Page 275 - Records of Bahrain (2)(ii)_Neat

Topography and archaeology, 1878-1879 601

220 TIIE ISLANDS OF BAHREIN.

be remembered, was half-fish half-man, and wherever, there­
fore, we find notices of tlio fish worship, we may perhaps
recognize the influence of the passage of Ilea’s colony. The
line of advance, indeed, would seem indicated, 1st, by Hea’s
mother' in the Indian Ocean; 2nd, by Ilea himself in the
Persian Gulf, and ns far north as Tib; and 3rd, by his
daughter >->~y £Xrv*< | having founded and named Nineveh,

which is represented by the same monogram as the name of
the goddess, and signifies “ tho shrine of the fish. ” i From
Nineveh we might trace the passage of tho colony—along tho
same line, perhaps, that was subsequently followed by the
Ibris or Hebrews—by the holy fish at Harran and Hierapolis
(or Carchemish)2 to Syria, where, as we know, fish had every-
. .. (the peace of God ho on him), says as follows : It is current amongst us
that Tib was founded hy Seth, the son of Adam, and that its people continued in
tho religion of Seth, which is tho samo as Sabseism, until Islfun arose, wheu they
became Mohammedans. . There wero somo wonderful talismans in Tib, some of
which have become obsolete, while others remain in forco to tho present day, one
of them being that any wasp entering tho placo dies immediately ; and almost up
to our present time no snake or scorpion was to ho found in the place, and to this
very day neither a black and white crow nor a mngpio can come there.’* Among
the many arguments in favour of identifying Tilt with tho Eden of Genesis, I may
mention two which arc not generally known. Tho Juklui, answering to the Gihon
of Genesis, is the name of the eastern arm of tho Tigris on one side of Tib; while the
l'hison, called in tho Samaritan version JCadtif, and nnsweriug to tho Kerkha or
Euheus, which comes from Mihrjdn KadaJ\ <—or Semerrah,
and alone of all the Babylonian rivers contains the Solium or ‘onyx stone,’ is on tho
other. For the Accadian namo of Tsibba (equivalent to Tib), applying to Erid or
‘ the blessed city,* sco B.M.I. vol. iv. p. 21, 1. 40.
1 It is impossible to overlook tho fact that in both of tho Biblical apologues
relating to Nineveh, tho account, I mean, of the journey of Jonah, and the
apocryphal story of Tobit, aftsh plays tho principal part, which, if it be a mcro
coincidence, is at least rcmarkablo; but I must reserve auy further remarks on
tho fish legend for another occasion.
2 I tako this opportunity of asserting my own claim to tho discovery that tho
Carchemish of the Biblo (Garyamis ol tho Inscriptions) was represented not by
Circcssium, at tho mouth of tho Khabur, but by Hierapolis, or Maboy, consider­
ably to tho north, an identification which, in the late excellent ariiclo in 'The
'Times newspaper on tho history of tho Ililtitcs, was credited to Signor Maspero. I
announced this discovery in 1803 (sco my paper on tho “ Early History of Baby­
lonia,” Journal of tho Royal Asiatic Socioty, Vol. XV. p. 231), and poiuted out
that tho Syrians translated Carchemish by Mabog (2 Chron. xxxv. 20), a namo
derived from the ‘mother of tho Gods,’ or ‘Syria Dca,’ who was worshipped
there. And here I may add, ns a curious coincidence, that Atargatis (or Nninn
Tar'aid), tho Syriac namo for tho great Goddess, signifies ‘a gate’; and that
Camis, the name of tho great Goddess of tho primitive Italians, seems to havo had
tho samo signification, ns sho was also called Janua (the wifo of Janus). Is it
then allowable to translate Kar-yamis (or Carchemish) “tho fort of tho Goddess
Gamis or Camis (tho gate) ” ? Tho samo Goddess seems to havo bccii culled
Jtdbia hy tho Syrians of a later ago.