The origin of the denomination _Chamites_ and _Cushites_ has long been the subject of numerous ethnologic researches, while comparative philology, which has proved itself so potent in the solution of innumerable race-problems, has also been interrogated. The question is, by what name did the Egyptians call themselves or their land; and what meaning did they attach to such names? K-M (whence _Kam_, _Kem_, _Kemi_, _Cham_) signifies "the black land;" though, according to Champollion, it implies "the pure land;" while others give it the meaning of "the sceptre." At any rate, _Cham_ signifies "black" in Egyptian and its ancient dialects--those of Thebes and Memphis, for instance, as also in the Coptic. Egypt proper was called by its inhabitants "the black land" on account of the appearance of its soil; it was black in contradistinction to the _red_ land (or Descher, _i.e._, "desert") which surrounded the Nile valley. The Hebrews borrowed the word from the Egyptians, and transferred it from a geographic to an ethnical name--or rather, perhaps, this application was made by subsequent commentators on the Hebrew writings. Neither was the denomination _Cush_ (Egyptian _Kus_, _Kês-i-or_, _Kăs_) used by the Egyptians for their own land or people. They employed it, as would appear, to denominate lands situated south of Egypt proper; for the Egyptian viceroys who administrated the government of these lands bore the title of "_Si suten n Kus_," or king-sons of Kush. These lands were thickly inhabited by black and brown populations. In the same way, the Hebrews (or Beni-Israel) used the denominations _Cush_ and _Cushites_ in a generic sense for lands and tribes situated south of them; and the term expanded with the peregrinations, forced or voluntary, of the Arabs and Jews. First it was applied to lands and tribes south of Mesopotamia (Naharaina), the birthplace of Heber (Taber) and the Beni-Israel; and when they were in Egypt, either as free or captive Hycksos, they applied the term _Cush_ to the region of Meroe south of the Nile; and (according to Jewish writers) Sabäa, in southern Arabia, was also inhabited by sons of Cush. It would be difficult to determine to which language the word primarily belongs, but, in all probability, early Shemitic writers transmitted it to the ancient Armenians, just as they in turn transmitted it to western or Christian writers. Herodotus used it; and his _Kissia_ is identical with that of the Hebrews and Armenians. The denomination _Chute_, _Chuzi_, _Cossaia_, _Cussaia_, of various dialects of Fore-Asia has reference to the tribes of _Kuschani_, _Kusi_, _Cushites_. Hence Cushites are to be found in Syria, Arabia and Africa.