Page 274 - Records of Bahrain (2)(ii)_Neat

600 Records of Bahrain

THE ISLANDS OF BAHREIN. 219

in at least 5000 years ago. Of course it was not accomplished
at one time, or in one wave. All colonization, both in Europe
and in Western Asia, seems to have followed the same line
of movement, and the particular migration from Bali rein to
Tyro may have been only one of several successive removals.
It is certainly a remarkable proof of the persistency of
tradition among the Assyrians of their civilization being-
derived from the Persian Gulf, that Nebo, the special
guardian of “the dusky race,” and the tutelar god of Bahrein,
is always spoken of in the Assyrian mythology as the
inventor of the system of, Cuneiform writing.1 I havo some­
times fancied, indeed, that the entire line of immigration
might bo traced by following the records of local worship.
' For instance, the cult of Nebo, “the burnt or dusky god,” may
havo been originally established at Bahrein as a protecting
influence against the volcano (or Jabal Dukhan, “mountain of
smoko”), still to be seen in the island, for, according to Justin,
it was to cscapo the earthquakes, caused no doubt by this terror
of nature, that the first emigrants left the island.2 Ilea’s shrine
at Khalukh, or Khardk, would then form the next historical step
in the progress of the colony ; from whence, according to the
same tradition, the emigrants passed on to the “Assyrian stag-
num,” just as we find that Ilea, sprung from >->~y Q”, “ the
primeval spirit of the deep,” fixed his first capital at the
blessed city Erid or Tib, on the northern shore of the inland
sea or abst't, the locality having, indeed, preserved its sacred
character almost to the present day.3 Ilea, or Oannes, it must

1 See, among other passages, B.M.I. vol. ii. p. 60,1. 34. A dissertation of some
extent, if not of much interest, on Echo’s connexion with writing and learning,
will be found in my essay “ On the Religion of the Babylonians and Assyrians ”
(Herodotus, vol. i. p. 639). Tho Babylonian Hermes was well known to the later
Greeks as tho reputed author of the Chakkeau oracles, and thcro are two Gods
mentioned in tho lists, under tho names of Jr mis and Kharmis, from whom tho
Greeks may perhaps havo borrowed tho title, though thoir function seems to luivo
been to protect tho zitjrjurals or ‘ towers of tho temples,’ rather than the libraries.
B.M.I. vol. iii. p. 66, col. 7, 1. 13.
2 Justin, xviii. 3, { 2: “Tyriorum gens comlita a Phocnicibus fait, qui torrm
motu vexati, relicto patriro solo, Assyrium stngimm primum, mox mari proxinnim
littus incolucruut, comlita ibi urbe, quam a piscium ubertato Sidona nppolla-
verunt.” This ahundanco of fish is probably another traco of tho cult of Oannes.
3 I extract the following account of Tib from Yacht: “It is a small town
botweeu 1lrdsit and Khuzistdn. Tho inhabitants aro Nabt to the present day, mid
their languago Nabathscan. Dhiul Urn Ahmed I bn Said, a merchant, of Tib,