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THE INDIAN ANTIQUARY
(July, 1896
those found on the sea-coast of Western Arabia, and are, perhaps, rude representations of early Ethiopic. Besides these inscriptions, there are figures of men, of camels, &c., but more generally their feet are so cut in pairs, as if a soft rock had yielded to their weight. Crosses occur very frequently, as do also figures having a snake's head. Some religious edifice most probably was erected near this, of which there are, however, now no remains ; a few rude huts are seek to the south-east."
The inscriptions on the coast of Western Arabia, alluded to above, are probably those found by Captain Carless, of the Indian Navy at Wajh, on the east coast of the Red Sea, Lat. 26°15' N., and described by him in the Proceedings of the Bombay Branch of the Royal Asiatic Society, July 1845. The annexed plate is a tracing of his drawingProfessor Bayley Balfour, during his expedition to Soķotra in 1880, discovered similar inscriptions on the Kadbâb plain, and took copies of then, but he has not pablished them in his book (Trans. of R. S. Edin. Vol. XXXI. "Botany of Socotra").
The crosses in the inscription discovered by Wellsted, at first view, seem to indicate the work of a Christian race; but I am inclined to think that they belong to a period long antece dent to the introduction of Christianity. It is a well-established fact that among several nations the cross was symbolical of the Garden of Eden with its four rivers, and hence, perhaps, of the submerged continent of Atlantis. In Assyria and Chaldea it was emblematical of creative power and eternity. The figures having a snake's head" may be representations of the ancient Chaldean god Hea or Hoa, which Professor G. Rawlinson connects with the Arabic Hiya, meaning at once "life" and "a serpent," since, according to the best authority, there are very strong grounds for connecting Hea or Lioa with the serpent of Scripture, and the Parudisaical traditions of the tree of knowledge and the tree of life."17
The worship of the Moon by the Soķotrans is another circumstance tending to connect thern with the ancient Chaldeans. Sin, or Harki, or Hurle was the Moon-god of the latter mation, and the Sokotrau word for "the moon" is irah. The Chaldean Sun-god was San or Sans, and the Sokotran word for the sun is shihan.
The ancient Chaldean worship of the Moon and other planets was revised in the Middle Ages by the pagan sect known as the Harrani Sabeans, whose seat was the town of Harran (Hellenopolis) in the north of Mesopotamia, ten miles south-east of Edessa (Orfa) on the banks of the small river Belik, about fifty nsiles north of its junction with the Euphrates. It possessed, among many others, a temple of the Moon, of an octagonal shape; the city retained its importance down to the period of the Arab ascendancy. ("Harên " in Ene. Brit.) Hach of the planets had a temple dedicated to its worship, and each temple was of a different shape ; thus the temple of Saturn was hexagonal. Jupiter, a triangle; Mars, an oblong the San, a square; Mercury, a triangle: Venus, & triangle inscribed in an oblong; and the temple of the Moon was - as before stated - Octagonal. These various forms were connected with certain allegories and mysteries which the Sabeans never divalged. They used to offer sacrifices and barn incense in honour of the stars. One of the temples dedicated to Azar, the uncle of the patriarch Abraham, had four vaults beneath it, in which were idols representing the celestial bodies and superior divinities. It is not impossible that the subterranean habitations, ofready described, were at one period used for similar purpose.
The Harrânis were celebrated astrologers ; 20 and we learn frora Marco Polo that the Sukotrans bad a similar reputation. He says : -
"And you must know that in this Island (Sokotra) there are the best enchanters in the world. It is true that their Archbishop forbids the practice to the best of bis ability: but 'tis
1 Rawlinson's Five Great Monarchien, Vol. I. p. 153. Vide also Ignatius Donnelly's Atlantis: the antediluvian Whold. Chap. V
"It is not unenmoon for the second syllable in an Assyrian or Babylonian god's name to be dropped unimportuot." Five Great Mon. Vol. I. p. 167 .. 1.113 Chap LIVIL
Spreager's Bl Mas'uds, p. 216 et seq. Dotas.
