THE EASTERN ORIGIN OF THE CELTS. 287 



a form of the word Mahalah. It is therefore interesting to find 

 Hestiseus saying that priests brought his worship into Sennaar of 

 Babylonia.*" Molis or Mylitta, the great goddess connected with 

 Semiramis, if not identical with her, was undoubtedly Moleketli, the 

 queen and wife of Zimran.''^ Her relations with the worship of Sacti 

 and Vesta are explained by the fact that these names were derived 

 from that of her son, Ishod.*^ The land of Milidia, mentioned in 

 the cuneiform inscriptions, and Milisihu, who appears in Mr. George 

 Smith's list of Babylonian kings near TJlam-Buryas, may easily 

 represent Mahalah, the cousin of the latter's father, Peresh.*^ It is a 

 little striking to find three brothers named Muranu, Gatiya (the 

 Indian Chetiya), and Musalimu, sold as slaves in the reign of Sim- 

 masihuj who follows Kurigalzu, the supposed father of Milisihu." 

 This may simply indicate that the names, being those of royal per- 

 sonages, were common at the time, for such names do not belong to 

 later Babylonian history. - Usati, the name of the father of the three 

 slaves, is nearer to that of Ishod than Gatiya. Aswad, the name of 

 Akkerkuf, is probably a restored form of Ishod. There is every 

 reason to believe that the Sumerians or Cymri, Chaldeans or Cul- 

 dees, and Daradse or Druids, made their first home somewhere near 

 the junction of the Tigris and Euphrates. Marmarus, the Baby- 

 lonian whom Pliny mentions along with the Medes Apusorus and 

 Zaratus, as an inventor of magic, was pi'obably Mamre, the uncle of 

 Zimran.*^ I am not disposed to heed the unscientific modes of con- 

 necting sacred and profane history prevalent in last century. The 

 cojinection which the Abbe Banier established between Druidical 

 worship and the oaks of Mamre, however, I hold to be worthy of the 

 most serious attention.*® 



If any part of the world possessed a Zimrite population before 

 Chaldea, it was Arabia. Abraham sent his sons by Ketnrah east- 

 ward into the east country, which would embrace these two regions.*' 

 The Katoorah were a famous people in Arabian history, whom Pliny 



« Cory's Ancient Fragments. 



*i Rawlinson's Herodotus, i. 131 note, and App., Essay x. 

 *2 Cox's Aryan Mythology, ii. 117. 



*3 Transactions of tlie Society of Bib. Archiseology, 1. 1, 65. 

 4* Records of tlie Past, v. 79, 85 note. 



^ H. N. XXX. 2. Sinuri, a mytliical diviner, whose name has been discovered by Mr. George 

 Smith, may have been Zimran. The Chaldean account of Genesis. 

 « The Mythology and Fables of the Ancients explained from History. London, 1740, iii. 224. 

 *' Gen. XXV. 6. 



