THE EASTERN ORIGIN OP THE CELTS. 289 



among whom the Abideh or descendants of Ahidah, the son of 

 Midian, were found, set forth Ishod, Mahalah, Chalcol and Dara. 

 The Camareni and Malichi Islands off the same coast were memorials 

 of Zimran and his wife. If we suppose Chalcol to have been repre- 

 sented by the Chaulasii, who dwelt towards the northern extremity 

 of the Persian Gulf, we shall find the whole family of Zimran 

 appearing in Arabia as the eponyms of powerful tribes. Such were 

 the Zamareni, Homeritse or Omran, the Ascitse, Agrsei, Malichee, Om- 

 anitse, Chaulasii and Dardse. In Kasseem, south of Jebel Shammar, 

 or in the land of the old Zamareni, Mr. Palgrave found a Druidical 

 circle, identical in character with Stonehenge, the work of Emrys or 

 Ambrosius, who gave its name to Ambresbuiy in Wiltshire. Con- 

 cerning it he says : " There is little difference between the stone 

 wonder of Kasseem and that of Wiltshire, except that one is in 

 Arabia and the other, more perfect, in England." ^^ 



If Strabo's statement, with which the accounts of Arabian his- 

 torians seem to agree, be true, we cannot expect to find in the lists of 

 early Arabian monarchs that hereditary descent which would enxible 

 us to speak positively of their Zimrite relationships.^^ Himyar or 

 Hamyer, however, the greatest of Arab sovereigns and the ancestor 

 of the Homeritse, like the Persian Kaiomers and the Chaldean 

 Zmarus, must have been Zimran himself. He is called a son of Abd 

 Shems or Saba, and his brothers wei-e Amru, a repetition of his own 

 name, Ashar or Ezer, and Amelah or Mahalah, his sons.^* Malik 

 was an early king of Oman ; and Shammir a descendant of Himyar. ^^ 

 The descendants of Amelah are said to have emigrated to Damascus, 

 and there the Trachones, a memorial of Darda, are found, together 

 with a Gerra that may be a record of Ezer.^"* Two modern names, 

 Dummar and Aswad, in the same region may preserve the memory 

 of Zimran and Ishod. 



Unlike the family of Gilead, that of his brother-in-law Zimran 

 seems at some remote epoch to have passed over from Arabia into 

 Ethiopia, and to have dwelt for a time also in certain parts of Egypt. 

 We find them in the Sembritse of the former country, who were 



52 Travels in Central Arabia, i. 251. 



63 Strab. xvi. 4, 3. He states that the son does not succeed the father, but the first son of a 

 noble family born after his accession to the throne, 

 s* Sale's Koran, Genealogical Tables. 

 ^ Lenormant & Chevalier, ii. 312. 

 5^* Sale's Koran, chap, xxsiv. note. 



