II. CUSH, is the name of the Country which was watered by the Araxes. They who on this occasion have translated Cush Æthiopia, have made way for that unwarrantable opinion which some have entertained of the River Gihon’s being the Nile. The Nile is too far from the Tigris and Euphrates, to have it said, that it flowed as they did from Paradise. We believe therefore, that by Cush upon the River Gihon, is meant only the antient Country of the Scythians upon the Araxes. Herodotus1 says, that the first Habitation which these People had, was upon the Araxes, and that being forced from thence by the Messagetæ, they passed this River, and retired into the Country of the Cimmerians. Justin2 makes the Phasis and Araxes to be as it were the limits of the Scythians on the south side. Diodorus the Sicilian3 says, that the Scythians who are near Media, abode at first upon the Araxes, and that the Saci and Messagetæ are different Branches of the Scythians. The word Cuthæ and Cutha, whence some have derived Scythæ or Scuthæ, is the same as Cush. The Chaldees generally put the tau where the Hebrews use Schin; they say Cut instead of Cush. The Cuthæans, who came and inhabited the Country of Samaria, were Chusch. Chutb, or Chutha, whence some have derived Scytha.originally belonging to that part of the Country of the Medes, which bordered upon the Caspian Sea. They were therefore of the Cush we are speaking of. There are very sensible Footsteps of this name to be met with round about this Country, as the Quitians, the Cetheans, or Coëtæ, the Cytheans; the Cities of Cotatis, Cetemane, Cythanum, Cyta, Cytaïa, Cethyæum, Cethena.
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