It is this name which Diodorus represents under the form of Elms ('H?
?oc), 7 and Sanchoniathon, or rather Philo-Byblius, under that of _Elus_ or _Ilus_.

The meaning of the word is simply "God," or perhaps "the god" emphatically.

_Ra,_ the Cushite equivalent, must be considered to have had the same force originally, though in Egypt it received a special application to the sun, and became the proper name of that particular deity.

The word is lost in the modern Ethiopic.

It formed an element in the native name of Babylon, which was _Ka-ra,_ the Cushite equivalent of the Semitic _Bab-il,_ an expression signifying "the gate of God." Ra is a god with few peculiar attributes.