HAM, the youngest son of Noah, was the father of Cush, Mizraim, Phut, and Canaan, each of whom had the several countries peopled by them. With respect to Ham, it is believed that he had all Africa for his inheritance, and that he peopled it with his children. As for himself, it is thought by some that he dwelt in Egypt; but Basnage is of opinion that neither Ham nor Mizraim ever were in Egypt, but that their posterity settled in that country, and called it by the name of their ancestors. And as to Ham's being worshipped as a god, and called Jupiter Hammon, he thinks people may have been led into this mistake by the similitude of names; and that Jupiter Hammon or Ammon was the sun, to which divine honours were at all times paid in Egypt. However this may be, Africa is called the land of Ham in several places of the Psalms (Psal. lxxvii. 51, civ. 23, cv. 22). In Plutarch, Egypt is called Chemia; and there are some traces of the name of Ham or Cham observed in Psochemmis and Psittachemmis, which are cantons of Egypt.