278 THE EASTERN ORIGIK OF THE CELTS, 



and the present stsste of my knowledge does not allow me to assert 

 which of these connections is the most worthy of confidence.^ 1 may 

 not even have discovered the precise relations in which the personages 

 with whose history I deal stood to one another. Yet this, I thinky 

 will be found indisputable, that they were iatimately related, and 

 that their descendants constituted an important element in the gi'eat 

 Celtic family of nations. 



My starting point is the family to which Gilead belonged. This 

 family I believe to have been that of Bethlehem. However, this for 

 the present is immat-erial. We read that Gilead had a sister, whose 

 name was Hammoleketh, or, The Queen.* This remarkable lady, for 

 such her name would indicate her to have been, has no husband 

 assigned her in the Bible, but the names of her three sons are given. 

 These are Ishod or Ishchod, Abiezer, who is also called Ezer, and 

 Mahalah. In seeking for a fuller genealogy of the family of Ham- 

 moieketh, I found it impossible to associate any of the Ezers , of 

 Chronicles with her second son, and for the first no connections 

 appear. A geographical trace is, however, afibrded for the identifica- 

 tion of the former in a place in Abiezer of Palestine, called Ophrah.^ 

 Now Ophrah is mention.ed among the descendants of Othniel the 

 Kenezite. His father is Meonothai, who seems to have married 

 Hathath, the daughter and only child of Othniel. It is very pro- 

 bable, therefore, that Meonothai was the son of Ezer or Abiezer.^ A 

 more interesting connection has been found for Mahalah. His name 

 is identical, not only with that of the place called Meholah or Abel 

 Meholah, which was Gileadite, as was also Ezer, Jazer or Abiezer, 

 but also with Mahol, .the name of a sage mentioned in the book of 

 Kings.'^ There his three sons are spoken of, their names being 

 Heman, Chalcol and Darda. These sons of Mahol again appear in 

 the book of Chronicles among the descendants of Judah with slight 

 changes, Calcoi and Dara presenting variations illustrative of the 

 mutable character of early language.* Heman, Calcoi and Dara are 

 in Chronicles called sons of Zerah, an honour which they shared with 



3 Bponyms like Ishod and EsMon, Molebeth and Molid, Abishur and Abiezer, Mamre and 

 Ziinran, Eshcol and Chalcol, cannot fail to present great difficulties in the attempt to distinguasb 

 their traces in many languages. 



4 1 Chron. vii. IS. 



5 Judges vi. 11. 



6 1 Chron. iv. 13, 14. 



' Judges vii. 22 ; Numb. xsi. 32 ; 1 Kings iv. H, 

 s 1 Chios, ii, 6, 



