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. Epiphanius says that Babel, or Babylon, was the first city
built after the flood.

The Cushites were a large and numerous body, and after their dispersion
from Babylon they were scattered "Abroad upon the face of the earth."
They were the same people who imparted their rites and religious
services into Egypt, as far as the Indus and the Ganges, and still
further into Japan and China. From this event is to be discovered the
fable of the flight of the Grecian god Bacchus, the fabulous wanderings
of Osiris, and the same god under another name, of the Egyptians.
Wherever Dionysus, Osiris, or Bacchus went, the Ancients say that he
taught the cultivation of the soil, and the planting of the vine.
Dionysus, Bacchus, or Osiris, as I have shown in a preceding page, were
only other designations for Noah.