The Land of Midian (Revisited) Volume I Part 18

Endnotes

[EN#1] My collection dates from between the first century B.C.

and the first century A.D.; this can be gathered from comparison with the coins of Alexander Jannaeus and his successor, Alexander II. The tetradrachm may belong to the reign of Alexander the Great, or the ages preceding it.

[EN#2] Here probably disappeared some fine specimens of silicate of copper which caused a delay of three months in the report.--R.

F. B.

[EN#3] Messrs. Edgar Jackson found in the same box:--

Silver (per statute ton)...............2 oz. 17 dwts. 11 grs.

[EN#4] "Box No. 37" yielded silver....13 dwts. 1.6 grs.

[EN#5] "Box. No. 47" yielded silver...12 dwts. 1.6 grms.

[EN#6] In boxes Nos. 48 and 51 Mr. Jenken found silver 2 oz. 13 dwts. 8 grs.; and 4 oz. 5 dwts. 12 grms.

[EN#7] In a fragment of similar "turquoise rock," from the same site (Ziba), Dr. L. Karl Moser, of Trieste, found silver.

[EN#8] In a fragment of similar chalcedony, from the same site (Aba'l-Maru), Dr. Moser found specks of "free gold."

[EN#9] This was the "splendid b.u.t.ton" smelted at Makna.

[EN#10] The "b.u.t.ton" was p.r.o.nounced to be almost pure antimony in the Government Establishment of Mines, Trieste.

[EN#11] In "box No. 4" Messrs. Jackson found rough crystals of corundum; and a qualitative a.n.a.lysis of this sample and "box No.

7" yielded quartz, carbonate of lime, alumina, and oxide of iron.

[EN#12] The italics are mine. Mr. Mathey remarks of the specimen containing 48 grains of gold per ton, "It would be worthless in its present condition; if however, it could be enriched by proper was.h.i.+ng and dressing, and the cost in labour, etc., be not too great, it might be made to give fair returns."

[EN#13] "Little health" at Cairo prevented my choosing the instruments; and the result was that at last I had to depend upon my pocket-set by Casella. Even this excellent maker's maxima and minima failed to stand the camel-jolting. The barometer, lent by the Chief of Staff (Elliott Brothers, 24), contained amalgam, not mercury. The patent messrad, or odometer (Wittmann, Wien), with its works of soft bra.s.s instead of steel, was fit only to measure a drawing-room carpet. M. Ebner sold us, at the highest prices, absolutely useless maxima and minima, plus a barometre aneroide, whose chain was unhooked when it left the box. M. Sussmann, of the Muski, supplied, for fifty francs, a good and useful microscope magnifying seventy-five times. The watches from M.

Meyer ("Dent and Co.!") were cheap and nasty Swiss articles; but they were also subjected to terrible treatment:--I once saw the wearers opening them with table-knives. Fortunately M. Lacaze, the artist, had a good practical knowledge of instruments; and this did us many a good turn.

[EN#14] For Arabian travel I should advise aconite, instead of Dover's powder; c.o.c.kle's pills, in lieu of blue ma.s.s; Warburg's Drops, in addition to quinine; pyretic saline and Karlsbad, besides Epsom salts; and chloral, together with chlorodyne. "Pain Killer" is useful amongst wild people, and Oxley's ginger, with the simple root, is equally prized. A little borax serves for eye-water and alum for sore mouth. I need not mention special medicines like the liqueur Laville, and the invaluable Waldol (oil of the maritime pine), which each traveller must choose for himself.

[EN#15] It is Lane's "Kiyakh, vulgo Kiyak," and Mich.e.l.l's "Kyhak, the ancient Khoiak," or fourth month. The Copts begin their solar year on our September 10-11; and date from the 2nd of Diocletian, or the Era of the "Martyrs" (A.D. 284). It is the old Sothic, or annus quadratus, which became the Alexandrine under the Ptolemies; and which Sosigenes, the Egyptian, converted into the Julian, by a.s.suming the Urbs condita as a point de depart, and by transferring New Year's Day from the equinox to the solstice.

Thus Kayhak I, 1594, would correspond with December 9, A.D. 1877, and with Zul-Hijjah 4, A.H. 1294. On the evening of Kayhak 14 (December 22nd) winter is supposed to set in. The fifth month, Tuba--Lane's "Toobeh," and Mich.e.l.l's "Toubeh, the ancient Tobi"--is the coldest of the year at Suez, on the isthmus and in the adjacent parts of Arabia; rigorous weather generally lasts from January 20th to February 20th. In Ams.h.i.+r, about early March, torrents of rain are expected to fall for a few hours. The people say of it, in their rhyming way, Ams.h.i.+r, Za'bib el-kathir--"Ams.h.i.+r hath many a blast;" and

"Ams.h.i.+r Yakul li'l-Zara 'Sir!

Wa yalhak bi'l-tawi'l el-kasi'r."'

"Ams.h.i.+r saith to the plants, 'Go (forth), and the little shall reach the big."' It is divided into three 'Asharat or tens--1.

'Asharat el-'Ajuz ("of the old man"), from the cold and killing wind El-Husum; 2. 'Asharat el-'Anzah ("of the she-goat"), from the blasts and gales; and 3. 'Asharat el-Ra'i' ("of the shepherd"), from its change to genial warmth. Concerning Barmahat (vulgo Barambat), of old Phamenoth (seventh month), the popular jingle is, Ruh el-Ghayt wa hat--"Go to the field and bring (what it yields);" this being the month of flowers, when the world is green. Barmudah (Pharmuthi)! dukh bi'l-'amudah ("April! pound with the pestle!") alludes to the ripening of the spring crops; and so forth almost ad infinitum. For more information see the "Egyptian Calendar," etc. (Alexandria: Moures, 1878), a valuable compilation by our friend Mr. Roland L. N. Mich.e.l.l, who will, let us hope, prefix his name to a future edition, enlarged and enriched with more copious quotations from the weather-rhymes and the folk-lore of Egypt.

