypress, which the Romans modernised into Cyprus. The Phoenicians were the earliest inhabitants of the island, which, from its woods of the ey press, they termed the Cypress-island, — a name which was preserved in the usages of Western nations, after it had passed out of existence in the East.

The command to Noah entirely corresponds with what was in a very early period customary among Phoenician navigators, who built vessels of gopher-wood, which grew abundantly just above their coasts, in the rich forests of Lebanon. A thousand years later, Alexander had his ships built of the cypress, and caused at least the more important parts to be brought to Thapsacus, after having been made in Cyprus and Pho nicia. Before Alexander, the Phoenicians were the shipbuilders for the Persians, under Xerxes, in his expedition against Greece; and under Cambyses, in his invasion of Egypt; as well as of Pharaoh Necho, in his circumnavigation of Africa; and, still earlier, of Solomon, for his voyage to Ophir.

The qualities of the cypress caused it to be employed in shipbuilding. It was accounted very durable, and proof against the rot in water, and other causes of decay. Hence Thucydides states, that the bodies of persons who had fallen in defence of their country were borne to their long home in coffins of cypress (ii. 34). Hence, too, it was, as we learn from various authorities, that the folding-doors of ancient temples, for instance, that of Diana at Ephesus,—and other sacred objects, were made of cypresswood, particularly as it resisted the attack of worms. To Jupiter also was given a cypress sceptre, in order to indicate that his dominion was indestructible. The poet Martial describes the cypress as deathless (Epig. 73) in these words:

ter.

In

'Perpetua nunquam moritura cupresso.' Indeed, from its qualities the cypress acquired throughout the East a sacred characWe need refer only to the opinion respecting it held in Persia. In the ZendAvesta it is accounted divine, sacred to the pure light of Ormuzd, whose word was first carved on this noble tree. The writings of the Parsi tell of a cypress-tree, planted in Kischmer by Zerduscht (Zoroaster) himself, which grew to wondrous dimensions. girth it was so large, that a hunter's line could not enclose it. Its top was adorned by branches so wide, that Zerduscht built beneath its compass a summer-house, forty yards high and forty yards broad. When this edifice was finished, the great teacher caused proclamation to be made, -'Where, in the whole world, is there a cypress like that of Kischmer? God sent it out of Paradise, and said, "Bend thy top towards Paradise, and, listening all to my counsel,

make a pilgrimage to the foot of the cypress of Kischmer, following the guidance of Zerduscht, and turn your backs on the idols of Tschin." The same tree is celebrated in the songs of Firdusi, as having had its origin in Paradise. Sacred trees, sprung from Paradise, which call to mind the tree of life, and the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, in the Garden of Eden (Gen. ii. 9), were addressed in prayer by the ancient Parsi, though they eschewed the worship of idols, and honoured the sun and moon only as symbols. Ormuzd himself is set forth giving this command: -Go, O Zoroaster! to the living trees, and let thy mouth speak before them these words: -"I pray to the pure trees, the creatures of Ormuzd."

CYPRESS.

There is, therefore, no reason to be surprised that the cypress, a tree of Paradise, rising in a pyramidal form like flame, should be planted at the gates of the most sacred fire-temples, and, bearing the law inscribed by Zoroaster, should be the companion of every sanctuary and of every royal abode of the servants of Ormuzd. This is the reason why sculptured images of the cypress are so much found on the temples and palaces of Persepolis; for the Persian kings were servants of Ormuzd. Sacred cypresses, like the oak of the Druids and of Dodona, were found also on the very ancient temple of Armavir, the old abode of the Arsacidæ, in Atropatene (Aderbidjan), the home of Zoroaster and his light-worship. The cypress, indeed, diffused abroad over Persia, was transmitted as a sacred tree down from the ancient magi to the Mussulmans of modern days. In Persia, where the tree

often rises to large dimensions and singular beauty, the reverence with which it was regarded rests originally on the very ancient superstition of the people, which-assigning to all natural objects, air and water, plants and trees, personal attributes, either masculine or feminine, accordingly as their natu ral character was of a fierce or a mild nature

regarded trees of unusual qualities as the abodes of holy and pious and even celestial spirits. Virgil has preserved a relic of this ancient respect for the cypress: -'And near (was) an ancient cypress, preserved during many years by the religious feelings of the ancients' ('En.' ii. 714). Numerous are the testimonies, both from ancient and modern writers, which speak of the distinguished beauty of the Persian cypress. Della Valla describes, with great minuteness, cypress trees of size so large, that five men could not encompass the trunk of one of them. Nearly two hundred years, from his time to that of Sir W. Ouseley, had caused no great change in these trees, which the natives asserted to be a thousand years old.

