The Land of Midian (Revisited) — Volume 1
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Title: The Land of Midian (Revisited) — Volume 1
Author: Sir Richard Francis Burton
Release date: December 1, 2004 [eBook #7111]
Most recently updated: December 30, 2020
Language: English
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*** START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE LAND OF MIDIAN (REVISITED) — VOLUME 1 ***
Produced by JC Byers and proofread by MaryAnn Short.
The Land of Midian (Revisited).
By Richard F. Burton.
In Two Volumes.
Vol. I.
C. Kegan Paul & Co.
London:
1879.
To the Memory of My Much Loved Niece,
Maria Emily Harriet Stisted,
Who Died at Dovercourt,
November 12, 1878.
"Gold shall be found, and found
In a land that's not now known."
MOTHER SHIPTON, A.D. 1448.
PREFACE.
A few pages by way of "Forespeache."
The plain unvarnished tale of the travel in Midian, undertaken by
the second Expedition, which, like the first, owes all to the
liberality and the foresight of his Highness Ismail I., Khediv of
Egypt, forms the subject of these volumes. During the four months
between December 19, 1877, and April 20, 1878, the officers
employed covered some 2500 miles by sea and land, of which 600,
not including by-paths, were mapped and planned; and we brought
back details of an old-new land which the civilized world had
clean forgotten.
The public will now understand that one and the same subject has
not given rise to two books. I have to acknowledge with gratitude
the many able and kindly notices by the Press of my first volume
("The Gold Mines of Midian," etc. Messrs. C. Kegan Paul & Co.,
1878). But some reviewers succeeded in completely
misunderstanding the drift of that avant courier. It was an
introduction intended to serve as a base for the present more
extensive work, and--foundations intended to bear weight must be
solid. Its object was to place before the reader the broad
outlines of a country whose name was known to "every schoolboy,"
whilst it was a vox et praeterea nihil, even to the learned,
before the spring of 1877. I had judged advisable to sketch, with
the able assistance of learned friends, its history and
geography; its ethnology and archaeology; its zoology and
malacology; its botany and geology. The drift was to prepare
those who take an interest in Arabia generally, and especially in
wild mysterious Midian, for the present work, which, one foresaw,
would be a tale of discovery and adventure. Thus readers of "The
Land of Midian (Revisited)" may feel that they are not standing
upon ground utterly unknown; and the second publication is
shortened and lightened--perhaps the greatest advantage of
all--by the prolegomena having been presented in the first.
The purpose of the last Expedition was to conclude the labours
begun, during the spring of 1877, in a mining country unknown, or
rather, fallen into oblivion. Hence its primary "objective" was
mineralogical. The twenty-five tons of specimens, brought back to
Cairo, were inspected by good judges from South Africa,
Australia, and California; and all recognized familiar
metalliferous rocks. The collection enabled me to distribute the
mining industry into two great branches--(1) the rich silicates
and carbonates of copper smelted by the Ancients in North Midian;
and (2) the auriferous veins worked, but not worked out, by
comparatively modern races in South Midian, the region lying
below the parallel of El-Muwaylah. It is, indeed, still my
conviction that "tailings" have been washed for gold, even by men
still living. We also brought notices and specimens of three
several deposits of sulphur; of a turquoise-mine behind Ziba; of
salt and saltpetre, and of vast deposits of gypsum. These are
sources of wealth which the nineteenth century is not likely to
leave wasted and unworked.
In geography the principal novelties are the identification of
certain ruined cities mentioned by Ptolemy, and the "Harrahs" or
plutonic centres scattered over the seaboard and the interior. I
venture to solicit the attention of experts for my notes on
El-Harrah, that great volcanic chain whose fair proportions have
been so much mutilated by its only explorer, the late Dr. Wallin.
Beginning with Damascan Trachonitis, and situated, in the
parallel of north lat. 28 degrees, about sixty direct miles east
of the Red Sea, it is reported to subtend the whole coast of
North-Western Arabia, between El-Muwaylah (north lat. 27 degrees
39') and El-Yambu' (north lat. 24 degrees 5'). Equally noticeable
are the items of information concerning the Wady Hamz, the
"Land's End" of Egypt, and the most important feature of its kind
in North-Western Arabia. Its name, wrongly given by Wallin, is
unknown to the Hydrographic Chart, and to the erudite pages of my
friend Professor Aloys Sprenger, who, however, suspects with me
that it may be the mouth of the celebrated Wady el-Kura. For
further topographical details the reader is referred to the
"Itineraries" of the Expedition, offered to the Royal
Geographical Society of London.
Some of the principal sites were astronomically determined by
Commanders Ahmed Musallam and Nasir Ahmed, of the Egyptian navy.
The task of mapping and planning was committed to the two young
Staff-lieutenants sent for that purpose. They worked well in the
field; and their sketches were carefully executed whilst under my
superintendence. But it was different when they returned to
Cairo. The maps sent to the little Exposition at the Hippo-drome
(see conclusion) were simply a disgrace to the Staff-bureau. My
departure from Egypt caused delay; and, when the chart reached
me, it was far from satisfactory: names had been omitted, and
without my presence it could not have been printed. With the able
assistance of Mr. William J. Turner, of the Royal Geographical
Society, who found the work harder than he expected, it has been
reduced to tolerable shape. Still, it is purely provisional; and,
when mining operations shall begin, a far more careful survey
will be required.
As regards archaeology, the second Expedition visited, described,
and surveyed eighteen ruins of cities and towns, some of
considerable extent, in North Midian, besides seeing or hearing
of some twenty large Mashghal, apparently the ateliers of vagrant
Gypsy-like gangs. This total of thirty-eight is not far short of
the forty traditional Midianite settlements preserved by the
mediaeval Arab geographers. Many others are reported to exist in
the central or inland region; and fifteen were added by the South
Country, including the classical temple or shrine, found upon the
bank of the Wady Hamz before mentioned. The most interesting
sites were recommended to M. Lacaze, whose portfolio was soon
filled with about two hundred illustrations, in oil and
water-colours, pencil croquis and "sun-pictures." All, except the
six coloured illustrations which adorn this volume, have been
left in Egypt. His Highness resolved to embody the results of our
joint labours in a large album, illustrated with coloured
lithographs, maps, and plans, explained by letter-press, and
prepared at the Citadel, Cairo.
The Meteorological Journal was kept by myself, assisted at times
by Mr. Clarke. Mr. David Duguid, engineer of the Mukhbir, whose
gallant conduct will be recorded (Chap. VIII.), and Commander
Nasir Ahmed, of the Sinnar, obliged me by registering
simultaneous observations at sea-level. The whole was reduced to
shape by Mr. W. J. Turner, of the Royal Geographical Society.
My private collection of mineralogical specimens was deposited
with Professor M. H. N. Story-Maskelyne. The spirit-specimens of
zoology filled three large canisters: and the British Museum also
received a hare and five birds (Mr. R. B. Sharpe); four bats
(Rhinopoma) and a mouse; six reptiles, five fishes, thirty-five
crustaceans, and about the same number of insects; five
scorpions, six leeches, sixty molluscs, four echinoderms, and
three sponges. Dr. A. Gunther (Appendix III.) determined and
named two new species of reptiles. Mr. Frederick Smith (Appendix
III.) took charge of the insects. Mr. Edward J. Miers, F. L.S.,
etc., described the small collection of crustaceae (Annals and
Magazine of Natural History for November, 1878). Finally, Edgar
A. Smith examined and named the shells collected on the shores of
the 'Akabah Gulf and the north-eastern recess of the Red Sea.
The main interest of the little hortus siccus was the Alpine
Flora, gathered at an altitude of five thousand feet above
sea-level. The plants were offered to Sir Joseph Dalton Hooker,
of Kew; and Professor D. Oliver, of the Herbarium, has kindly
furnished me with a list of the names (Appendix IV.). Mr. William
Carruthers and his staff also examined the spirit-specimens of
fleshy plants (Appendix IV.).
Mr. Reginald Stuart Poole, Keeper of Coins and Medals, and Mr.
Barclay V. Head were good enough to compare with their rich
collections the coins of ancient Midian found (Chap. III.), for
the first time, at Maghair Shu'ayb[EN#1]. Some years ago, Mr.
Robert Ready, of the British Museum, had bought from a Jew, Yusuf
Kalafat (?), a miscellaneous collection, which included about
sixty of the so-called Midianitic coins. But the place of
discovery is wholly unknown. The Assistant Keeper read a paper
"On Arabian Imitations of Athenian Coins," Midianitic,
Himyaritic, and others, at a meeting of the Numismatic Society
(November 21, 1878); and I did the same at the Royal Asiatic
Society, December 16, 1878. The little "find" of stone
implements, rude and worked; and the instruments illustrating the
mining industry of the country, appeared before the
Anthropological Section of the British Association, which met at
Dublin (August, 1878), and again before the Anthropological
Institute of London, December 10, 1878.
Finally, the skulls and fragments of skulls from Midian were
submitted to Professor Richard Owen, the Superintendent of
Natural History; and my learned friend kindly inspected the
Egyptian and Palmyrene crania which accompanied them. The whole
was carefully described by Dr. C. Carter Blake, Ph.D., before the
last-named seance of the Anthropological Institute (December 10,
1878).
The tons of specimens brought to Cairo were, I have said,
publicly exhibited there, and created much interest. But the
discovery of a mining-country, some three hundred miles long,
once immensely wealthy, and ready to become wealthy once more, is
not likely to be accepted by every one. Jealous and obstructive
officials "did not think much of it." Rivals opposed it with even
less ceremony. A mild "ring" in Egypt attempted in vain to run
the Hamamat and Dar-For mines (Chap. III.) against Midian.
Consequently the local Press was dosed with rumours, which,
retailed by the home papers, made the latter rife in
contradictory reports. To quote one case only. The
turquoise-gangue from Ziba (Chap. XII.) was pronounced, by the
inexpert mineralogists at the Citadel, Cairo, who attempted
criticism, to be carbonate of copper, because rich silicates of
that metal were shown at the Exposition. No one seemed to know
that the fine turquoises of Midian have been sold for years at
Suez, and even at Cairo.
