The Land of Midian (Revisited) Volume II Part 10

M. Lacaze photographed, under difficulties such as bad water and a most unpleasant drift of sand-dust, the interior of the building, the stones lying in the Wady below, and the various specimens which we carried off for the inspection of his Highness the Viceroy. Meanwhile we "pottered about," making small discoveries. The exposed foundations of the north-western wall, where the slabs of grit rest upon the sands of the cliff, afforded signs of man in the shape of a jaw-bone, with teeth apparently modern; and above it, in the terreplein, we dug down upwards of a yard, without any result beyond unearthing a fine black scorpion. The adjoining Arab graveyard, adorned with the mutilated spoils of the cla.s.sical building, gave two imperfect skulls and four fragments. We opened one of the many mounds that lie behind the Gasr, showing where most probably stood the ruined town; and we found the interior traversed by a crumbling wall of cut alabaster--regular excavation may some day yield important results. A little to the south-west lies a kind of ossuary, a tumulus slightly raised above the wavy level, and showing a central pit choked with camels' bones: at least, we could find no other.

And here I was told the Arab legend by the Wakil; who, openly deriding the Bedawi idea that the building could be a "Castle,"

opined that it was a Kanisah, a "Christian or pagan place of wors.h.i.+p." Gurayyim Sa'id, "Sa'id the Brave," was an African slave, belonging to an Arab Shaykh whose name is forgotten. One day it so happened that a razzia came to plunder his lord, when the black, whose strength and stature were equal to his courage and, let us add, his appet.i.te, did more than his duty. Thus he obtained as a reward the promise of a bride, his master's daughter. But when the day of danger was past, and the slave applied for the fair guerdon, the Shaykh traitorously refused to keep his word. The Brave, finding a fit opportunity, naturally enough carried off the girl to the mountains; solemnly thrashed every pursuing party; and, having established a "reign of terror," came to the banks of the Wady Hamz, and built the "Palace" for himself and his wife. But his love for butcher's-meat did not allow him to live happily ever after. As the land yielded little game, he took to sallying out every day and carrying off a camel, which in the evening he slew, and roasted, and ate, giving a small bit of it to his spouse. This extravagance of flesh-diet ended by scandalizing the whole country-side, till at last the owner of the plundered herds, Diyab ibn Ghanim, one of the notables celebrated in the romance called Sirat Abu' Zayd,[EN#76] a.s.sembled his merry men, attacked the Gurayyim, and slew him. Wa' s' salam!

Here Egypt ends. We have done our work--

"And now the hills stretch home."

I must, however, beg the reader to tarry with me awhile. The next march to the north will show him what I verily believe to be the old gold-mine lying around El-Marwah. It acquires an especial interest from being the northernmost known to the mediaeval geographers.

El-Mukaddasi (vol. I. p. 101), in an article kindly copied by my friend, the Aulic Councillor, Alfred Von Kremer, says, "Between Yambu' and El-Marwah are mines of gold;" adding ("Itinerary,"

vol. i. p. 107) the following route directions: "And thou takest from El-Badr (?the New Moon')[EN#77] to El-Yambu' two stages; thence to the Ras el-?Ayn (?),[EN#78] one stage; again to the mine (subaudi, of gold), one stage; and, lastly, to El-Marwah, two stages. And thou takest from El-Badr to El-Jar[EN#79] one stage; thence to El-Jahfah (?), or to El-Yambu', two stages each.

And thou takest from El-Jiddah (Jedda) to El-Jar, or to El-Surrayn (?), four stages each. And thou takest from El-Yasrib (Jatrippa or El-Medinah) to El-Suwaydiyyah (?), or to Batn el-Nakhil (?), two stages each; and from El-Suwaydiyyah to El-Marwah, an equal distance (i.e. four marches); and from the Batn el-Nakhil to the mine of silver, a similar distance. And if thou seek the Jaddat Misr,[EN#80] then take from El-Marwah to El-Sukya[EN#81] (?), and thence to Bada Ya'kub,[EN#82] three marches; and thence to El-?Aunid, one march." Hence Sprenger would place Zu'l-Marwah "four days from El-Hijr, on the western road to Medina;" alluding to the western (Syrian) road, now abandoned.

And now for our march. On the finest possible morning (April 9th), when the world was all ablaze with living light, I walked down the Wady Hamz. It has been abundantly supplied with water; in fact, the whole vein (thalweg) subtending the left bank would respond to tapping. The well El-Kusayr, just below the ruin, though at present closed, yielded till lately a large quant.i.ty: about half a mile to the westward is, or rather was, a saltish pit surrounded by four sweet. Almost all are now dry and filled up with fuel. A sharp trudge of three-quarters of an hour leads to the Bir el-Gurnah (Kurnah), the "Well of the Broad," in a district of the same name, lying between the ruin and the sh.o.r.e.

