Page 276 - Records of Bahrain (2)(ii)_Neat

602 Records of Bahrain
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TIIE ISLANDS OF BAHREIN. 221
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where a sacred character, and where, at Ascalon and Ashdod
in particular, the fish god was especially worshipped, This

curious subject would require for its illustration far more
study than I can here bestow on it, but it is well worth tho
attention of those who have time at their command.
i I now propose, before closing my notes, briefly to consider
■
tho geographical branch of the subject.
■ i There has long been, as it is well known, great un­
certainty and a great conflict of opinion with regard to tho
i
identification of tho islands of tho Persian Gulf in Ancient
Geography; but this uncertainty has arisen mainly from an
imperfect sifting of the authorities. Guided by our present
improved knowledge both of the hydrography of tho Gulf,
and of the vernacular nomenclature of tho region, I venture
to think that all difficulties disappear, and that wo can
identify the Greek forms of the Arabian names as certainly
as we can identify the isles of the Archipelago. Tho Greeks
gained their first acquaintance with this part of Asia from
Ncarchus, Alexander’s Admiral, the narrative of whose
voyage was compiled by Arrian some centuries after the
event, from the logs of tho officers employed in the ex­
pedition. Strabo had also access to tho same materials,
cither directly, or through Eratosthenes, and thus often
furnishes a valuable commentary on Arrian. It is only
indeed by comparing tho accounts of these two authors
1
that we get at the true reports of Alexander’s officers
as to the Persian and Arabian coasts. Ncarchus’s fleet,
after leaving Armozeia (Bender Abbass or old Hormuz),
coasted along the island of ICishm, to which Arrian, Strabo,
Ptolemy, and Pliny all give the name of Oaracta or Voroctha
(modern Vroct), and anchored at two points upon the coast, the
Persian governor of the district, named Mazcncs, coming on
board at the first or most castcrnly station, and taking charge
of tho pilotago of the expedition from that point as far
on as the Pasitigris. Tho Greeks did not venture into the
interior of Voroctha, and what they learnt, therefore, of tho
geography of tho island and its neighbourhood must have
corao from Mazcncs and his companion Mithropastes, Satrap