Cushites

“ Let the translators have been who they may, it is totally impossible to believe that they could be so ignorant as to suppose that the African Ethiopia could border on the Euphrates, or that the Cushites could be African Ethiopians. ”

“ The history of the Cushites, in its African section, has been entirely different, Shut in by the great desert from the rest of the world, and, until the discovery of America, protected from foreign aggression by the then, to them, mysterious ocean, they have peopled the vast interior of the African continent with numerous tribes and nations; of most of whom we have but vague, indefinite, and almost fabulous reports, and concerning whom the world is now in nearly as much doubt and incertitude, as it was two thousand years ago, in the time of Herodotus and Ptolemy. ”

“ The separation of the ten tribes, and the revolutions that simultaneously took place at Tyre, rendered any such expeditions impracticable. ... The empire of the second Adites lasted ten centuries, during which the Joktanite tribes, multiplying in each generation, lived amongst the Cushite Sabæans. ... The assimilation of the Joktanites to the Cushites was so complete that the revolution which gave political supremacy to the descendants of Joktan over those of Cush produced no sensible change in the civilisation of Yemen. ”

“ From all the accounts which modern travellers give of the country above Syene, there does not appear, either from ruins or any other circumstance, reason to believe that it was ever occupied by a nation strong enough to fight the battles and make the great figure in the world which we know the people called Cushites or Ethiopians did at different times. ”

“ This hypothesis identified the Cushites with the Ethiopians (modern Abyssinians and Nubians) , the descendants of Mizraim with the Egyptians, those of Phut with the Libyans, and those of Canaan with the Canaanites, including the Phœnicians. Some held that the Hamites occupied originally a great part of western and southern Asia; that they were the primitive inhabitants of southern Mesopotamia, or Chaldea, southern Persia, and southern Arabia, and were displaced by the Semites; also that they once inhabited the most of Asia Minor, and that the Carians were a surviving remnant of them. ”

“ Our English translation calls them the mingled people* [22] , whereas it should be the separate nations, who, though met and settled together, did not mingle, which is strictly Convenæ. The inhabitants then who possessed Abyssinia, from its southern boundary to the tropic of Cancer, or frontiers of Egypt, were the Cushites, or polished people, living in towns, first Troglodytes, having their habitations in caves. The next were the Shepherds; after these were the nations who, as we apprehend, came from Palestine — Amhara, Agow of Damot, Agow of Tchera, and Gafat. ”

“ And again, "Mizraim is allowed to be the same with Menes, whom all historians declare to be the first king of Egypt." The ancient name remains to this day among the Arabians, who call Egypt, Mesre. Although M. Basnage has ventured to express the opinion that Mizraim was never in Egypt, yet are his footprints too legible not to be deciphered.
(C.) As to the posterity of Phut settling in Africa, the evidence in Scripture is, that he is invariably joined with his brethren, the Cushites. Jeremiah xlvi. 9, says, "Cush and Phut that handle the shield." ”

“ Forth to the river side went the priests. "We carry no pricking quills," said they, raising their hands all weaponless, "and, O, Black-banded father, we seek your aid; for look now, the mother-maidens of seed whose substance is the food alike of thy people and our people, have fled away whither neither our grandfather the Eagle, nor yet his younger brother the Falcon, can trace them; and we pray thee to aid us or give us counsel of guidance."
"Ka! ka!" cried the Raven. "Nay, now; much too hungry am I to go abroad fasting on business for ye and thy kind. Ye are stingy! ”

“ The point where Custer reached the river, on the opposite side of which was the village, was broken into choppy ravines, and the Indians, crossing from Reno, got between the two commands, and as Custer could not return, he fell back over the broken ground with his tired men and tired horses (they had ridden about 70 miles with but few halts) and became, I am afraid, an easy prey to the enemy. Their wild, savage yells, overwhelming numbers, and frightening war paraphernalia, made it as much as each trooper could do to take care of his horse, thus endangering his own safety and efficiency. ”