It is a great gash in the sandy bed: the taste of the turbid produce is distinctly sulphurous; and my old white mule, being dainty in her drink, steadfastly refused to touch it. The distinct accents of the Red Sea told us that we were not more than a mile from its marge.

We then struck north-east, over the salt maritime plain, till we hit the lower course of the Wady Umm Gilifayn (Jilifayn). It heads from the seaward base of the neighbouring hills; and its mouth forms a Marsa, or "anchorage-place," for native craft. A little to the north stands the small pyramidal Tuwayyil el-Kibrit, the "little Sulphur Hill," which had been carefully examined by MM. Marie and Philipin. A slow ride of eight miles placed us in a safe gorge draining a dull-looking, unpromising block. Here we at once found, and found in situ for the first time, the chalcedony which strews the seaboard-flat. This agate, of which amulets and signet-rings were and are still made, and which takes many varieties of tints, lies in veins mostly striking east-west; and varying in thickness from an inch to several feet. The sequence is grey granite below, the band of chalcedony, and above it a curious schistose gneiss-formation.

The latter, composing the greater part of these hills, is striped dark-brown and yellow; and in places it looks exactly like rotten wood. The small specimens of chalcedony in my private collection were examined at Trieste, and one of them contained dendritic gold, visible to the naked eye. Unfortunately the engineer had neglected this most important rock, and only a few ounces of it, instead of as many tons, were brought back for a.n.a.lysis.

A short and easy ascent led to a little counter-slope, the Majra Mujayrah (Mukayrah), whose whitening sides spoke of quartz. We rode down towards a granite island where the bed mouths into the broad Wady Mismah, a feeder of the Wady ?Argah. Here, after some ten miles, the guide, Na'ji', who thus far had been very misty in the matter of direction, suddenly halted and, in his showman style, pointed to the left bank of the watercourse, exclaiming, "Behold Aba'l-Maru!" (the "Father of Quartz"). It was another surprise, and our last, this snowy reef with jagged crest, at least 500 metres long, forming the finest display of an exposed filon we had as yet seen; but--the first glance told us that it had been worked.

We gave the rest of the day to studying and blasting the quartz-wall. It proved to be the normal vein in grey granite, running south-north and gradually falling towards the valley-plain. Here a small white outlier disappears below the surface, rising again in filets upon the further side. The dip is easterly: in this direction a huge strew of ore-ma.s.s and rubbish covers the slope which serves as base to the perpendicular reef.

The Negro quartz, which must have formed half the thickness, had been carried bodily away. If anything be left for the moderns it is hidden underground: the stone, blasted in the little outlier, looked barren. Not the least curious part of this outcrop is the black thread of iron silicate which, broken in places, subtends it to the east: some specimens have geodes yielding brown powder, and venal cavities lined with botryoidal quartz of amethystine tinge. In other parts of the same hills we found, running along the "Mara," single and double lines of this material, which looked uncommonly like slag.

The open Wady Mismah showed, to the east of our camp, the ruins of a large settlement which has extended right across the bed: as the guides seemed to ignore its existence, we named it the Kharabat Aba'l-Maru. Some of the buildings had been on a large scale, and one square measured twenty yards. Here the peculiarity was the careful mining of a granitic hillock on the southern bank. The whole vein of Negro quartz had been cut out of three sides, leaving caves that simulated catacombs. Further west another excavation in the same kind of rock was probably the town-quarry. The two lieutenants were directed next morning to survey this place, and also a second ruin and reef reported to be found on the left bank, a little below camp.

We have now seen, lying within short distances, three several quartz-fields, known as--Marwah, "the single Place or Hill of Mau'" (quartz); Marwat, "the Places of Quartz;" and Aba'l-Maru, the "Father of Quartz;" not to speak of a Nakb Abu Marwah[EN#83]

further north. The conclusion forced itself upon me that the name of the celebrated Arab mine Zu'l Marwah or El-Marwah, the more ancient (Mochura), which Ptolemy places in north lat. 24 30', applied to the whole district in South Midian, and then came to denote the chief place and centre of work. To judge by the extent of the ruins, and the signs of labour, this focus was at Umm el-Karayat (the "Mother of the Villages"), which, as has been shown, is surrounded by a mult.i.tude of miner-towns and ateliers. And the produce of the "diggings" would naturally gravitate to El-Bada, the great commercial station upon the Nabathaean "Overland."