There was, indeed, much to criticise in the collection, which had
been made with a marvellous carelessness. But we must not be hard
upon M. Marie. He is an engineer, utterly ignorant of mineralogy
and of assaying: he was told off to do the duty, and he did it as
well as he could--in other words, very badly. He neglected to
search for alluvial gold in the sands. Every Wady which cuts, at
right angles, the metalliferous maritime chains, should have been
carefully prospected; these sandy and quartzose beds are natural
conduits and sluice-boxes. But the search for "tailings" is
completely different from that of gold-veins, and requires
especial practice. The process, indeed, may be called purely
empirical. It is not taught in Jermyn Street, nor by the Ecole
des Mines. In this matter theory must bow to "rule of thumb:" the
caprices of alluvium are various and curious enough to baffle
every attempt at scientific induction. Thus the "habits" of the
metal, so to speak, must be studied by experiment with patient
labour, the most accomplished mineralogist may pass over rich
alluvium without recognizing its presence, where the rude
prospector of California and Australia will find an abundance of
stream-gold. Evidently the proportion of "tailings" must
carefully be laid down before companies are justified in
undertaking the expensive operation of quartz-crushing. Hence M.
Tiburce Morisot, a practical digger from South Africa, introduced
at Cairo by his compatriot, M. Marie, to my friend M. Yacoub
Artin Bey, found a fair opportunity of proposing to his Highness
the Khediv (October, 1878) a third Expedition in search of
sand-gold. The Viceroy, however, true to his undertaking, refused
to sanction any "interloping."
The highly distinguished M. Ferdinand de Lesseps, when en route
to Paris, kindly took charge of some cases of specimens for
analysis. But the poorest stuff had been supplied to him by M.
Marie; and the results, of which I never heard, were probably
nil. The samples brought to England, by order of his Highness the
Khediv, were carefully assayed. The largest collection was
submitted to Dr. John Percy, F.R.S. Smaller items were sent to
the well-known houses, Messrs. Johnston and Matthey, of Hatton
Garden, and Messrs. Edgar Jackson and Co., Associates of the
Royal School of Mines (fourteen samples). Finally, special
observations were made by Mr. John L. Jenken, of Carrington,
through Mr. J. H. Murchison, of "British Lead Mines," etc., etc.,
etc.; by Lieut.-Colonel Ross, the distinguished author of
"Pyrology;" and by Lieut.-Colonel Bolton, who kindly compared the
rocks with those in his cabinet. M. Gastinel-Bey's analysis of
the specimens brought home by the first Expedition will be found
at the end of Chap. VIII.
The following is the text of Dr. Percy's report:--
Metallurgical Laboratory, Royal School of Mines,
Jermyn Street, London Dec 13 1878.
Dear Sir,
I now send the results of the analytical examination of the specimens
which you submitted to me for that purpose. The examination has been
conducted with the greatest care, in the metallurgical laboratory of the
Royal School of Mines, by Mr. Richard Smith, who, for the last thirty
years, has been constantly engaged in such work; and in whose accuracy I
have absolute confidence. It is impossible that any one should have taken
greater interest in, or have devoted himself with greater earnestness to,
the investigation. I have almost entirely confined myself to a statement
of facts, as I understand that was all you required for the guidance of
his Highness the Khedive.
Section 1.
Examination of the mineral specimens contained in the boxes marked as
under.
(An average representative sample of each specimen, of about six pounds
in weight, was prepared for examination from portions broken off, or
otherwise taken, by Mr. Richard Smith at the Victoria Docks.[EN#2]
No. 1. "Box 22," Quartz from Mugnah (Makna). Quartz coloured black and
red-brown with oxides of iron. These were of two varieties, marked 22a
and 22b respectively.
No. 2. The magnetic ironstone (22a) was examined and found to contain of--
Peroxide of iron (per cent.). . . .85.29
Protoxide of iron (per cent.) . . . 9.83
Silica (quartz)(per cent.). . . . . 3.28
The oxides of iron together contain of metallic iron 66.8 per cent.
No. 3. The micaceous ironstone (22b) was examined and found to contain of
Peroxide of iron (per cent.). . . . 91.0
Silica. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5.52
The peroxide of iron contains of metallic iron 63.7 per cent.
No. 4. "Box No. 14," Quartz from Mugnah, gave no results.
No. 5. "Box No. 27," Iron from Mugnah, proved to be haematite (which is
magnetic), with some red-brown oxide of iron and quartz. It was found to
contain of--
Peroxide of iron (per cent.). . . .75.46
Protoxide of iron (per cent.) . . . 4.69
The oxides of iron together contain of metallic iron 56.4 per cent.
No. 6. "Box No. 7," Conglomerate from Mugnah, yielded no results.
No. 7 "Box No. 25," Quartz from Mugnah. This quartz, veined and coloured
black and red-brown with oxides of iron, was assayed with the following
results:--
Gold and Silver . . . . . . . None[EN#3]
Nos. 8 and 9. "Boxes Nos. 50 and 37,"[EN#4] Quartz and red dust from
Mugnah, yielded no results.
No. 10. "Box No. 37a," Sulphur from Mugnah. Lumps of sulphur,
crystallized and massive, irregularly distributed through a white, dull,
porous rock. The latter was examined, and found to be hydrated sulphate
of lime (gypsum), with a small quantity of magnesia; some of the lumps of
rock were coloured with oxides of iron, and others intermixed with sand.
Nos. 11. and 12. "Boxes Nos. 3 and 6," Black quartz and white quartz from
the Jebel el-Abyaz, gave no results except a small portion of copper
pyrites in a lump of quartz (Box No. 6).
No. 13. "Box No. 47," Quartz from El-Wedge (Wijh), gave only oxide of
iron.[EN#5]
No. 14. "Box No. 5," Red quartz from El-Wedge, a quartz with red-brown
oxide of iron and earthy substances, was assayed with the following
results:--
Gold (per statute ton = 3240 lbs.)2 dwts. 15 grs.
Silver. . . . . . . . . . . . . .Traces.
No. 15. "Box No. 16," Mica schist from El-Wedge. This mica-schist
undergoing decomposition from weathering action, mixed with small lumps
of quartz, was assayed with the following results :--
Gold (per statute ton). . . . .6 grains.
Silver. . . . . . . . . . . . . .Traces.
No. 16. "Box No. 32," White quartz from El-Wedge. This quartz coloured with
red-brown oxide of iron, mixed with mica-schist, was assayed with the
following results:--
Gold (per statute ton). .3 dwts. 22 grs.
Silver. . . . . . . . . . . . . .Traces.
No. 17. "Box No. 48,"[EN#6] Red sulphur from Sharm Yaharr, was found to
have the following composition, while it was free from "native sulphur":--
Peroxide of iron (per cent. ) . . .44.36
Sand, clay, carbonates and sulphates of lime and
magnesia . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .14.90
Salts soluble in water, chiefly alkaline
chlorides and chlorites, and sulphates of lime
and magnesia . . . . . . . . . . . . . .29.70
Water . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .11.40
_______
100.00
No. 18. "Box No. 48a," Gypsum from Sharm Yaharr. Partly semi-transparent
and granular, and partly dull white and opaque. It was found to be
hydrated sulphate of lime, or gypsum, with carbonate of lime, and some
sand, magnesia, and chloride of sodium.
No. 19 "Box No. 35," Dust and stones from Sharma, yielded no results.
Section 2.
Examination of the mineral specimens contained in a box sent from Egypt.
As the specimens were unlabelled, they were marked A, B, C, D, E, F, G,
H, and I, respectively.
No. 21. A. "Copper ore." A fair average specimen was prepared for
examination from the several lumps of ore and marked a.
a. It was submitted to analysis, and found to contain carbonates of lime
and magnesia; silica, alumina, and oxides of iron; and of--
Copper (metallic) . . . .5.72 per cent.
b. A portion of the copper mineral, from which the rock or vein-stuff had
been detached as far as practicable, was found to consist of impure
hydrated silicate of copper (bluish-green chrysocolla) and carbonate of
copper. It was assayed and found to contain of--
Copper (metallic) . . . .23.14 per cent.
No. 22. "B." A lump of soft, ochrey red-brown ironstone, coated with a thin
layer of greyish white substance. A fair average sample, inclusive of this
external layer, was prepared for examination, and was found to consist of
Peroxide of iron (per cent. ) . . .81.14
Water . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 11.50
Silica. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3.07
Sulphuric acid, lime, magnesia, alumina 4.29
_____
100.00
The peroxide of iron contains 56.8 per cent. of metallic iron. The
greyish white substance was found to consist of silica, alumina, sulphate
of lime, and a little oxide of iron and magnesia.
No. 23. "C." Lump of red ironstone associated with sand and earthy
substances, containing
Peroxide of iron (per cent.). . . 68.09
Water of iron (per cent.) . . . . . 1.93
Silica and sand . . . . . . . . . .18.17
Lime, magnesia (in small quantity), alumina,
carbonic acid, sulphuric acid (traces) .11.81
______
100.00
The peroxide of iron contains 47.66 of metallic iron.
No. 24. "D." Lump of white quartz said to contain visible gold. I did not
observe any, but found a few minute specks of pyrites, and partially
resembling mica.
No. 25. Lump of quartz associated with red-brown oxide of iron. It
yielded no results.
No. 26. Lump of rock in which the "turquoise" occurs. There was a thin
layer of greenish blue turquoise mineral on one surface, and minute seams
of a similar substance throughout the specimen.
a. The layer of turquoise mineral, from which the rock or vein-stuff had
been detached as far as practicable, was found to contain phosphoric
acid, alumina, oxide of copper, oxide of iron, and water; which occur in
turquoise.
b. After the layer a had been separated, a fair average sample of the
rock was found to contain 1.69 per cent. of metallic copper. It was also
assayed and found to be free from silver[EN#7] and gold.
No. 27. "G." A variety of jasper, having a somewhat polished, and
irregular and deeply indented surface, the result of sand-action. The
fractured surface was red, with patches of yellow. It was found to
consist chiefly of silica, coloured with oxides of iron.
No. 28. "H." Lump of "sard," of a pale-red flesh colour. A variety of
chalcedony. It was found to consist almost entirely of silica[EN#8].
No. 29. "I." Lumps of pure ironstone.
A small lump of metal[EN#9], supposed to contain antimony[EN#10] and
platinum, was brought for examination by Captain R. F. Burton. It was
submitted to analysis, and found to be iron and combined carbon, or white
cast-iron, containing small quantities of lead, copper, and silver, and
free from antimony, platinum, and gold. It is evidently the product of a
fusion operation. A few "shots" of lead were attached to the surface of
the metal[EN#11].