“ Cushing was for long a dweller in the clay pueblos of the Zuñis, and is an initiated member of their sacred societies. He found that they dealt at least as freely in metaphysics as the Maoris, and that, like the Australians, "they suppose sun, moon and stars, the sky, earth and sea, in all their phenomena and elements, and all inanimate objects, as well as plants, animals and men, to belong to one great system of all conscious and interrelated life, in which the degrees of relationship seem to be determined largely, if not wholly, by the degrees of resemblance". ”

“ We saw Cushi start to bear his tidings to the king. We watched Ahimaaz swift on his track. We marked the king's anxious waiting, and the fixed gaze of the watchman on the city walls. We strained in the long strain of the runners. We fainted with the fears of a father's heart. We saw Ahimaaz outrun his rival yet falter in his message. And we heard the blow upon David's heart of Cushi's stroke. "And the king said unto Cushi, Is the young man Absalom safe? And Cushi answered, The enemies of my lord the king, and all that rise against thee to do thee hurt, be as that young man is." ”

“ Custer the hard fighter, the yellow-haired devil, whom they had always feared, was charging along their trail and aiming for the village like a thunderbolt, with his cavalry regiment at his back.
Indians are not accustomed to speaking their thoughts during times of excitement, but the news loosened their tongues, and for several moments a hubbub arose in the head chief's lodge. ”

“ Undoubtedly he ought to have done this; but with his native impetuosity, his reckless daring, his confidence in his own regiment, which had never failed him, and his love of public approval, Custer could no more help charging this Indian camp, than he could help charging just so many buffaloes. He had never learned to spell the word 'defeat;' he knew nothing but success, and if he had met the Indians on the open plains, success would undoubtedly have been his; for no body of Indians could stand the charge of the 7th Cavalry when it swept over the Plains like a whirlwind. ”

“ In the great square of Cuzco was the stone of war, in the shape of a sugar loaf, well enclosed, and full of gold. The king came forth, with his councillors and favourites, to a place where the chiefs of provinces were assembled, to learn from them who were most valiant among their people, and best fitted to be leaders and captains. One Indian had charge of ten men, another received authority over fifty, another over a hundred, another over five hundred, another over a thousand, another over five thousand, and another over ten thousand. ”

“ Their bloody entrails stain the snow-clad ground.
She shouts with glee, then yells with rage and falls
Dead by her victims' side, pierced by avenging balls.
XVIII.
Now war runs riot, carnage reigns supreme.
All thoughts of mercy fade from Custer's scheme.
Inhuman methods for inhuman foes,
Who feed on horrors and exult in woes.
To conquer and subdue alone remains
In dealing with the red man on the plains.
The breast that knows no conscience yields to fear,
Strike! let the Indian meet his master now and here. ”

“ A dozen cavalrymen dashing in at the northern and western end of the village could have carried everything before them.
Not forty yards away from the prison lodge, some ten or twelve warriors were clustered, being wounded braves unable to take part in the great battle.
So interested were these worthies in what was passing before their eyes (for, standing on a little elevation, they could see the fight with Reno now drawing to an end, and the gallop to death of brave Custer and his men) , that the little episode in their rear did not serve to attract their attention. ”

“ He was amused by the earnest eyes of my little girl, as she gazed into his face.
"They have a wonderful liking for soldiers," he said. "I knew one little girl to give up all her pretty curls willingly, that she might look like Custis! 'They might cut my hair like Custis's,' she said. Custis! whose shaven head does not improve him in any eyes but hers."
His manner was the perfection of repose and simplicity. As he talked with me I remembered that I had heard of this singular calmness. Even at Gettysburg, and at the explosion of the crater, he had evinced no agitation or dismay. ”