Thus El-Marwah would signify "the Place of Maru," or "Quartz-land," even as Ophir means "Red Land." A reviewer of my first book on Midian objects to the latter derivation; as Seetzen, among others, has conclusively shown that Ophir, the true translation of which is ?riches,' is to be looked for in Southern Arabia." Connu! But I question the "true translation;"

and, whilst owning that one of the Ophirs or "Red Lands" lay in the modern Yemen, somewhere between Sheba (Saba) and Havilah (Khaulan), I see no reason for concluding that this was the only Ophir. Had it been a single large emporium on the Red Sea, which collected the produce of Arabia and the exports of India and of West Africa, the traditional site could hardly have escaped the notice of the inquiring Arabian geographers of our Middle Ages.

The ruins of a port would have been found, and we should not be compelled theoretically to postulate its existence.

And now nothing remained but to escape as quickly as possible from the ugly Wady Mismah; with its violent, dusty wester, or sea-breeze, and its sun-glare which, reflected and reverberated by the quartz, burned the gra.s.s and made the trees resemble standing timber.

April 10th saw the last of our marches, a hurry back to the stable, a sauve qui peut. The camel-men, reckless of orders, began to load and to slip away shortly after midnight. Ali Marie, who, as usual, had lost his head, when ordered to enjoin silence gave the vain and vague direction, "Tell the Arabs to tell the camels not to make so much noise." Even the bugler sounded the "general" of his own accord; and the mules, now become painfully intelligent, walked as if they knew themselves to be walking homewards. Our last stage lay over the upper skirts of the maritime plain which has already been noticed. At 10.15 am., after riding five hours and thirty minutes (= seventeen miles), we found ourselves once more upon the seaboard. Our kind host, Captain Hasan Bey, came to meet us in his gig: the quarter-deck had been dressed with flags, as for a ball; and before twelve bells struck, we had applied ourselves to an excellent breakfast in the gun-room of our old favourite, the Sinnar. The auspicious day of course ended with a fantasia.

Resume of Our Last Journey.

We had left the Sharm Yaharr on March 21st, and returned to it on April 13th; a total of twenty-four days. Our actual march through South Midian, which had lasted thirteen days (March 29--April 10), described a semicircle with El-Wijh about the middle of the chord. The length is represented by 170 miles in round numbers: as usual, this does not include the various offsets and the by-paths explored by the members; nor do the voyages to El-Wijh and El-Haura, going and coming, figure in the line of route. The camels varied from fifty-eight to sixty-four, when specimens were forwarded to the harbour-town. The expenditure amounted to92 13s., including pay and "bakhs.h.i.+sh" to the Baliyy Shaykhs, but not including our friends the Sayyid, Furayj, and the Wakil Mohammed Shahadah.

This southern region differs essentially from the northern, which was twice visited, and which occupied us two months, mostly wasted. Had we known what we do now, I should have begun with the south, and should have devoted to it the greater part of our time. Both are essentially mining countries; but, whilst the section near Egypt preserves few traces of the miner, here we find the country carefully and conscientiously worked. The whole eastern counterslope of the outliers that project from the Ghat-section known as the mountains of the Tihamat-Balawiyyah, is one vast outcrop of quartz. The parallelogram between north lat.

26 degrees, including the mouth of the Wady Hamz, and north lat.

27, which runs some fifteen miles north of the Bada plain, would form a Southern Grant, sufficiently large to be divided and subdivided as soon as judged advisable.

If the characteristics of North Midian (Madyan Proper) are its argentiferous, and especially its cupriferous ores, South Midian worked chiefly gold and silver, both metals being mentioned by the mediaeval geographers of Arabia. Free gold in paillettes was noticed by the Expedition in the micaceous schists veining the quartz, and in the chalcedony which parts the granite from the gneiss. The argentiferous Negro quartz everywhere abounds, and near the ruins of Bada lie strews of spalled "Maru," each fragment showing its little block of pure lead. Saltpetre is plentiful, and a third "Sulphur hill" rises from the maritime plain north of the Wady Hamz.

The princ.i.p.al ruins and ateliers number five; these, beginning from the north, are the Umm el-Karayat, the Umm el-Harab, the Bujat-Bada, the Kharabat Aba'l-Maru, and the old Nabathean port, E1-Haura. Amongst them is not included the gem of our discovery, the cla.s.sical shrine, known as Gasr Gurayyim Sa'id, nor the minor ateliers, El-Kubbah, Aba'l-Gezaz, and the remains upon the Marwat ridge. Good work was done by the Egyptian Staff-officers in surveying the fine harbour of El-Dumayghah, so well fitted as a refuge for pilgrim-s.h.i.+ps when doing quarantine; and I venture upon recommending, to the English and Egyptian Governments, my remarks concerning the advisability of at once re-transferring the station to El-Wijh. It is now at Tor; and, as has been said, it forms a standing menace, not only to the Nile Valley, but to the whole of Europe.

