Page 282 - Records of Bahrain (2)(ii)_Neat

608 Records of Bahrain

TI1E ISLANDS OF BAHREIN. 227

of their traffic, are expressly said by the Greeks to have been
Arabian nomadcs,1 that is, they were Jcr'd'i, or inhabitants of
“the sandy desert,” just as the Bedouin or Beddw'i derive
their name from Bddiych, which has pretty well the same
signification. It would be a subject of great ethnographical
interest to show how and when the Semitic Arabs, to whom
these Jer’di, or Gcrrhccans, undoubtedly belonged, superseded
the early, I will not venture to say the aboriginal, Turanian
population along the shores and in the islands of the Persian
Gulf. The clue is to be found probably in a close comparison
of the antc-Islamic traditions and idolatry of the Arabs with
the mythology of the Cuneiform inscriptions; though before
any definite results could be obtained, it would be necessary
to resolve that mythology into its respective Turanian and
Semitic elements,—a labour which has not yet been attempted
by even our most advanced Assyriologists, and for which,
indeed, it may be doubted if sufficient materials have been as
yet obtained.
. P.S.—'The Trustees of tho British Museum, appreciating
the valuo of Captain Durand's researches at Bahrein,
allotted last year a sum of £100 for experimental excava­
tion's in the island, on behalf of the British Government, and
would have augmented the grant if there had been any
reasonable prospect of finding further specimens of Cuneiform
writing; but when the instructions reached Bush ire, Captain
Durand had been recalled to India, and the opportunity has
not since arisen of deputing another officer to tho island to
continue the work of opening the tombs; but the search,
though suspended, lias not been abandoned, and important
results may yet be looked for.

1 Nicand. Aloxiph. vera. 244. Tho roulo followed by tho caravans from
Gerrhn to Palmyra was probably tho sumo which, in a contrary direction, Mr.
Palgravc pursued from Syria by JRiil, lliadh, and Ml-Alisa to Ka(if.