Page 224 - Records of Bahrain (2)(ii)_Neat

550 Records of Bahrain

00. Socortdly, and this I think a more probablo answer to the question, or at
any rate ono worthy of consideration that theso islands woro the ccmotory of
Gorrha, which was tho great Phoenician mart in theso parts, and which is
bolioved to lmvo lain at tho bottom of tho long bay behind Bahrain.
70. Causes, such as their fertility, their temples (?), their abundance in most
bonutiful wator, may havo caused thctc islands to have been regarded ns holy
ground.
71. Even at tho present day tho Hindoos look to be taken to the bosom of the
Ganges, or tho dovout Mnhomcdnn of theso pans to be lain in the holy dust of
Korbola. May not somo ancient tribo of Phoenicians on tho mainland have
looked to sleep their long sleep in the hallowed dust of these sacred islands ?
This may seem a fnv-fetchcd idea, butt-lie vastness of the series of mounds must
be my excuse. I havo not heard of si eh auothcr necropolis abovo ground in
the world.
72. With regard to tho distance ai likely to negative this idea, compare tho
distances that the tribo of ltoyal Scythians aro said to have carried their Kings
beforo they laid thorn dually to rest in their appointed places of sepulture oh
the Borystheues in the land of the Gc:rhi.
73. The Thracians or Goths buried under tumuli, the Scythians, Lydians,
Seo Chapter 71. Hook IV, ltnwlin* and Libyans also, and indeed the custom appears to
son's UernilnLni with tho notes bear* have been very generally adopted by the wandering
ing on those subjects.
Indo-European populations of the earth.
7'4. With regard to the bones of animals found,* compare the Scythian
customs. These gentlemen, when Kings at any
• Related below.
rate, had a pet wife, a pet horse, and other valued
possessions buried with them. This vas hard on the wives and attendants,
as also on tho body of 50 handsome youths and horses who wero killed, stuffed,
and staked round the tomb as a mortuary body-guard—a ghastly sight.
75. To return, however, to Gorrha, as the first cause of these ccmctrics, the
correct site of which has been somewhat disputed! I)t\ 'Anvillo would havo
placed it at Kalif, Niebuhr at Kowoit or Grain, nud so on, hut. Forster places it, I
think probably correctly, at the bottom of the hay behind Bahrain. [Sec Map.]
Not content with his argument supported by Pliny and Strabo’s accounts, whose
descriptions, if they fail to apply here, will scarcely apply anywhere in the Gulf,
Forster argues further that it is the received opinion that this country (tho
modern pmvincc of linear or Bahrain) derived its
•See Section 1, Part I.
scriptural name and primitivo colonization from tho
Cushite llavilch.
70. The Pison of Genesis enclosed this land, which was tho name for tho
branch* of the Euphrates, that ran parallel to the
t Pliny nnd the rortugucso Toxcirn.
Gulf and fell into tho Bahrain Islands.
77. Ho contends that a direct proof of this region having borne tho
namo of llavilch is supplied in Aval, a name still retained for tho larger
island of Bahrain.
78. Ptolemy places Gerrha at tho bottom of this same bay, and it is tho
precise site assigned by Abul Feda Nnsir Etfnrsi, and Ulug Beg to the city
of Ilagar, said by Strabo to havo been founded by Chaldean exiles.
79. Forster says that tho word Gorra is mcroly the anagram for Ilagar,
whose descendants ho traces in tho Agrai of tho classics.
t Vincent in liis Ervlhrcnn Sen or l’orinlu*. I forgot which, makes Onrrlin lo lmvo been on the site of the
present Kntif, nnd as to deducing Tynans nnd Arndians from the tinmen nf these Gulf islnnds, says simply, or
rather unfairly, tlmt it is consonant wills the perpetual vanity of tho Greeks, who reduce everything unknown
to tho standard of thoir own fabulous history.
I think that this place _mny, nmougstnthcr reasons, havo drawn importance from its situation in regard to the
monsoon nnd the aliimal winds of tho Gulf itself, ns well ns perhaps from the debouchure of u mouthy of Ihu
Euphrates? With regard to this, sco some account of monaoons, &c„ in Vincent'* preliminary observation* to
tho " Voyngo of Ncnrclius."
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