282 THE EASTERN ORIGIN OF THE CELTS. 



with tlie Celtic languages, I doubt not that similar agreements of 

 the Hebrew and the Celtic might be found in the case of the other 

 names. 



As, in tracing the wandei'ings of the Celts, Persia was my starting 

 point, it is fitting that the Cymri should first meet ns in the same 

 ancient, historic land. It is there, between the Oxus and the In- 

 dian Ocean, that Ptolemy and other geographers placed the Comar- 

 ians.-*® There, also, we find the Gimiri of the Persian inscriptions ; 

 and from the same region Pezron derived his Cymri, in which he 

 has been followed by more recent and more scientific investigators.^^ 

 Now, the Bible should shed some light upon this large portion of the 

 population of a country which had important relations with Pales- 

 tine. And so it does. In Jeremiah xxv. 25, we find the people of 

 Persia classified as Zimri, Elam and the Medes. Elam I have already 

 identified with the Gileadite or Celtic line. I do not at present 

 enter upon the origines of the Medes, who, I am convinced, were like 

 Zimran of the so-called Midianite family, deriving their name, as 

 Matieni itself indicates, from Medan and Midian, two of the sons 

 of Abraham by Keturah.^^ Zimri is identical with the name we 

 have already found in Chronicles, and is thq form in which we should 

 naturally expect the Zimranites to appear. I have indicated that 

 the word Zimran presents a variety of modifications in transliteration. 

 The initial z may be represented by c, g, d, t, or s, and may even be 

 replaced by a breathing or an open vowel. An illustration of the 

 latter has been seen in the identity of the Hebrew Zimran with the 

 Erse Amhran. Bat a better illustration is afibrded in the Arabian 

 Homeritse, who, according to the testimony of Philostorgius, were 

 the descendants of one of the sons of Abraham by Keturah ; and 

 this son can be none other than Zimran." Another form is that of 

 the LXX.jin which Zambran is the equivalent of the Hebrew word. 

 Such a form meets us in the modern Pereian name. Gombroon. In 

 addition to this name, which belongs to Persis, we find Amariese in 

 Media ; Amarusa, Asmura, Samariana and Tambrax, in Hyrcan,ia ; 

 Ambrodax in Parthia and Margiana ; Semiramides Montes in Car- 

 l's Ptolem. vi. 11. Pomp. Melte, L 2. 



17 Rawlinson's Herodotus, App. Book iv., Essay 1. Pezron's Antiquities of Nations, i. 2, 3, &c, 

 IS The traces of the Midianites are found in all the Ziinrite regions of Asia, Africa and Europe-, 

 extending even to the Modona or Slaney in Ireland. Were I to add the traces of Jokslian, this. 

 ^aper would double its size. 

 13 Philostorgii Epit. iii. 4, ap. Photium. 