Dr. Percy concludes the assays in these words:--
Three of the specimens (Nos. 14, 15, and 19) from the same
locality contain gold. The amount of gold, however, is small. I
consider these indications of the presence of the precious metal
not altogether unsatisfactory; and certainly to justify further
exploration. My conviction is, that the ancients were adepts in
the art of extracting gold, and that, owing to the small value of
human labour, they could get out as much of the metal as could
now be done. They knew perfectly what was worth working and what
was not; and I think it likely that what you have brought home,
had been rejected by the ancients as unworkable[EN#12]. Further
search may lead to the discovery of workable stuff; but would
doubtless require a good deal of time, unless lucky accident
should intervene.
The specimens Nos. 2, 3, 5, 22, and 23 contain sufficient iron to
render them available as iron ores, provided they occur in large
quantity. The copper present in No. 21a is too small in amount to
render it available as a source of that metal [Footnote: Analyses
of copper ore from Midian at the Citadel, Cairo, gave in certain
cases forty percent.]. If it is practicable on a large scale, by
hand-labour or other means, to separate the "copper mineral" (as
in b), it would be sufficiently rich in copper, provided the cost
of the transit were not too great.
The specimen No. 17 is only of scientific interest, as it gives
off an acid vapour when heated; and this substance may have been
used by the ancients in the separation of silver from gold by the
process termed "cementation."
I remain, dear Sir, yours very truly,
(Signed) JOHN PERCY, M.D., F.R.S.
Lecturer on Metallurgy at the Royal School of Mines, London.
Capt. R. F. Burton, etc.
Upon this able report I would offer the following observations.
We, who have travelled through a country like Midian, finding
everywhere extensive works for metallurgy; barrages and
aqueducts, cisterns and tanks ; furnaces, fire-bricks, and
scoriae; open mines, and huge scatters of spalled quartz, with
the remains of some eighteen cities and towns which apparently
fell to ruin with the industry that founded and fed them;--we, I
say, cannot but form a different and a far higher idea of its
mineral capabilities than those who determine them by the simple
inspection of a few specimens. The learned Dr. Percy at once hits
the mark when he surmises that worthless samples were brought
home; and this would necessarily occur when no metallurgist, no
practical prospector, was present with the Expedition. As will
appear from the following pages, all the specimens were collected
a ciel ouvert, and wholly without judgment.
I therefore expect that future exploration will develop Midian as
it has done India. The quartzose outcrop called the "Wynaad reef"
(Madras Presidency) produced only a few poor penny-weights per
ton, two and seven being the extremes, while much of it was
practically unproductive. Presently, in February, 1878, the
district was visited by Sir Andrew Clarke, of Australian
experience, member of the Viceregal Council. He invited Mr.
Brough Smyth, of Victoria, to explore and test the capabilities
of the country; and that eminent practical engineer discovered,
in an area of twenty-five by thirteen miles, ninety outcrops,
some yielding, they say, two hundred ounces per ton of gold, fine
and coarse, "with jagged pieces as large as peas." And British
India now hopes to draw her gold coinage from Wynaad.
I conclude this abstract of the book, which would have been
reduced in size had the mass of matter permitted, with the
heartfelt hope that the grand old Land of Midian will not be
without attraction to the public of Europe.
RICHARD F. BURTON.
ATHENAEUM CLUB,
December 16.
CONTENTS.
PART I.
The March Through Madyan Proper
(North Midian).
Chapter I. Preliminary--from Trieste to Midian
Chapter II. The Start--from El Muwaylah to the "White
Mountain" and 'Aynunah
Chapter III. Breaking New Ground to Maghair Shu'ayb
Chapter IV. Notices of Precious Metals in Midian--the Papyri
and the Mediaeval Arab Geographers
Chapter V. Work At, and Excursions From, Maghair Shu'ayb
Chapter VI. To Makna, and Our Work There--the Magani or
Maknawis
Chapter VII. Cruise from Makna to El'akabah
Chapter VIII. Cruise from El'akabah to El Muwaylah--the
Shipwreck Escaped--resume of the Northern Journey
PART II
The March Through Central and Eastern Midian.
Chapter IX. Work in and Around El Muwaylah
Chapter X. Through East Midian to the Hisma
PART I.
The March Through Madyan Proper
(North Midian).
Chapter I.
Preliminary--from Trieste to Midian.
Throughout the summer of 1877 I was haunted by memories of
mysterious Midian. The Golden Region appeared to me in the glow
of primaeval prosperity described by the Egyptian hieroglyphs; as
rich in agriculture and in fertility, according to the old
Hellenic travellers, as in its Centres of civilization, and in
the precious metals catalogued by the Sacred Books of the
Hebrews. Again I saw the mining works of the Greek, the Roman,
and the Nabathæan, whose names are preserved by Ptolemy; the
forty cities, mere ghosts and shadows of their former selves,
described in the pages of the mediaeval Arab geographers; and the
ruthless ruin which, under the dominion of the Bedawin, gradually
crept over the Land of Jethro. The tale of her rise and fall
forcibly suggested Algeria, that province so opulent and splendid
under the Masters of the World; converted into a fiery wilderness
by the representatives of the "gentle and gallant" Turk, and
brought to life once more by French energy and industry. And such
was my vision of a future Midian, whose rich stores of various
minerals will restore to her wealth and health, when the two
Khedivial Expeditions shall have shown the world what she has
been, and what she may be again.
I was invited to resume my exploration during the winter of
1877-78, by the Viceroy of Egypt, Ismail I., a prince whose
superior intelligence is ever anxious to develop the resources of
his country. His Highness was perhaps the only man in his own
dominions who, believing in the buried wealth of Midian, had the
perspicacity to note the advantages offered by its exploitation.
For the world around the Viceroy pronounced itself decidedly
against the project. My venerable friend, Linant Pasha, suggested
a comparison with the abandoned diggings of the Upper Nile;
forgetting that in at least half of Midian land, only the
"tailings" have been washed: whereas in the Bishárí country, and
throughout the "Etbaye," between the meridians of Berenike and
Sawákín, the very thinnest metallic fibrils have been shafted and
tunnelled to their end in the rock by those marvellous labourers,
the old Egyptians. In the Hamámát country, again, the excessive
distances, both from the Nile and from the Red Sea, together with
the cost of transport, must bar all profit. Even worse are the
conditions of Fayzoghlú and Dár-For; whilst the mines of Midian
begin literally at the shore.
Another Pasha wrote to me from Alexandria, congratulating me upon
having discovered, during our first Expedition, "a little copper
and iron." Generally, the official public, knowing that I had
brought back stones, not solid masses of gold and silver, loudly
deplored the prospective waste of money; and money, after the
horse-plague, the low Nile, and the excessive exigencies of the
short-sighted creditor, was exceptionally scarce. The truly
Oriental view of the question was taken by an official, whom I
shall call Árif Pasha--the "Knowing One." When told that M.
George Marie, the Government engineer detailed to accompany the
first Expedition, had sent in official analyses with sample tubes
of gold and silver, thus establishing the presence of auriferous
and argentiferous rocks on the Arabian shore, Son Excellence
exclaimed, "Imprudent jeune homme, thus to throw away the chances
of life! Had he only declared the whole affair a farce, a flam, a
sell, a canard, the Viceroy would have held him to be honest, and
would have taken care of his future."
Still, through bad report the Khediv, who had mastered, with his
usual accuracy of perception and judgment, the subject of Midian
and her Mines, was staunch to his resolve; and when one of his
European financiers, a Controleur Général de Dépenses, the normal
round peg in the square hole, warned him that there were no
public funds for such purpose, his Highness warmly declared, on
dit, that the costs of the Expedition should be defrayed at his
own expense.
Meanwhile I had passed the summer of 1877 in preparation for the
work of the ensuing winter. A long correspondence with many
learned friends, and a sedulous study of the latest geographers,
especially German, taught me all that was known of mining in
Arabia generally, and particularly in Midian. During my six
months' absence from Egypt my vision was fixed steadily upon one
point, the Expedition that was to come; and when his Highness was
pleased to offer me, in an autograph letter full of the kindest
expressions, the government of Dár-For, I deferred accepting the
honour till Midian had been disposed of.
Unhappily, certain kindly advisers persuaded me to make well
better by a visit to Karlsbad, and a course of its alkaline
"Fountains of Health." Never was there a greater mistake! The air
is bad as the water is good; the climate is reeking damp, like
that of Western Africa; and, as in St. Petersburg, a plaid must
be carried during the finest weather. Its effects, rheumatic and
neuralgic, may be judged by the fact that the doctors must walk
about with pocketed squirts, for the hypodermal injection of
opium. Almost all those whom I knew there, wanting to be better,
went away worse; and, in my own case, a whole month of Midian
sun, and a sharp attack of ague and fever were required to burn
out the Hexenschuss and to counteract the deleterious effects of
the "Hygeian springs."
At last the happy hour for departure struck; and on October 19,
1877, the Austro-Hungarian Espero (Capitano Colombo) steamed out
of Trieste. On board were Sefer Pasha, our host of Castle
Bertoldstein; and my learned friends, the Aulic Councillor Alfred
von Kremer, Austrian Commissioner to Egypt, and Dr. Heinrich
Brugsch-Bey. The latter gave me a tough piece of work in the
shape of his "Ægypten," which will presently be quoted in these
pages. It would be vain to repeat a description of the little
voyage described in "The Gold-Mines of Midian." The Dalmatian, or
first day; the second, or day of Corfu loved and lost; and the
third, made memorable by Cephalonia and the glorious Canale, all
gave fine smooth weather. But the usual rolling began off
still-vexed Cape Matapan. It lasted through the fourth day, or of
Candia, this insula nobilis et amæna--
"Crete, the crown of all the isles, flower of Levantine waters"
--while the fifth, or Mediterraneo-Alexandrian day, killed two of
the seventeen fine horses, Yuckers and Anglo-Normans, which Sefer
Pasha was conveying to Cairo.
