The morning call. [volume] (San Francisco [Calif.]) 1878-1895, 1890-07-27
OLD LEGENDS.
Some Too Marvellous to Be Be-
lieved Are Nevertheless True.

FAT has not infrequently been discovered
II of late that some of the statements of
AtG ancient writers which we have regard
ed in our fancied wisdom as too marvellous
to be believed, are nevertheless true. The
geogTapher, Ptolemy, for instance, wrote
that the source of the Nile was in noun
tain range known as the Mountains of the
Moon, because of the snow upon them.
d Idern geographers, says the outh's Com
paniOn, scuffed at the idea that there could
be such lofty mountains under the equator,
but Stanley, i'll his now famous march to
the sea-" skirted the foot of range of
snOw-clad mountains, called by him Ru-
wenzori, from whose streams is formed the
newly discovered Lake Albert Edwa I'd, the
EXTREMIST source of the Nile.
So HerOdotus, the father of history, re-
peatedly asserted that the PhRnicians
thought they originally came from the
Erythrean Sea, or Persian Gulf This state
ment modern scholars have found very diff
fcult to believe-the writers of the article
Phmnicia in tile last edition of the Encyclo-
pedia Britannica style it "a mere bunder."
An English traveller, however. has very re-
Gently made discoveries In the Bahreln
Islands in the Persian Gulf which render it
almost certain that the great historian was
right.
about twenty miles off the Arabian coast,
and were formerly Of great commercial i'm
portahce. The inhabitants, besides pos
sessing a pearl fishery which was noted in
the days of Alexander the Great, and now
produces the finest pearls in the world, car
Tied 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 n sim
gular 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 90 down with skins or by push
ing hollow bamboo down into ii. At low
tide there is very little water over it, and
women with large amDhor8 and goat-sklns,
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 us old as
the DAYS of Pliny.
In the northern part of the largest island,
which is twenty-seven miles lOag by ten
broad, there is very remarkable collection
of sepulchrai mounds, covering an area OF
many miles. Some OF these are elevated
only a few feet above the level of the desert.
Others are more than forty feet high and
about 400 feet in circumference Several
of these have recently been eXcavated by
Mr.. j. Theodore Bent, a well-kuOwn En-
Glish traveller, who has given account OF
Society.
He says that they consist of two cham
bers, the one above the other as is the case
with some some PhRnican tOmbS Just I'M
covered in ancient Carthage. In the upper
chamber OF one which ne examined were
the bones of an animal, presumably horse,
and innumerable fragments If ivory boxes.
ornaments, bits Of small statues. Many of
these fragments were ornamented with pat
terms which bear close and unmiStakable
resemblance to worries found in Pbmnician
t0mbs on the Mediterranean. Our readers
will doubtless remember that King Solomon
got ivory by means of the ships of Hiram,
the Pheuician King of Tyre.
The lower chamber was more carefully
constructed than the upper and contained
human bones, together with the remains OF
| drapery which had. been hung around the
! walls, another PbHDician custom. The
ivory fragments have been deposited in the
| British Museum, and one of its officials has
recently publicly said that "as far as the
| evidence went at present he thought the
MUSEUM were prepared to admit that the
Bahreln Islands probably represented a
primitive site OF the Ph9nician race"
| The probable confirmation of the state
| ment Of Herodotus is certainly more salts
| factory than the favorite occupation of
some modern writer's. the proving the falls
| ity Of stories which have always been con-
| fidently beleved-such stories, Tor instance.
| as that of the Swiss hero, William Tell.