“ The charm of his life is broken, for Custer has fallen; a bullet cleaves a pathway through his side, and as he falters another strikes his noble breast. Like a strong oak stricken by the lightning's bolt, shivering the mighty trunk and bending its withering branches down close to the earth, so fell Custer; but, like the reacting branches, he rises partly up again, and striking out like a fatally wounded giant he lays three more Indians dead and breaks his mighty sword on the musket of a fourth ”

“ Looks, panting, where his captive sister sleeps,
And o'er his face the shade of murder creeps.
His nostrils quiver like a hungry beast
Who scents anear the bloody carnal feast.
He longs to leap down in that slumbering vale
And leave no foe alive to tell the awful tale.
XXXVIII.
Not so, calm Custer. Sick of gory strife,
He hopes for rescue with no loss of life;
And plans that bloodless battle of the plains
Where reasoning mind outwits mere savage brains.
The sullen soldiers follow where he leads;
No gun is emptied, and no foeman bleeds. ”

“ There have been men of learning who have denominated their works from the families, of which they treated; and have accordingly sent them into the world under the title of Phaleg, Japhet, and Javan. I might, in like manner, have prefixed to mine the name either of Cuth, or Cuthim; for, upon the history of this people my system chiefly turns. It may be asked, if there were no other great families upon earth, besides that of the Cuthites, worthy of record: if no other people ever performed great actions, and made themselves respectable to posterity. ”

“ Finding there was no disposition on the part of General Custer to harm them, the Indians despatched a courier to their principal village, requesting the warriors to be present at a council with the whites. This council was held on the following day, but though Custer dispensed coffee, sugar, bacon, and other presents to the Indians, his advice to them regarding the occupation of their country by miners was treated with indifference, for which, he observes in his official report, “I cannot blame the poor savages.” ”

“ Their information proved that the Indians were across the divide, over in the valley of the Little Horn. Custer, confident of his ability to whip the Indians single-handed, prepared for fight at once. He pushed ahead on the trail, and created the impression that it was his determination to get to the spot, and have one battle royal with the Indians, in which he and the Seventh should be the sole participants on our side, and in consequence the sole heroes. The idea of defeat seems never to have occurred to him. ”

“ If by any probability Rain-in-the-face did kill Custer, he certainly would have scalped him and mutilated his body. Custer was not scalped, nor was his person at all abused; and the reason generally given for this immunity from the common custom of savage warfare is, that the Indians had such a profound admiration for his wonderful bravery that they spared the great [278] "white warrior" that humiliation. This is the weakest point of the whole argument—for the greater the man in the savages' estimation, the more eager would they be to secure his scalp. ”

“ Whilst in this persuasion they still tarried there, lo! again, after long wanderings through many valleys, the peoples of Corn and the Seed found them there, through seeing of their smoke, and in the near valley to the eastward found they as well the peoples of the Corn and the Seed, dwelling in their great round towns, the smoke whereof wanderers had also erstwhile been. So they said to them, "Ye are our younger brothers! At Mátsaki, here at the Middle, let us dwell in peace as one people, others of our kinds around about us, yet with us!" ”

“ They did not, however, begin to equal those of the soldiers. It is grossly unfair to speak of the battle as the “Custer Massacre,” as is often done. Custer attacked the Indians, and they fought him until all the white men were killed. There was no massacre about it.
The cause of the disaster must, first of all, be laid to Custer’s disobedience of orders. In spite of that, however, I think it is probable that he might have won the battle, or at least made good his defense until relieved by Terry and Gibbon, although sustaining heavy loss, had it not been for three happenings. ”

“ It is not that he is more jealous or suspicious of man's approach than other bird; for never shall we suffer ourselves to believe that any tribe of the descendants of the Dove that brought to the Ark the olive tidings of reappearing earth, can in their hearts hate or fear the race of the children of man. But Nature has made the Cushat a lover of the still forest-gloom; and therefore, when his lonesome haunts are disturbed or intruded on, he flies to some yet profounder, some more central solitude, and folds his wing in the hermitage of a Yew, sown in the time of the ancient Britons. ”