On Thursday morning (October 25), after rolling through the night
off the old port Eunostus, which now looks brand-new, we landed,
and the next day saw me at Cairo. Such was my haste that I could
pay only a flying visit to the broken beer-bottles, the burst
provision-tins, the ice-plants, and the hospitable society of
Ramleh the Sand-heap; and my many acquaintances had barely time
to offer their congratulations upon the prospects of my "becoming
an Egyptian."
My presence at the capital was evidently necessary. A manner of
association for utilizing the discoveries of the first Expedition
had been formed in London by the Messieurs Vignolles, who knew
only the scattered and unofficial notices; issued, without my
privity, by English and continental journals. Their
representative, General Nuthall, formerly of the Madras army, had
twice visited Cairo, in August and October, 1877, seeking a
concession of the mines, and offering conditions which were
perfectly unacceptable. The Viceroy was to allow, contrary to
convention, the free importation of all machinery; to supply
guards, who were not wanted; and, in fact, to guarantee the
safety of the workmen, who were perfectly safe. In return, ten
per cent. on net profits, fifteen being the royalty of the Suez
Canal, was the magnificent inducement offered to the viceregal
convoitise. I could not help noting, by no means silently, this
noble illustration of the principle embodied in Sic vos non
vobis. I was to share in the common fate of originators,
discoverers, and inventors: the find was mine, the profits were
to go--elsewhere. General Nuthall professed inability to regard
the matter in that light; while to all others it appeared in no
other. However, after a few friendly meetings, the representative
left Egypt, with the understanding that possibly we might work
together when the exploration should have been completed. His
Highness, who had verbally promised me either the concession or
four per cent. on gross produce, acted en prince, simply
remarking that the affair was in my hands, and that he would not
interfere with me.
I must not trouble the reader with the tedious tale of the pains
and the labour which accompany the accouchement of such an
Expedition. All practicals know that to organize a movement of
sixty men is not less troublesome--indeed, rather more so--than
if it numbered six hundred or six thousand. The Viceroy had
wisely determined that we should not only carry out the work of
discovery by tracing the precious metals to their source; but,
also, that we should bring back specimens weighing tons enough
for assay and analysis, quantitive and qualitive, in London and
Paris. Consequently, miners and mining apparatus were wanted,
with all the materials for quarrying and blasting: my spirit
sighed for dynamite, but experiments at Trieste had shown it to
be too dangerous. The party was to consist of an escort numbering
twenty-five Súdán soldiers of the Line, negroes liberated some
two years ago; a few Ma'danjiyyah ("mine-men"), and thirty
Haggárah ("stone-men" or quarrymen).
The Government magazines of Cairo contain everything, but the
difficulty is to find where the dispersed articles are stored:
there is a something of red-tapeism; but all is plain sailing,
compared with what it would be in Europe. The express orders of
his Highness Husayn Kámil Pasha, Minister of Finance and Acting
Minister of War, at once threw open every door. Had this young
prince not taken in the affair a personal interest of the
liveliest and most intelligent nature, we might have spent the
winter at Cairo. And here I cannot refrain from mentioning,
amongst other names, that of Mr. Alfred E. Garwood, C.E.,
locomotive superintendent; who, in the short space of four
months, has introduced order and efficiency into the chaos known
as the Bulák magazines. With his friendly cooperation, and under
his vigorous arm, difficulties melted away like hail in a
tropical sun. General Stone (Pasha), the Chief of Staff, also
rendered me some assistance, by lending the instruments which
stood in his own cabinet de travail.[EN#13]
Poor Cairo had spent a seedy autumn. The Russo-Turkish campaign,
which had been unjustifiably allowed, by foreign Powers, to drain
Egypt of her gold and life-blood--some 25,000 men since the
beginning of the Servian prelude--not only caused "abundant
sorrow" to the capital, but also frightened off the stranger-host,
which habitually supplies the poorer population with sovereigns
and napoleons. The horse-pest, a bad typhus, after raging in 1876
and early 1877, had died out: unfortunately, so had the horses;
and the well-bred, fine-tempered, and high-spirited little
Egyptians were replaced by a mongrel lot, hastily congregated
from every breeding ground in Europe. The Fellahs, who had
expected great things from the mission of MM. Goschen and
Joubert, asked wonderingly if those financiers had died; while a
scanty Nile, ten to twelve feet lower, they say, than any known
during the last thousand years, added to the troubles of the
poor, by throwing some 600,000 feddans (acres) out of gear, and
by compelling an exodus from the droughty right to the left bank.
Finally, when the river of Egypt did rise, it rose too late, and
brought with it a feverish and unwholesome autumn. Briefly, we
hardly escaped the horrors of Europe--
"Herbstesahnung! Triste Spuren
In den Wäldern, auf den Fluren!
Regentage, böses Wetter," etc.
Meanwhile, in the Land of the Pharaohs, whose scanty interest
about the war was disguised by affected rejoicings at Ottoman
successes, the Prophet gallantly took the field, as in the days
of Yúsuf bin Ishák. This time the vehicle of revelation was the
learned Shayhk (má? ) Alaysh, who was ordered in a dream by the
Apostle of Allah (upon whom be peace!) to announce the victory of
the Moslem over the Infidel; and, as the vision took place in
Jemádi el-Akhir (June), the first prediction was not more
unsuccessful than usual. Shortly afterwards, the same reverend
man again dreamt that, seeing two individuals violently
quarreling, with voies de fait, he had hastened, like a true
believer, to separate and to reconcile them. But what was his
surprise when the brawlers proved to be the Sultan and the Czar,
the former administering condign personal punishment to his
hereditary foe. This, the enlightened Shaykh determined, was a
sign that in September the Osmanli would be gloriously
triumphant. Nor was he far wrong. The Russians, who had begun the
campaign, like the English in India, with a happy contempt both
for the enemy and for the elementary rules of war, were struck
with a cold fit of caution: instead of marching straight upon and
intrenching themselves in Adrianople, they vainly broke their
gallant heads against the improvised earthworks of Plevna. And
ignorant Europe, marvelling at the prowess of the "noble Turk,"
ignored the fact that all the best "Turkish" soldiers were Slavs,
originally Christians, renegades of old, unable to speak a word
of Turkish; preserving their Bosniac family-names, and without
one drop of Turkish blood in their veins. Sulayman Pashás army
was about as "Turkish" as are the Poles or the Hungarians.
Not the less did Cairo develop the normal season-humours of the
Frank. Among the various ways of "doing the Pyramids," I
registered a new one: Mr. A---- , junior, unwilling wholly to
neglect them, sent his valet with especial orders to stand upon
the topmost plateau. The "second water" of irrigation made
November dangerous; many of the "Shepheards" suffered from the
Ayán el-Mulúk, the "Evil of Kings" (gout), in the gloomy form as
well as the gay; and whisky-cum-soda became popular as upon the
banks of the Thames and the Tweed. As happens on dark days, the
money-digger was abroad, and one anecdote deserves record. Many
years ago, an old widow body had been dunned into buying, for a
few piastres, a ragged little manuscript from a pauper Maghrabi.
These West Africans are, par excellence, the magicians of modern
Egypt and Syria; and here they find treasure, like the Greeks
upon the shores of the Northern Adriatic. Perhaps there may be a
basis for the idea; oral traditions and written documents
concerning buried hoards would take refuge in remote regions,
comparatively undisturbed by the storms of war, and inhabited by
races more or less literary. At any rate, the Maghrabi Darwaysh
went his ways, assuring his customer that, when her son came of
age, a fortune would be found in the little book. And true
enough, the boy, reaching man's estate, read in its torn pages
ample details concerning a Dafi'nah (hoard) of great value. He
was directed, by the manuscript, to a certain spot upon the
Mukattam range, immediately behind the Cairene citadel, where the
removal of a few stones would disclose a choked shaft: the latter
would descend to a tunnel, full of rubbish, and one of the many
sidings would open upon the golden chamber. The permission of
Government was secured, the workmen began, and the directions
proved true--"barring" the treasure, towards which progress was
still being made. Such was the legend of Cairo, as recounted to
me by my good friend, Yacoub Artin Bey; I can only add to it,
Allaho A'alam!--Allah is all-knowing!
The sole cause of delay in beginning exploration was the want of
money; and this, of course, even the Prince Minister of Finance
could not coin. Egypt, the fertile, the wealthy, the progressive,
was, indeed, at the time all but insolvent. At the suggestion of
foreigners, "profitable investments," which yielded literally
nothing, had been freely made for many a year, and the sole
results were money difficulties and debt. The European financiers
had managed admirably for their shareholders; but, having assumed
the annual national income at a maximum, instead of a minimum,
they had brought the goose of the golden eggs to the very verge
of death. The actionnaires were to receive, with a punctuality
hardly possible in the East, the usurious interest of six per
cent., not including one per cent. for sinking fund. Meanwhile,
the officers and officials, military, naval, and civil, had been
in arrears of salary for seven to fifteen months; and even the
Jews refused to cash at any price their pay certificates.
Nothing could be more unwise or unjust than the exactions of the
creditors. Men must live; if not paid, they perforce pay
themselves; and thus, of every hundred piastres, hardly thirty
find their way into the treasury. Ten times worse was the
condition of the miserable Felláhín, who were selling for three
or four napoleons the bullocks worth fifteen per head. Thus they
would tide over the present year; but a worse than Indian famine
was threatened for the following. And the "Bakkál," at once petty
trader and money-lender, whose interest and compound interest
here amount, as in Bombay, to hundreds per cent., would complete
the ruin which the "low Nile" and the Christian creditor had
begun.
A temporary reduction of interest to three per cent., with one
per cent of amortization, should content the greedy shareholder,
who seeks to combine high profits with perfect security. During
November, 1877, there were five M.P.'s at Shepheard's; and all
cried shame upon the financial condition of the country. Sir
George Campbell opened the little game. In his "Inside View of
Egypt" (Fortnightly Review, Dec., 1877) he drew a graphic picture
of the abnormal state of poor Egypt; he expressed the sensible
opinion that, in the settlement, the claims of the bond-holders
have been too exclusively considered, and he concluded that no
more payments of debt-interest should be made until official
arrears are discharged.
At last the Phare d'Alexandrie (November 29, 1877), doubtless
under official inspiration, put forth the following article,
greatly to the satisfaction of the unfortunate employés:--
"Si nos renseignements particuliers sont exacts, le comité des
finances vient de prendre une excellente décision. Elle consiste
en ce que, aussitôt l'argent pour le paiement du prochain coupon,
préparé, le ministe're, avant tout autre, procédera au paiement
des appointements arriérés des employés.
