'The Expedition for the survey of the rivers Euphrates and Tigris, carried on by order of the British government, in the years 1835, 1836, and 1837; preceded by geographical and historical notices of the regions situated between the rivers Nile and Indus. In four volumes. With fourteen maps and charts, and embellished with ninety-seven plates, besides numerous wood-cuts. Volume the first.' [‎269] (336/905)

CHAP. XII.]
TIGRIS AND EUPHRATES.
269
Eden to water the garden, and from thence it was parted,
and became into four heads." The name of the first is Pison,
and the name of the second is Gihon, &c.
Whatever doubts may be entertained about the first and Certainty of
second streams mentioned in the book of Genesis, there can fomthriveS
be little regarding the third, which flows at present, as it did
in the time of Moses, towards the east of Ashur, or Assyria,
bearing, in the Chaldean language, the name of Hiddekel,
Dekel, Dijel, or Diglath, and Tigris, from its well-known
swiftness. 1 Still less can there be any uncertainty about the
fourth, which was evidently too well known to require more
than the brief but expressive sentence, " and the fourth river
is Euphrates." 2
Presuming the identity of the third and fourth rivers
(Tigris and Euphrates) to be sufficiently established, the in
quiry is reduced to that of Pison and Gihon; the sources of
which, according to scripture, must be sought for in the
same region, and there only; since we find it stated that the
separation takes place in Paradise itself.
At the head of the fertile valleys of the Halys, Aras, Tigris inquiry con-
and Euphrates, we find, as might be expected, the highest ETnd 6
mountains which were known for a great many centuries after sec0Tld -
the Flood; and in this lofty region are the sources of the
four great streams above-mentioned, which flow through
Eden in directions tending towards the four cardinal points.
The passage in the original is,—
dwi rwiivb rrm tisp am» pn-na mp^nb ^ "inn
of which the following has been given as a literal translation: " And a river
(or rivers) went out from Eden, to water the garden : thence it (or they) spread
out; that is, had four heads."
Here the words went out must be equivalent to " rose infor as the gar
den was planted in Eden (Gen. ii. 8), the river need not flow out from Eden
in order to water it: the words signify to spread, or dissipate, but not divide.
The succeeding verses plainly show that there were four distinct rivers corre
sponding with the four heads, as their names are given.—MS. of Dr. Aloys
Sprenger, M.D.
1 Where it becomes rapid, it takes the name of Tigris, which, in the Median
tongue, signifies an arrow.—Pliny, lib. VI. c. xxvii., and Strabo, lib. XL,
p. 529. E Genesis ii. 14.