Whilst abounding in wood, the Southern Country is not so well watered as are Central and Northern Midian On the other hand, the tenants, confined to the Baliyy tribe, with a few scatters of the despised Hutaym, are milder and more tractable than the Huwaytat.

As I have remarked, they are of ancient strain, and they still conserve the instincts of their predecessors, or their forefathers, the old mining race. It will be necessary to defend them against the raids and incursions of the Juhaynah, or "Sons of Dogs," who border upon them to the south, and from the Alaydan-?Anezah to the south-east; but nothing would be easier than to come to terms with the respective Shaykhs. And the sooner we explore the Jaww, or sandstone region in the interior, with its adjacent "Harrahs," the better for geography and, perhaps not less, for mineralogy. The great ruins of Madain Salih upon the Wady Hamz still, I repeat, await the discoverer.

Conclusion.

The next day saw us at El-Wijh, dispensing pay and "bakhs.h.i.+sh" to the companions of our Desert march; and s.h.i.+pping the men and mules, with the material collected during the southern journey.

The venerable Shaykh ?Afnan and his Baliyy were not difficult to deal with; and they went their way homewards fully satisfied. We exchanged a friendly adieu, or rather an au revoir, with our excellent travelling companion, Mohammed Shahadah; and I expressed my sincere hopes to find him, at no distant time, governor of the restored Quarantine-station.

On the morning of April 12th we set out betimes, and anch.o.r.ed for the night in one of the snug bays of Jebel Nu'man. The next day placed us at the Sharm Yaharr, where the process of general distribution happily ended. Here the final parting took place with the gallant companions of our four months' travel. Shaykh Furayj, delighted with the gift, in addition to his pay, of a Styrian skean-dhu and an Austrian Werndl-carbine, at once set off to rejoin the tribe up-country; while the Sayyid steadfastly stayed with us to the last. These men had become our friends; and my sorrow at leaving them was softened only by the prospect of presently seeing them again.

Immediately after my return to Cairo I strongly recommended the Sayyid for promotion, in these words:--"First and foremost is the Sayyid ?Abd el-Rahim, the head of a n.o.ble family, settled for generations at El-Muwaylah, where he is now Katib (?accountant') to the Fort. He knows thoroughly the whole Land of Midian; he is loved and respected by all the Arabs, and both he and his are devoted to the Government of your Highness. Evidently it would be advantageous to promote such a man to the post of governor of the place--a post which will presently become of high importance, and which is actually held by an old officer, almost bed-ridden.

"The second is Shaykh Mohammed Shahadah, of El-Wijh, a man of family and position; known far and wide, and made generally popular by his generous and charitable actions. He was formerly Wakil, or ?agent,' to the Fort el-Wijh, until that office was abolished. The port will presently have its custom-house; and I propose forwarding to her Britannic Majesty's Government my notes upon the subject of the Quarantine-station, which has imprudently been transferred from Arabia to Tor, in the Sinaitic Peninsula.

Meanwhile it would, I venture to suggest, be most advantageous if Mohammed Shahadah were named governor of his native place."

The Expedition, in its urgent desire to return northwards, was not seconded by weather. Despite an ugly gale, the Sinnar boldly attempted giving the slip to Arabia on April 16th, but she was beaten back before she reached El-Muwaylah. After another stormy day, we again got up steam; and, fighting hard against adverse winds and waves, greatly to the distress of the unfortunate mules and gazelles, we reached Suez on April 20th.

At Suez my wife had been awaiting me for long weeks, preferring the simplicity of the Desert to the complex life of Cairo. Some delay was again necessary in order to telegraph our arrival, to apply for a special train, and to sort and pack in the travelling-cases our twenty-five tons of specimens. As often happens, the return to civilization was in nowise cheery.

Everything seemed to go wrong. For instance, the Dragoman despatched to town from the New Docks in order to lay in certain comforts, such as beef and beer, prudently laid out the coin in a brand-new travelling suit intended for his own service. Such an apology for a dinner had not been seen during the last four months of wild travel--unpleasant when guests have been bidden to a feast! The night at the Docks, also, was a trifle mortuary, over-silent and tranquil: all hands, officers and men, who could not get leave to sleep ash.o.r.e, simply took leave--I believe myself to have been for a time both captain and crew of the Sinnar. And, lastly, we heard that both our dog-companions, Juno and Paiji, had died of some canine epidemic.