"Nous apprenons, on outre, que S. A. le ministre des finances,
même, a déclaré, molu proprio, que jusqu'au complet paiement des
arriérés dûs aux employés, et dans le cas oú il se présenterait
une dépense de grande importance, prévue même par le budget, de
ne pas en ordonner le paiement sans, au préalable, le sommettre à
l'adhésion du comité.
"Nous applaudissons de toutes nos forces à cette bonne nouvelle
d'abord, parcequ'elle affirme une fois de plus la scrupuleuse
exactitude qu'on apporte au paiement des coupons, ensuite elle
prouve le vif intérèt qu' inspire au gouvernement la situation de
ses nombreux employés, enfin elle nous fait espérer qu'après
avoir songé à eux, on s'occupera aussi à payer les autres sommes
portées et pre'vues au budget de l'année."
Accordingly, on December 2nd, the Prince Minister of Finance took
heart of grace, and distributed among the officials one month's
pay, with a promise that all arrears should presently be made
good. On the same day his Highness issued to the Expedition 2000
napoleons, in addition to the 620 already expended upon
instruments and provisions. This was the more liberal, as I had
calculated the total at 1500: the more, however, the better. In
such work it is money versus time, the former saving the latter;
and we were already late in the year--it had been proposed to
start on November 15th, and we had lost three precious weeks of
fine autumnal weather. The stores were equally abundant: I wanted
one forge, and received three.
Of course, many details had been forgotten; e.g., a farrier and
change of mule-irons, a tinsmith and tinning tools, a
sulphur-still, boots for the soldiers and the quarrymen, small
shot for specimens, and so forth. I had carried out my idea of a
Dragoman with two servants; and the result had been a model
failure, especially in the most important department. The true
"Desert cook" is a man sui generis; he would utterly fail at the
Criterion, and even at Shepheard's; but in the wilderness he will
serve coffee within fifteen minutes, and dish the best of dinners
within the hour after the halt.
Mr. Clarke and Lieutenant Amir worked with a will; and they were
ably seconded by Colonel Ali Bey Robi and Lieutenant-Colonel (of
the Staff) Mohammed Bey Báligh. But the finishing touch to such
preparations must be done by the master hand; and my unhappy
visit to Karlsbad rendered that impossible. The stores and
provisions were supplied by MM. Voltéra Brothers, of Cairo: I
cannot say too much in their praise; and the packing was as good
as the material. M. Gross, of Shepheard's, was good enough to let
me have a barrel of claret; which improved every week by
travelling, and which cost only a franc a bottle: it began as a
bon ordinaire, and the little that returned to Cairo ranked with
a quasi-grand vin, at least as good as the four-shilling Medoc.
Finally, Dr. Lowe, of Cairo, kindly prepared for us a medicine
chest, containing about £10 worth of the usual drugs and
appliances--calomel, tartar emetic, and laudanum; blister,
plaster, and simple ointment.[EN#14]
A special train was made ready for Thursday, December 6th; and,
at ten a.m., after taking leave of their Highnesses, who
courteously wished me good luck and God-speed, the Expedition
found itself under weigh. We were accompanied to the station by
many kind friends: my excellent kinsman Lord Francis, and Lady F.
Conyngham, Yacoub Artin Bey, General Stone, and MM. George,
Garwood, Girard, and Guillemine.
The change from the damp air of Cairo to the drought of the
Desert was magical: light ailments and heavy cares seemed to fall
off like rags and tatters. We halted at Zagázig, remarking that
this young focus of railway traffic has become the eastern key of
Lower Egypt, as Benhá is to the western delta; and prophesying
that some day, not far distant, will see the glories of Bubastis
revived. Here we picked up my old friend Haji Wali, whom age--he
declares that he was born in the month Mízán of 1797--had made
only a little fatter and greedier. We gave a wide berth to the
future Alexandria, Ismailíyyah, whose splendid climate has been
temporarily spoilt by the sweet-water canal of the same name. The
soil became literally sopped; and hence the intermittent fevers
which have lately assailed it. A similar disregard for drainage
has ingeniously managed to convert into pest-houses Simla and
other Himalayan sanitaria.
The day ended with running the train into the Suez Docks, so as
to embark all our impediments on the next morning; and I fondly
expected Saturday to see us sail. But the weather-wise had been
true in their forecasts. Friday opened with howling, screaming
gusts of southerly wind; and, during the night we were treated to
a fierce display of storm,--thunder and lightning, and rain. The
gale caused one collision on the Canal, and twenty-five steamers
were delayed near the Bitter Lake; it broke down the railway and
sanded it up for miles, and it levelled fifty English and forty
Egyptian telegraph-posts--an ungentle hint to prefer the
telephone. Saturday, the beginning of winter, opened with a cold
raw souther and a surging sea, which washed over the Dock-piers;
in such weather it was impossible to embark ten mules without
horse-boxes. On Sunday the waves ran high, but the gale fell
about sunset to a dead calm; as usual in the Gulf, the breakers
and white horses at once disappeared; and the slaty surface,
fringed with dirty yellow, immediately reassumed its robes of
purple and turquoise blue. The ill wind, however, had blown us
some good by deluging with long-hoped-for rain the now barren
mountains of Midian.
This "Fortuna," according to the people, sets in with the fourth
Coptic month, Kayhak,[EN#15] which begins the first Arba'ín
("Forty-day period"); and the fourth day is known as the Imtizáj
el-Faslayn, or "Mixture of the two Seasons"--autumn and winter.
The storm is expected to blow three days from the Azyab
(south-east) or from the Shirs (south-west). The qualities of the
several winds are described in the following distich:--
"Mirísi Shaytán, wa Gharbi Wazírhu;
Tiyáb Sultán, wa Sharki Nazírhu."
"The south-wester's a Satan, and the wester's his minister;
The norther's a Sultan, and the easter's his man."
On the other hand, fair weather was predicted after the first
quarter of the moon (December 12th), according to the saying of
the Arab sailor:--
"When the moon sleeps, the seaman may sleep;
When the moon stands, the seaman must stand."
The "sleeping" moon--náim or rákid, also called Yemáni--is that
of the first quarter, which we mark concave to the left; the
"standing" moon is that of the last.
Our stay at Suez was saddened by the sudden death of Marius
Isnard, who had acted cook to the first Khedivial Expedition. The
poor lad, aged only eighteen, had met us at the Suez station,
delighted with the prospect of another journey; he had neglected
his health; and, after a suppression of two days, which he madly
concealed, gangrene set in, and he died a painful death at the
hospital during the night preceding our departure.
On December 10th we ran down from Suez Quay in the Bird of the
Sea (Tayr el-Bahr), the harbour mouche, or little steam-launch,
accompanied by the Governor, Sa'íd Bey, who has not yet been made
a Pasha; by Mr. Consul West; by the genial Ra'íf Bey, Wakíl
el-Komandaníyyah or acting commodore of the station; by Mr.
Willoughby Faulkner, my host at Suez; by the Messieurs Levick,
and by other friends. In the highest spirits we boarded our
"gun-carriage," the aviso Mukhbir (Captain Mohammed Siráj); and,
after many mutual good wishes, we left the New Docks at 6.10 p.m.
Nothing could be more promising than the weather, a young moon
mirrored in a sea smooth as oil. The "Giver of Good News"
(El-Mukhbir), however, for once failed in her mission. She had
lately conducted herself well upon a trial trip round the Zenobia
lightship ("Newport Rock").[EN#16] But the two Arab firemen who
acted engineers, worn-out grey-beards that hated the idea of four
months on the barbarous Arabian shore, had choked the tubes with
wastage, and had filled the single boiler, taking care to plug
up, instead of opening, the relief-pipe. The consequence was that
the engines sweated at every pore; steam instead of water
streamed from the sides; and the chimney discharged, besides
smoke, a heavy shower of rain. The engine (John Jameson,
engineer, Newcastle-on-Tyne, 1866), a good article, in prime
condition as far as a literally rotten boiler would allow,
presently revenged itself by splitting the air-pipe of the
condenser from top to bottom; and after two useless halts the
captain reported to me that we must return to Suez. What a
beginning! The fracture somewhat relieved the machinery; we did
better work after than before the accident, but we were ignobly
towed into dock by the ship's boats.
A telegram with a procès-verbal was at once sent off to the
Prince; Sa'íd Bey and Ra'íf Bey hastened to our aid, and Mr.
Williams, superintending engineer of the Khedivíyyah line, with
the whole of his staff, stripped and set to work at the peccant
tubes and air-pump. They commenced with extinguishing a serious
fire which burst from the waste-room--by no means pleasant when
close to kegs of blasting-powder carefully sewn up in canvas.
They laboured with a will, and before sunset Mr. Williams
informed us that he would guarantee the engines for eight days,
when we were starting on a dangerous cruise for four months. He
also supplied us with an Egyptian boiler-maker and with eleven
instead of sixty new tubes: we lost forty-two of the old ones
between Suez and El-Muwaylah. Before sunset we made a trial trip,
the wretched old kettle acting tant bien que mal; we returned to
re-embark the soldiers and the mules, and we set out for the
second time at 5.30 p.m.
The Mukhbir, 130 feet long, 380 tons, and 80 to go horse-power,
under charge of the English or rather Scotch engineer, Mr. David
Duguid, who had taken the place of the two Arab firemen, began
with 7 1/2 knots an hour, 68 revolutions per minute, and a
pressure of 9 lbs. to the square inch. The condenser-vacuum was
26 inches (30 being complete)--13 lbs. Next morning the rate
declined to six miles in consequence of the boiler leaking, and
matters became steadily worse. As a French writer says of the
genre humain, we were placed, not entre le bien et le mal, but
entre le mal et le pire. After sundry narrow escapes in the Gulf
of 'Akabah, we were saved, as will be seen, by a manner of
miracles. Briefly, the Mukhbir caused us much risk, heartburn,
and loss of time.
Seven a.m. (December 11th) found us crossing the Birkat
Fara'ún--Pharaoh's Gulf--some sixty miles from the great port.
