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LIGHT AND TRUTH.



CHAPTER II.


ANCIENT CITIES AND KINGDOMS.


CITIES OF ETHIOPIA.


Ethiopian is a name derived from the "Land of Ethiopia," the first settled country before the flood. "The second river that went out of Eden, to water the garden, or earth, was Gihon; the same that encompasses h the whole land, or country, of Ethiopia."—(Gen. ii. 13.) Here Adam and his posterity built their tents, and tilled the ground.—(Gen. iii. 23, 24.)

The first city was Enoch, built before the flood, in the land of Nod, on the east of Eden—a country now called Arabia. Cain, the son of Adam, went out of Eden, and dwelt in the land of Nod. We suppose, according to an ancient custom, he married his sister; and she bare Enoch. And Cain built a city, and called the name of the city after the name of his son, Enoch. (Gen. iv. 16, 17.) We know there must have been more than Cain and his son Enoch in the land of Nod, to build a city, but who were they? * * * * [Malcom's Bible Dictionary.]

The first great city described in ancient and sacred history was built by the Cushites, or Ethiopians. They surrounded it with walls, which, according to Rollin were 87 feet in thickness, 350 feet in height, and 480 furlongs in circumference. And even this stupendous work they shortly after eclipsed by another, of which