[EN#16] This is a most interesting feature. According to Forskal (Descriptiones xxix.), "Suensia litora, a recedente mari serius orta, nesciunt corallia;" and he makes the submaritime "Cryptogama regio animalis" begin at Tor (Raitha) and extend to (Gonfoda). Near Suez is the Newport Shoal, which could be sailed over with impunity twenty years ago, and which is now dangerous: it resembles, in fact, the other reef at the entrance of the Gulf, where tile soundings have changed, in late years, from 7-7 1/2 fathoms to 3-3 1/2. Geologists differ as to the cause--elevation or accretion by current-borne drift.

[EN#17] In Chap. XIV, we will return to this subject.

[EN#18] "The Gold-Mines of Midian," etc. (London: C. Kegan Paul & Co., 1878).

[EN#19] a.s.suming the sovereign at 97 piastres 40 parahs, this hire would be in round numbers one and two s.h.i.+llings; the s.h.i.+lling being exactly 4 piastres 24 parahs. See Chap. VII. for further details.

[EN#20] Besides a popular account of the stages in "The Gold Mines of Midian," a geographical itinerary has been offered to the Journal of the Royal Geographical Society.

[EN#21] They were, perhaps, a trifle too long for small beasts: seventy-seven centimetres (better seventy); and too deep, sixty, instead of fifty-eight. The width (forty-six) was all right. The best were painted, and defended from wet by an upper plate of zinc; the angles and the bottoms were strengthened with iron bands in pairs; and they were closed with hasps. At each end was a small block, carrying a strong looped rope for slinging the load to the pack-saddle; of these, duplicates should be provided.

In order to defend our delicate apparatus from excessive shaking, we divided the inside, by battens, into several compartments. The smaller cases of bottles and breakables should have been cut to fit into the larger, but this had been neglected at Cairo.

Finally, not a single box gave way on the march: that was reserved for the Suez-Cairo Railway, and for landing at the London Docks.

[EN#22] MM. Gastinel (Bey) and Marie give it per cent.:--

t.i.taniferous iron . . . .. . . . . . . 86.50 Silica . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 10.10 Copper . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3.40 (2 1/2 per cent.) Silver . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 100.0

[EN#23] Hence, evidently, the derivation of the "Marwah" hill near Meccah, and the famous "Marwah" gold mine which we shall visit in South Midian. The Arabs here use Jebel el-Mara and Jebel el-Abyaz (plur. Jibal el-Bayza) synonymously.

[EN#24] Spon: London, 1875. A book opening a new epoch, and duly neglected.

[EN#25] So said the engineer. He relied chiefly upon M. Amedee Burat, p. 229, "Geologic Appliquae" (Paris: Garnier, 1870), who quotes the compte rendu of M. Guillemin, C.E. to the Exposition of 1867. The latter gentleman, who probably did not, like the former, place Mexico in South America, makes the metalliferous lands measure four-fifths of the total surface. I am much mistaken if the same is not the case with Midian.

[EN#26] In "The Gold-Mines of Midian," p. 171, I erroneously a.s.serted that the Beden does not extend to these mountains. The second Expedition could learn nothing about the stag with large branches vaguely spoken of by the Bedawin.

[EN#27] When "miles" are given, I mean the statute of 1760 yards as opposed to the geographical; the latter equals 1 minute (of a degree) = 1 Italian or Arab = 1/4 German = 1 1/4 Roman = 10 stadia.

[EN#28] Were I a wealthy man, nothing would delight me more than to introduce London to La Zarzuela, the Spanish and Portuguese opera bouffe. Sir Julius Benedict tells me that it has reached Paris.

[EN#29] See Le Pionnier, Chemin de Fer Abyssinien d'apre's les desseins de M. J. L. Haddan. Another valuable form is "The Economical" (Mr. Russell Shaw).

[EN#30] Chloritic slate is the matrix of gold in the Brazil and in Upper Styria.

[EN#31] Chap. IX.

[EN#32] Not Tayyibat Ism, as I wrongly wrote in "The Gold Mines of Midian," misled by the Hydrographic Chart. None of the Bedawin could explain the origin of the flattering t.i.tle.

[EN#33] "The Gold-Mines of Midian." Chap. XII.

[EN#34] The so-called Oriental, stalact.i.tic, or variegated alabaster of Upper Egypt was nowhere hit upon.

[EN#35] The Ptolemeian parallel is nearly right; the place must not be confounded with Modi'ana or Modouna (ibid.), a coast-settlement in north lat. 27 degrees 45', between Onne and the Hippos Mons, Monte Cavallo.

[EN#36] I have no wish to criticize my able predecessor. His map, all things considered, is a marvel of accuracy; and the high praise of Wellsted (ii. 148) only does it justice.

[EN#37] The "Muttali" (high town) when small is termed a Burj, pyrgos, tower, Pergamus (?)

[EN#38] The Mashab or "camel-stick" of all Arabia is that carried by the Osiris (mummy), and its crook is originally the jackal-headed Anubis.

[EN#39] The collection has been submitted to Mr. R. Stanley Poole, who kindly offered them for inspection to the Numismatic Society of London (Nov. 21, 1878).