Its horrors to native craft I have already described in my
"Pilgrimage." Between this point and Ras Za'faránah, higher up,
the wind seems to split: a strong southerly gale will be blowing,
whilst a norther of equal pressure prevails at the Gulf-head, and
vice versâ. Suez, indeed, appears to be, in more ways than one, a
hydrographical puzzle. When it is low water in and near the
harbour, the flow is high between the Straits of Jobal and the
Daedalus Light; and the ebb tide runs out about two points across
the narrows, whilst the flood runs in on a line parallel with it.
Finally, when we returned, hardly making headway against an angry
norther, Suez, enjoying the "sweet south," was congratulating the
voyagers upon their weather.
The loss of a good working day soon made itself felt. The north
wind rose, causing the lively Mukhbir, whose ballast, by-the-by,
was all on deck, to waddle dangerously for the poor mules; and it
was agreed, nem. con., to put into Tor harbour. We found
ourselves at ten a.m. (December 12th) within the natural pier of
coralline, and we were not alone in our misfortune; an English
steamer making Suez was our companion. This place has superseded
El Wijh as the chief quarantine station for the return
pilgrimage; and I cannot sufficiently condemn the change.[EN#17]
The day lagged slowly, as we
"Walked in grief by the merge of the many-voiced
sounding sea."
But we looked in vain for our "tender," a Sambúk of fifty tons,
El-Musahhil (Rais Ramazan), which Prince Husayn had thoughtfully
sent with us as post-boat. She disappeared on the evening of the
11th, and she did not make act of presence until the 16th, when
her master was at once imprisoned in the fort of El-Muwaylah.
Moreover, the owner, Mohammed Bukhayt, of Suez, who had received
£90 as advance for three months--others said £60 for
four--provided her with only a few days' provisions, leaving us
to ration his crew.
A wintry norther in these latitudes is not easily got rid of.
According to the people, here, as in the 'Akabah Gulf, it lasts
three days, and dies after a quiet noon; whereas on the 13th,
when we expected an escape, it rose angrily at one p.m. I was
much cheered by the pleasant news of M. Bianchi, the local
Deputato di Sanità, who assured us that a pernicieuse was raging
at El-Muwaylah, and that it was certain death to pass one night
in the fort. The only fire that emitted all this smoke was the
fact that during the date-harvest of North-Western Arabia, July
and August, agues are common; and that at all seasons the well
water is not "honest," and is supposed to breed trifling chills.
In the Prairies of the Far West I heard of a man who rode some
hundreds of miles to deliver himself of a lie. Nothing like
solitude and the Desert for freshening the fancy. Another
individual who was much exercised by our journey was Khwájeh
Konstantin, a Syrian-Greek trader, son of the old agent of the
convent, whose blue goggles and comparatively tight pantaloons
denoted a certain varnish and veneer. It is his practice to visit
El-Muwaylah once every six months; when he takes, in exchange for
cheap tobacco, second-hand clothes, and poor cloth, the coral,
the pearls fished for in April, the gold dust, the finds of coin,
and whatever else will bring money. Such is the course and custom
of these small monopolists, who, at "Raitha" and elsewhere, much
dislike to see quiet things moved.
At length, after a weary day of far niente, when even le sommeil
se faisait prier, we "hardened our hearts," and at nine p.m., as
the gale seemed to slumber, we stood southwards. The Mukhbir
rolled painfully off Ras Mohammed, which obliged us with its own
peculiar gusts; and the 'Akabah Gulf, as usual, acted wind-sail.
A long détour was necessary in order to spare the mules, which,
however, are much less liable to injury, under such
circumstances, than horses, having a knack of learning to use
sea-legs.
The night was atrocious; so was the next morning; but about noon
we were cheered by the sight of the glorious mountain-walls of
well-remembered Midian, which stood out of the clear blue sky in
passing grandeur of outline, in exceeding splendid dour of
colouring, and in marvellous sharpness of detail. Once more the
"power of the hills" was on us.
Three p.m. had struck before we found ourselves in broken water
off the fort of El-Muwaylah, where our captain cast a single
anchor, and where we had our first escape from drifting upon the
razor-like edges of the coralline reefs. In fact, everything
looked so menacing, with surging sea around and sable
storm-clouds to westward, that I resolved upon revisiting our old
haunt, the safe and dock-like Sharm Yáhárr. Here we entered
without accident; and were presently greeted by the Sayyid 'Abd
el-Rahím, our former Káfilah-báshi, who had ridden from
El-Muwaylah to receive us. The news was good: a truce of one
month had been concluded between the Huwaytát and the Ma'ázah,
probably for the better plundering of the pilgrims. This year the
latter were many: the "Wakfah," or standing upon Mount Ararat,
fell upon a Friday; consequently it was a Hajj el-Akbar, or
"Greater Pilgrimage," very crowded and very dangerous, in more
ways than one.
I had given a free passage to one Sulaymán Aftáhi, who declared
himself to be of the Beni 'Ukbah, when he was a Huwayti of the
Jeráfín clan. After securing a free passage and provision gratis,
when the ship anchored, he at once took French leave. On return I
committed him to the tender mercies of the Governor, Sa'íd Bey.
The soldiers, the quarry-men, and the mules were landed, and the
happy end of the first stage brought with it a feeling of intense
relief, like that of returning to Alexandria. Hitherto everything
had gone wrong: the delays and difficulties at Cairo; at Suez,
the death of poor Marius Isnard and the furious storm; the
break-down of the engine; the fire in the wasteroom; and, lastly,
the rough and threatening gale between the harbour and
El-Muwaylah. What did the Wise King mean by "better is the end of
a thing than the beginning thereof"? I only hope that it may be
applicable to the present case. In the presence of our working
ground all evils were incontinently forgotten; and, after the
unusual dankness of the Egyptian capital, and the blustering
winds of the Gulf and the sea, the soft and delicate air of the
Midian shore acted like a cordial. For the first time after
leaving Alexandria, I felt justified in taper de l'oeil with the
clearest of consciences.
The preliminary stage ended with disembarking at the Fort,
El-Muwaylah, all our stores and properties, including sundry
cases of cartridges and five hundred pounds of pebble-powder,
which had been stored immediately under the main cabin and its
eternal cigarettes and allumettes. The implements, as well as the
provisions, were made over to the charge of an old Albanian, one
Rajab Aghá, who at first acted as our magazine-man for a
consideration of two napoleons per month, in advance if possible.
This done, the Mukhbir returned into the dock Yáhárr, in order to
patch up her kettle, which seemed to grow worse under every
improvement. We accompanied her, after ordering a hundred camels
to be collected; well knowing that as this was the Bairam, 'Id,
or "Greater Festival," nothing whatever would be done during its
three days' duration.
The respite was not unwelcome to me; it seemed to offer an
opportunity for recovering strength. At Cairo I had taken the
advice of a learned friend (if not an "Apostle of Temperance," at
any rate sorely afflicted with the temperance idea), who, by
threats of confirmed gout and lumbago, fatty degeneration of the
heart and liver, ending in the possible rupture of some valve,
had persuaded me that man should live upon a pint of claret per
diem. How dangerous is the clever brain with a monomania in it!
According to him, a glass of sherry before dinner was a poison,
whereas half the world, especially the Eastern half, prefers its
potations preprandially; a quarter of the liquor suffices, and
both appetite and digestion are held to be improved by it. The
result of "turning over a new leaf," in the shape of a phial of
thin "Gladstone," was a lumbago which lasted me a long month, and
which disappeared only after a liberal adhibition of "diffusible
stimulants."
It required no small faith in one's good star to set out for a
six weeks' work in the Desert under such conditions. My
consolation, however, was contained in the lines attributed to
half a dozen who wrote good English:--
"He either fears his fate too much,
Or his deserts are small,
Who dares not put it to the touch,
To gain or lose it all."
This time, however, Mind was tranquil, whatever Matter might
suffer. As the novelist says, "Lighting upon a grain of gold or
silver betokens that a mine of the precious metal must be in the
neighbourhood." It had been otherwise with my first Expedition: a
forlorn hope, a miracle of moral audacity; the heaviest of
responsibilities incurred upon the slightest of justifications,
upon the pinch of sand which a tricky and greedy old man might
readily have salted. It reminds me of a certain "Philip sober,"
who in the morning fainted at the sight of the precipice which he
had scaled when "Philip drunk." I look back with amazement upon
No. I.
NOTE.
The second Khedivial Expedition to Midian was composed of the
following officers and men. The European staff numbered four, not
including the commander, viz.:--
M. George Marie, of the État-Major, Egyptian army, an engineer
converted into a geologist and mineralogist; he was under the
orders of his Highness Prince Husayn Pasha.
Mr. J. Charles J. Clarke, telegraphic engineer, ranking as major
in Egypt, commissariat officer.
M. Émile Lacaze, of Cairo, artist and photographer.
M. Jean Philipin, blacksmith.
Besides these, Mr. David Duguid,--not related to "Hafed, Prince
of Persia,"--chief engineer of the gunboat Mukhbir (Captain
Mohammed Síráj), accompanied us part of the way on temporary
leave, and kindly assisted me in observing meteorology and in
making collections.
The Egyptian commissioned officers numbered six, viz.:--
Ahmed Kaptán Musallam, commander in the navy, and ranking as
Sakulághási (major). He had been first officer in the Sinnár, and
he was sent to make astronomical observations; but he proved to
be a confirmed invalid.
Of the Arkán-Harb (Staff) were:--
Lieutenant Amir Rushdi, who had accompanied me before.
Lieutenant Yusuf Taufik.
Lieutenant Darwaysh Ukkáb, of the Piyédah or infantry. He was
also a great sufferer on a small scale.
Sub-Lieutenant Mohammed Farahát, of the Muhandism (Engineers), in
charge of the Laggámgiyyah or Haggárah (blasters and quarrymen).
He ended by deserting his duty on arrival at Cairo.
The non-commissioned officers, all Egyptians, amounted to
seven:--
Bulúk-amín (writer) Mohammed Sharkáwi (infantry).
Chawush (serjeant) 'Atwah El-Ashírí (infantry).
Chawush (serjeant) Mabrúk Awadh (quarryman); deserted at Cairo.
Onbáshi (corporal) Higázi Ammár (Staff).
Onbáshi (corporal) Mohammed Sulaymán (infantry) : also our
barber, and a good man.
Onbáshi (corporal) Mahmu'd Abd el-Rahmán (infantry): I had to put
him in irons.
