Martinsburg herald. [volume] (Martinsburg, W. Va.) 1881-1920, 1890-06-14
Old Legends Proved True.

cred of late that some of the state
ments of ancient writers, which we
have regarded in our fancied wisdom
IS too marvellous to be believed, are
nevertheless true. The geographer
Ptolemy for instance, wrote that the
source Of the Nile was In a mountain
range, known as the Mountains of the
Moon, because of the snow upon them.
Modern geographers scoffed at the
idea that there could be such lofty
mountains under the equator, but
Stanley, in his Tow famous march to
the sea, skirted the foot Of range OF
snow-clad mountains, called BY him
Ruwenzori, from whose streams is
formed the newly discovered Lake Al
bert Edward, the EXTREMIST source of
the Nile.
So Herodotus, the Father of History,
repeatedly asserted that the Phnni-
clans thought that they originally came
from the Erythraan Sea or Persian
Gulf. This statement modern schol-
ars have found very difficult to believe
the writers of the article Phenicia
in the last edition of the Encyclopsdia
Britannica style it "a mere blunder.
An English traveller, however, has very
recently made discoveries in the Bah
rein Islands in the Persian Gulf which
render it almost certain that the greas
historian was right,
These islands are small group "
ing about twenty miles off the Arabian
coast, and were formerly of great COM
mereial importance. The Inhabitants,
besides possessing a pearl fishery
which was noted in the days of Alex-
ander the Great, and now produces
the finest pearls in the world, carried
on an important trade with Arabia and
Persia. This they have almost entirely
lost, but with the construction of the
Euphrates Railway it will doubtless
spring up again,
One of the two principal towns has
singular water-supply in spring
which at high water is six feet below
the surface of the sea- water is
brought up either by divers who go
down with skins, or by pushing a hol
low bamboo down into it. At low tide
there is very little water over it, and
women with large amphore and goat
skins, which look very real and life
like, though headless, wade out and
fetch what water they require" The
Arabs believe that this and several
other similar springs on the coast come
from the Euphrates, which they think
flows beneath the Persian Gulf in an
underground channel, legend as old
as the days of Pliny.
In the northern part of the largest
island, which is twenty-seven miles
long by ten broad, there is very re-
markable collection of sepulchral
mounds, covering an area of many
miles. Some of these are elevated
only few feet above the level of the
desert. Others are more than forty
feet high, and about four hundred feet
in circumference. Several of these
have recently been excavated by Mr..
J. Theodore Bent, a we'll known Eng
lish traveller, wht has given an account
of his discoveries to the Royal Geo
graphical Society.
He says that they consist of two
chambers, the one above the other, as
is the case with some Phenician tombs
just uncovered in ancient Carthage
In the upper chamber of one which he
examined were the bones of an animal
presumably horse, and innumerable
fragments of Ivory-boxes, ornaments,
bits of small statues. Many OF these
fragments were ornamented with pat
terms which bear close and unmis-
taxable resemblance to worries found
In Phenieian tombs on the Mediter-
ranean. Our readers will doubtless
remember that King Solomon got ivory
by means Of the ships of Hiram, the
Phenician king of Tyre
The lower chamber was more care
fully constructed than the upper, and
: contained human bones together with
the remains of drapery which had been
hung around the walls. another Phae-
nician custom. The ivory fragments
have been deposited in the British
Museum, and one of the officials has
recently publicly said that "as far as
the evidence went at present, he
thought the Museum authorities were
prepared to admit that the BahreiA Isl
ands probably represented primitive
site of the Phnnician race"
This probable confirmation of the
statement of Herodotus is certainly
more satisfactory than the favorite oc-
cupation of some modern writer's, the
proving the falsity of stories which
have always been confidently believed
such stories. for instance, as that of
the Swiss hero William Tell.