The next day ended our halt at Suez, with visits to slop-shops and a general discussion of choppes. The old hotel, under the charge of Mr. and Mrs. Adams, had greatly improved by the "elimination" of the offensive Hindi element; and my old friends of a quarter-century's standing received me with all their wonted heartiness. Sa'id Bey was still a Bey, but none the less jovial and genial; Captain Ali Bey, who had commanded the Sinnar, was now acting commodore; and my only regret was having again missed Colonel Gordon (Pasha).

April 22nd convinced us that, even in these prosaic regions, our misadventures and accidents had not reached their fated end. A special train had been organized by Hanafi Effendi for eight a.m.

About ten miles from Suez one of the third-cla.s.s carriages began "running hot;" and, before we could dismount, the axle-box of a truck became a young Vesuvius in the matter of vomiting smoke. I ordered the driver, who was driving furiously, to make half speed; but even with this precaution there were sundry stoppages; and at the Naffishah station, where my Bolognese acquaintances still throve, we could not be supplied with a change of "rolling-stock." About Tell el-Kabir, the brake-van also waxed unsafely warm; but it reached Zagazig without developing more caloric. Briefly, we caught fire three times in one morning.

These accidents must always be expected, where spare carriages are placed for months upon sidings to become tinder in the sun; and where the cracks and crevices of the woodwork fill up with the silicious sand of the Desert, an admirable succedaneum for flint and steel. One consolation, however, remained to us: the Dragoman, brand-new clothes and all, was left behind at Suez. His last chef d'?uvre of blundering has already been noticed[EN#84]--the barrel of Midianitish oysters sent to Admiral M'Killop (Pasha) had been so carelessly headed up, and so carefully turned topsy-turvy, that the result was, to use my friend's words, they could be nosed from the half-way station.

The "Kyrios" had probably pa.s.sed a Baccha.n.a.lian night with his h.e.l.lenic friends, and he subsequently made act of presence at Cairo with a very British-looking black eye. His accident at Suez was a bit of "poetical justice," which almost convinced one of the "moral government."

A succulent breakfast a la fourchette, in the charming garden of our friend M. Vetter, of Zagazig, duly discussed, we again went "on board," amusing the lookers-on by our naive enjoyment of the Nile-valley: they had not been in Arabia, and they found the "emerald-green" dusty and yellow. We reached Cairo at 5.30 p.m.

More troubles! Ten minutes after arrival we found ourselves in possession, in sole charge of the gare. The train was loaded with Government property, officers, soldiers and escort, mules, boxes and bags of specimens whose collecting had cost money. Yet station-master, agent, and employes at once went their ways, declining even to show the room allotted to our goods, although a telegram from the railway authorities had advised me that one had been made ready. The a.s.sistant-agent, when at last hunted up, declared, before vanis.h.i.+ng once more, that the porters for whom we applied were busy loading cotton, and that we must e'en do the best we could for ourselves. So the waggons were shunted and unloaded by their tenants, and the minerals were deposited under a kind of shed whose key was not forthcoming. We failed to find even a light, till the local train from Suez was announced; and, when it began whistling, the officials, who had returned like rats from their holes, gave us peremptory directions to shunt again. This time, however, I had the game in my hands; and replied by taking due precautions against being turned out.

At first the soldier-escort worked as well as could be expected; but the numbers fell off every quarter of an hour, till we were left with a very select party; the only recipients, by-the-by, of "bakhs.h.i.+sh." The Sub-Lieutenant Mohammed Effendi mounted a donkey the moment he stepped out of the R.R. carriage; and, utterly disregarding so vexatious a frivolity as asking leave, rode off to his home at Torah. His example was followed by the Sergeant Mabruk ?Awaz. And yet both these men had the impudence to call upon me at the hotel, and to apply for especial Shahadahs, or "testimonials" of good conduct. In short, we were detained at the station for three mortal hours, working with our own hands. If this be a fair specimen of European management in Egypt, and I am told that it has now become worse, much worse in every way, the sooner we return to Egyptian mismanagement the better. The latter is, at any rate, cheap and civil.

On the next day the Viceroy graciously sent his junior Master of Ceremonies, his Excellency Tonino Bey, to welcome me back; and I was at once honoured with audiences at the Khedivial Palace, ?Abidin, and by Prince Husayn Kamil Pasha at Gizah (Jizah). The Khediv was pleased to express satisfaction with my past exertions, and ordered several measures to be carried out at once. Amongst them was a little exhibition of mineralogy and archaeology, maps and plans, sketches and croquis, at the Hippodrome.