Onbáshi (corporal) Ibráhím Hedíb.
There were three Nafar (privates) of the Staff:--
'Ali 'Brahim Ma'danji, generally known as Ali Marie, from the
officer whom he served; a hard-working man, over-devoted to his
master. I recommended him for promotion.
Ramazán Ramazán.
Hasan Mohammed. He proved useful, as he brought with him all the
necessary tools for mending saddles.
The twenty-five privates of infantry were emancipated negroes, a
few being from the Súdán; composed of every tribe, it was a
curious mixture, good, bad, and indifferent. Some were slaves who
had been given, in free gift, by their owners to the Mírí
(Government), and men never part with a good "chattel," except
for a sufficient cause. As will be seen, many of the names are
"fancy":--
Sayyid Ahmed El-Tawíl.
Yúsuf Faragallah (Faraj-Allah).
Farag 'Ali.
Sa'íd Hasan Básha'. His owner was a Fellah called Hasan
Báshá--peasants often give this title as a name to a boy who is
born under fortunate circumstances. Sa'íd was a fat, jolly
fellow, a Sidi Bháí from the Mrímá, or mainland of Zanzibar, who
had wholly forgotten his Kisawáhílí. Corporal Mahmúd was punished
for keeping him eighteen hours on guard. He was one of the very
few to whom I gave "bakhshísh" after returning to Cairo.
Sa'íd El-Sa'id.
Mirsal Ginaydi.
Mabrúk Rizk.
Abdullah Mohammed Zaghúl.
Sa'íd Katab.
Faragallah Sharaf el-Dín.
Farag Sálih.
Surúr Mustafá.
Salámat el-Nahhás; an excellent and intelligent man, who was
attached to the service of M. Lacaze. He distinguished himself by
picking up antiques, until his weakness, the Dá el-Faranj, found
him out.
Farag Ahmed Bura'í.
Farag Mohammed Amín.
Mirgán Sulaymán.
'Abd el-Maulá.
Mohammedayn.
Mabrúk Hasan Osmán.
Khayr Ramazán, a large and sturdy negro, from Dár-Wadái, with
long cuts down both sides of his face; a hard-working and
intelligent soldier, who naturally took command of his fellows. I
made him an acting corporal, and on return recommended him for
promotion.
Fadl 'Allah 'Ali el-Kholi, a Shillúk, one of the worst tribes of
the Upper Nile, whom it is forbidden to enlist. He began by
refusing to obey an order, he pushed an officer out of his way,
and he struck an Arab Shaykh. Consequently, he passed the greater
part of the time in durance vile at the fort of El-Muwaylah.
Mirgán Yúsuf; flogged for insolence to his officer, January 19.
Abdullah Ibráhím.
Ibráhím Kattáb.
Mabrúk Mansúr Agwah.
The Boruji (bugler) Mersál Abú Dunyá, a "character" who retires
for practice to lonely hills and vales. His progress is not equal
to his zeal and ambition.
The thirty quarrymen were all Egyptians, and it would be hard to
find a poorer lot; they never worked, save under compulsion, and
they stole whatever they could. I examined their packs during the
homeward cruise, and found that many of them had secreted
Government gunpowder:--
Ahmed Ashiri.
Ahmed Badr.
Ahmed el-Wakíl.
Omar Sharkáwi.
5. Mustafá Husayn.
Ismaíl el-Wa'í.
Ali Zalat.
Ali 'Abd el-Rahmán.
Mustafá Sálim.
10. 'Alí Bedawi.
Hanná Bishá'i.
Hamed Hanafi.
Hamed Wahlah.
Mustafá Sa'dáni (died of fever at El-Muwaylah).
15. Mahmu'd Gum'ah.,
Abú Zayd Hassá'nah.
Ismaíl Dusúki.
Sukk el-Fakíh.
Isá el-Dimíkí.
20. 'Ali Atwadh.
Mohammed Sulaymán.
Ibra'hi'm 'Ali Mohammed.
'Ali Isá.
Mohammed 'Abd el-Záhir.
25. 'Ali Wahish.
Abbási Mansúr (a tinman by trade, but without tools).
Gálút Ali.
Usmán Ámir.
Alewá Ahmed.
30. Mohammed Ajízah.
And lastly (31), the carpenter, 'Ali Sulaymán; a "knowing
dodger," who brought with him a little stock-in-trade of tobacco,
cigarette-paper, and similar comforts.
There were five soldiers, or rather matchlock-men, engaged from
the fort-garrison, El-Muwaylah:--
Husayn Bayrakdár; a man who has travelled, and has become too
clever by half. He was equally remarkable as a liar and as a
cook.
Bukháyt Ahmed, generally known as El-Ahmar from his red coat; a
Dinká slave, some sixty years old, and looking forty-five. He was
still a savage, never sleeping save in the open air.
Bukhayt Mohammed, popularly termed El-Aswad; a Foráwi
(Dár-Forian) and a good man. He was called "The Shadow of the
Bey."
Ahmed Sálih; a stout fellow, and the worst of guides.
Sálim Yúsuf.
The head of the caravan was the Sayyid' Abd el-Rahím, accountant
at the Fort el-Muwaylah, of whom I have spoken before. He was
subsequently recommended by me to his Highness for the post of
Názir or commandant.
Haji Wali, my old Cairene friend, who lost no time in bolting.
There were also generally three Bedawi Shaykhs, who, by virtue of
their office, received each one dollar (twenty piastres) per
diem.
The servants and camp followers were:--
Anton Dimitriadis, the dragoman; a Bakkál or small shopkeeper at
Zagázig, and a tenant of Haji Wali.
Giorgi (Jorgos) Sifenus, the cook, whose main disadvantage was
his extreme and ultra-Greek uncleanliness.
Petro Giorgiadis, of Zante; a poor devil who has evidently been a
waiter in some small Greek café which supplies a cup per hour.
These three men were a great mistake; but, as has been said, poor
health at Cairo prevented my looking into details.
Yúsuf el-Fazi, Dumánji or quartermaster from the Mukhbir, acting
servant to Captain Ahmed, and a thoroughly good man. He was also
recommended for promotion.
Ahmed, the Saís or mule-groom; another pauvre diable, rascally
withal, who was flogged for selling the mules' barley to the
Bedawin. He was assisted by the Corporal (and barber) Mohammed
Sulaymán and by five quarrymen.
Husayn Ganínah; a one-eyed little Felláh, fourteen years old,
looking ten, and knowing all that a man of fifty knows. He was
body-servant to Lieutenant Yusuf.
As usual, the caravan was accompanied by a suttler from
El-Muwaylah, one Hamad, who sold tobacco, coffee, clarified
butter, and so forth. He was chaffed with the saying, Hamad fi'
bayt ak--"Thy house is a pauper."
Finally, there were two dogs: Juno, a Clumber spaniel, young and
inexperienced; Páikí, a pariah, also a pup.
Besides these two permanents, various "casuals," the dog 'Brahim,
etc., attached themselves to our camp.
Chapter II.
The Start--from El-muwaylah to the "White Mountain" and 'Aynúah.
I landed at El-Muwaylah, described in my last volume,[EN#18] on
the auspicious Wednesday, December 19, 1877, under a salute from
the gunboat Mukhbir, which the fort answered with a rattle and a
patter of musketry. All the notables received us, in line drawn
up on the shore, close to our camp. To the left stood the
civilians in tulip-coloured garb; next were the garrison, a dozen
Básh-Buzuks en bourgeois, and mostly armed with matchlocks; then
came out quarrymen in uniform, but without weapons; and, lastly,
the escort (twenty-five men) held the place of honour on the
right. The latter gave me a loud "Hip! hip! hurrah!" as I passed.
The tents, a total of twenty, including two four-polers for our
mess and for the stores, with several large canvas sheds--páls,
the Anglo-Indian calls them--gleamed white against the dark-green
fronds of the date-grove; and the magnificent background of the
scene was the "Dibbagh" block of the Tiha'mah, or lowland
mountains.
The usual "palaver" at once took place; during which everything
was "sweet as honey." After this pleasant prelude came the normal
difficulties and disagreeables--it had been reported that I was
the happy possessor of £22,000 mostly to be spent at El-MuwayIah.
The unsettled Arabs plunder and slay; the settled Arabs slander
and cheat.
A whole day was spent in inspecting the soldiers and mules; in
despatching a dromedary-post to Suez with news of our
unexpectedly safe arrival, and in conciliating the claims of
rival Bedawin. His Highness the Viceroy had honoured with an
order to serve us Hasan ibn Salim, Shaykh of the Beni 'Ukbah, a
small tribe which will be noticed in a future page. Last spring
these men had carried part of our caravan to 'Aynúnah; and they
having no important blood-feuds, I had preferred to employ them.
But 'Abd el-Nabi, of the Tagayát-Huwaytát clan, had been spoilt
by over-kindness during my reconnaissance of 1877; besides, I had
given him a bowie-knife without taking a penny in exchange. In my
first volume he appears as a noble savage, with a mixture of the
gentleman; here he becomes a mere Fellah-Bedawi.
The claimants met with the usual ceremony; right hands placed on
the opposite left breasts--this is not done when there is bad
blood--foreheads touching, and the word of peace, "Salám,"
ceremoniously ejaculated by both mouths. Then came the screaming
voices, the high words, and the gestures, which looked as if the
Kurbáj ("whip") were being administered. The Huwayti stubbornly
refused to march with the other tribe, whom, moreover, he grossly
insulted: he professed perfect readiness to carry me and mine
gratis, the while driving the hardest bargain; he spoke of "our
land," when the country belongs to the Khediv; he openly denied
his allegiance; he was convicted of saying, "If these Christians
find gold, there will be much trouble (fitneh) to us Moslems;"
and at a subsequent time he went so far as to abuse an officer. I
had "Shaykh'd" him (Shayyakht-uh), that is, promoted him in rank,
said the Sayyid 'Abd el-Rahím; and the honour had completely
changed his manners. "Nasaggharhu" (We will "small" him), was my
reply. The only remedy, in fact, was to undo what had been done;
to cut down, as Easterns say, the tree which I had planted. So he
was solemnly and conspicuously disrated; the fee, one dollar per
diem, allotted as travelling and escort-allowance to the chiefs,
was publicly taken from him, and he at once subsided into an
ignoble Walad ("lad"), under the lead of his uncle, Shaykh
'Aláyan ibn Rabí. The latter is a man of substance, who can
collect at least two thousand camels. Though much given to
sulking, on the whole, he behaved so well that, the Expedition
ended, I recommended him to his Highness the Viceroy for
appointment to the chieftainship of his tribe, and the usual
yearly subsidy. With him was associated his cousin, Shaykh
Furayj, an excellent man, of whom I shall have much to say; and
thus we had to fee three Bedawi chiefs, including Hasan. The
latter was a notable intriguer and mischief-maker, ever breeding
bad blood; and his termper was rather violent than sullen. When
insulted by a soldier, he would rush off for his gun,
ostentatiously light the match, walk about for an hour or two
threatening to "shyute," and then apparently forget the whole
matter.