In Palestine, the name gopher, which had been spread over the world, became obsolete, being found only in the passage regarding the construction of the ark. Another name came into use, that is Beroth, which also was rendered cypress' by the Greek and Syrian translators, though in the English version it is represented by the word 'fir' (Cant. i. 17):

The beams of our house are cedar; our walls, cypress.'

In Ecclesiasticus (xxiv. 17), Wisdom says of itself:

'I have grown up as a cedar on Lebanon,
And as a cypress on Mount Hermon.'

In the description of the high priest Simon, son of Onias, that distinguished man is compared to a cypress-tree, rising to a great height, around whom his ministering brethren are grouped as cedars on Lebanon (Ecclesiasticus 1. 11, seq.; comp. Ezek. xxxi. 8). Whence we may learn the lofty splendour to which the cypress attained in Palestine, where it grew wild in ancient times (Ps. civ. 17. Isa. xiv. 8). As in other temples, so in Solomon's, doors and other parts were made of cypress (1 Kings vi. 15, 34). Ezekiel shows that the Tyrians employed this wood in building shops and houses (xxvii. 5). The hewing down of the finest cypress-trees and cedars on Lebanon is made use of by Isaiah, as a figure to denote the extirpation of idolatrous worship (Isa. xxxvii. 24). The Beroth (or Berosh) appears to have comprised three kinds of cypress, Cupressus sempervirens, the Thuja, and the Juniperus Sabina. Beroth was also the name of the Phoenician Venus, the goddess of Lebanon; the cypress, or Cyprian divinity. It also gave its name to the city Beiroot, celebrated for cypress groves, as lying at the side of Lebanon.

Amathus, Arsinoe. It is mentioned in profane literature as early as Homer. It was sacred to the licentious worship of Venus. It seems to have received its popu lation from the neighbouring shores of Syria, being colonised by the Phoenicians, who are said to have introduced here their national gods, the two Cabiri, Tholad and Tholatha, the male and female impersona tions of the principle of generation. The island fell successively under the power of the Egyptians, Persians, and Greeks. Under Augustus, it was a Roman province, having been made a part of the empire by the elder Cato.

In the times of the Roman republic, Cyprus was a prætorian, not consular province; being as such governed, not by proconsuls, but proprætors. Augustus, however, when he had obtained supreme power, divided the provinces into imperial, over which proprætors were placed, and senatorial, that is, under the control of the senate, whose rulers bore the name of anthupatoi, or vice-consuls. Now Cyprus was made by Augustus a senatorial province, as we learn from Dio Cassins. Hence, under the early emperors, the proper designation of its governor was proconsul, or anthupatos. By this very name is its governor, Sergius Paulus, described in Acts xiii. 7; and coins of the time to which the event there spoken of refers, bear the same appellation. We subjoin a cut of such a coin from Morell.

CYPRUS (H. Gopher), a large island, probably so called from abounding in cypresstrees, in the Mediterranean Sea, lying some miles from the land, off the coast of Syria, opposite the mouth of the Orontes. It was exceedingly fruitful, abounding in corn, oil, and wine; figs, honey, &c. It gave name to copper, hence called as Cyprium, Cyprian brass. Also many kinds of precious stones were found in the island. Abounding in trees and harbours, it was famous for shipbuilding, and naval pursuits. Its position was very favourable for commerce. Its chief towns were Salamis, Paphos, Citium,

PROCONSUL OF CYPRUS.'

The coin presents the head of Claudius Cæsar; and on the obverse it has the words, UNDER COMINIUS This is a very striking confirmation. Had the events spoken of by Luke taken place a few years previously, in the earlier part of the reign of Augustus, the right term, according to well-known Roman usage, would have been Proprætor, and not Proconsul. The exact agreement with fact shows, that in the Book of Acts we have to do with realities.

It would be a curious speculation to inquire what chance Luke had of being right, had he been personally unacquainted with the events he narrates, and compiled or invented them at some later period.

The fruitfulness of the island, and the wealth of its inhabitants, nor less the oose

character of their religious observances, caused the prevalence of self-indulgence, luxury, and licentiousness, so that the Cy prians were proverbially given to vice. A large portion of its inhabitants were, in the times of the New Testament, Jews, who had either come hither under those general influences which caused the dispersion of their countrymen, or fled from the tyranny of the Syrian kings in the Maccabean wars, when the island belonged to the Ptolemies.

In consequence of the richness of its soil, the beauty of its climate, and its advantageous position, Cyprus was spoken of in terms of high praise. By Horace it is, for instance, termed Beatum Cyprum, Blest Cyprus.' But far rather would it have deserved the appellation, had its inhabitants received the gospel into glad hearts, and brought