All wanted to let their camels by the day, whereas the custom of
Arabia is to bargain for the march. Thus, the pilgrims pay one
dollar per stage of twelve hours; and the post-dromedary demands
the same sum, besides subsistence-money and "bakhshi'sh." But our
long and frequent halts rendered this proceeding unfair to the
Bedawin. I began by offering seven piastres tariff, and ended by
agreeing to pay five per diem while in camp, and ten when on the
road.[EN#19] Of course, it was too much; but our supply of money
was ample, and the Viceroy had desired me to be liberal. In the
Nile valley, where the price of a camel is some £20, the average
daily hire would be one dollar: on the other hand, the animal
carries, during short marches, 700 lbs. The American officers in
Upper Egypt reduced to 300 lbs. the 500 lbs. heaped on by the
Súdáni merchants. In India we consider 400 lbs. a fair load; and
the Midianite objects to anything beyond 200 lbs.
I have no intention of troubling the reader with a detailed
account of our three first stages from El-Muwaylah to the Jebel
el-Abyaz, or White Mountain.[EN#20] On December 21st, leaving
camp with the most disorderly of caravans--106 camels instead of
80, dromedaries not included--we marched to the mouth of the Wady
Tiryam, where we arrived before our luggage and provisions,
lacking even "Adam's ale." The Shaykhs took all the water which
could be found in the palm-boothies near the shore, and drank
coffee behind a bush. This sufficed to give me the measure of
these "wall-jumpers."
Early next morning I set the quarrymen to work, with pick and
basket, at the north-western angle of the old fort. The latter
shows above ground only the normal skeleton-tracery of coralline
rock, crowning the gentle sand-swell, which defines the lip and
jaw of the Wady; and defending the townlet built on the northern
slope and plain. The dimensions of the work are fifty-five mètres
each way. The curtains, except the western, where stood the Báb
el-Bahr ("Sea gate"), were supported by one central as well as by
angular bastions; the northern face had a cant of 32 degrees east
(mag.); and the northwestern tower was distant from the sea
seventy-two me'tres, whereas the south-western numbered only
sixty. The spade showed a substratum of thick old wall, untrimmed
granite, and other hard materials. Further down were various
shells, especially bénitiers ( Tridacna gigantea) the harp (here
called "Sirinbáz"), and the pearl-oyster; sheep-bones and palm
charcoal; pottery admirably "cooked," as the Bedawin remarked;
and glass of surprising thinness, iridized by damp to rainbow
hues. This, possibly the remains of lachrymatories, was very
different from the modern bottle-green, which resembles the old
Roman. Lastly, appeared a ring-bezel of lapis lazuli;
unfortunately the "royal gem," of Epiphanus was without
inscription.
Whilst we were digging, the two staff-officers rode to the
date-groves of Wady Tiryam, and made a plan of the ancient
defences--the results of the first Khedivial Expedition had
either not been deposited at, or had been lost in, the Staff
bureau, Cairo. They found that the late torrents had filled up
the sand pits acting as wells; and the people assured them that
the Fiumara had ceased to show perennial water only about five or
six years ago.
The second march was disorderly as the first: it reminded me of
driving a train of unbroken mules over the Prairies; the men were
as wild and unmanageable as their beasts. It was every one's
object to get the maximum of money for the minimum of work. The
escort took especial care to see that all their belongings were
loaded before ours were touched. Each load was felt, and each box
was hand-weighed before being accepted: the heaviest, rejected by
the rich, were invariably left to the poorest and the lowest
clansmen with the weakest and leanest of animals. All at first
especially objected to the excellent boxes--a great comfort--made
for the Expedition[EN#21] at the Citadel, Cairo; but they ended
with bestowing their hatred upon the planks, the tables, and the
long tent-poles. As a rule, after the fellows had protested that
their camels were weighted down to the earth, we passed them on
the march comfortably riding--for "the 'Orbán can't walk." And no
wonder. At the halting-place they unbag a little barley and
wheat-meal, make dough, thrust it into the fire, "break bread,"
and wash it down with a few drops of dirty water. This copious
refection ends in a thimbleful of thick, black coffee and a pipe.
At home they have milk and Ghí (clarified butter) in plenty
during the season, game at times, and, on extraordinary
occasions, a goat or a sheep, which, however, are usually kept
for buying corn in Egypt. But it is a "caution" to see them feed
alle spalle altrui.
Nothing shabbier than the pack-saddles; nothing more rotten than
the ropes. As these "Desert ships" must weigh about half the
sturdy animals of Syria and the Egyptian Delta, future
expeditions will, perhaps, do well to march their carriage round
by El-'Akabah. The people declare that the experiment has been
tried, but that the civilized animal sickens and dies in these
barrens; they forget, however, the two pilgrim-caravans.
At this season the beasts are half-starved. Their "kitchen" is a
meagre ration of bruised beans, and their daily bread consists of
the dry leaves of thorn trees, beaten down by the Makhbat, a
flail-like staff, and caught in a large circle of matting
(El-Khasaf). In Sinai the vegetation fares even worse: the
branches are rudely lopped off to feed the flocks; only "holy
trees" escape this mutilation. With the greatest difficulty we
prevented the Arabs tethering their property all night close to
our tents: either the brutes were cold; or they wanted to browse
or to meet a friend: every movement was punished with a wringing
of the halter, and the result may be imagined.
We slept that night at Wady Sharmá. Of this ruined town a plan
was made for "The Gold-Mines of Midian," by Lieutenant Amir, who
alone is answerable for its correctness. We afterwards found
layers of ashes, slag, and signs of metal-working to the
north-east of the enceinte, where the furnace probably stood. The
outline measures 1906 metres, not "several kilometres;" and
desultory digging yielded nothing but charcoal, cinders, and
broken pottery. It was not before nine a.m. on the next day that
I could mount my old white, stumbling, starting mule; the delay
being caused by M. Marie's small discovery, which will afterwards
be noticed. We crossed both branches of the Sharmá water; and,
ascending the long sand-slope of the right bank, we again passed
the Bedawi cemetery. I sent Lieutenants Amir and Yusuf to
prospect certain stone-heaps which lay seawards of the graves;
and they found a little heptangular demi-lune, concave to the
north; the curtains varying from a minimum length of ten to a
maximum of eighty me'tres, and the thickness averaging two
metres, seventy-five centimetres. It was possibly intended, like
those above Wady Tiryam, to defend the western approach; and,
superficially viewed, it looks like a line of stones heaped up
over the dead, with that fine bird's-eye view of the valley which
the Bedawi loves for his last sleeping-place.
Thence we passed through the dry Báb ("sea gap"), cut by a
torrent in the regular line of the coralline cliff, the opening
of the Wady Melláh, off which lay our Sambúk. Marching up the
Wady Maka'dah, our experienced eyes detected many small outcrops
of quartz, formerly unobserved, in the sole and on the banks. The
granite hills, here as throughout Midian, were veined and dyked
with two different classes of plutonic rock. The red and pink are
felsites or fine-grained porphyries; the black and bottle-green
are the coarse-grained varieties, easily disintegrating, and
forming hollows [Illustration with caption: Fortification on the
cliff commanding the right bank of Wady Sharma'.] in the harder
granite. The ride was made charming by the frontage of
picturesque Jebel 'Urnub, with its perpendicular Pinnacles upon
rock-sheets dropping clear a thousand feet; its jutting bluffs;
its three huge flying Buttresses, that seemed to support the
mighty wall-crest; and its many spits and "organs," some capped
with finials that assume the aspect of logan-stones. There was no
want of animal life, and the yellow locusts were abroad; one had
been seized by a little lizard which showed all the violent
muscular action of the crocodile. There were small long-eared
hares, suggesting the leporide; sign of gazelles appeared; and
the Bedawin spoke of wolves and hyenas, foxes and jackals.
We camped upon the old ground to the southwest of the Jebel
el-Abyaz; and at the halt our troubles forthwith began. The
water, represented to be near, is nowhere nearer than a two
hours' march for camels; and it is mostly derived from
rain-puddles in the great range of mountains which subtends
maritime Midian. But this was our own discovery. The half-Fellah
Bedawin, like the shepherds, their predecessors, in the days of
Abimelech and Jethro, are ever chary of their treasure; the only
object being extra camel-hire. After eating your salt, a rite
whose significance, by-the-by, is wholly ignored throughout
Midian and its neighbourhood, they will administer under your
eyes a silencing nudge to an over-communicative friend. 'The very
children that drive the sheep and goats instinctively deny all
knowledge of the Themáil ("pits") and holes acting as wells.
At the head of the Wady el-Maka'dah we halted six days (December
24--30); this delay gave us time to correct the misapprehensions
of our flying visit. The height of the Jebel el-Abyaz, whose
colour makes it conspicuous even from the offing when sailing
along the coast, was found to be 350 (not 600) feet above the
plain. The Grand Filon, which a mauvais plaisant of a reviewer
called the "Grand Filou," forms a "nick" near the hill-top, but
does not bifurcate in the interior. The fork is of heavy greenish
porphyritic trap, also probably titaniferous iron, with a trace
of silver,[EN#22] where it meets the quartz and the granite.
Standing upon the "old man" with which we had marked the top, I
counted five several dykes or outcrops to the east (inland), and
one to the west, cutting the prism from north to south; the
superficial matter of these injections showed concentric circles
like ropy lava. The shape of the block is a saddleback, and the
lay is west-east, curving round to the south. The formation is of
the coarse grey granite general throughout the Province, and it
is dyked and sliced by quartz veins of the amorphous type,
crystals being everywhere rare in Midian (?) The filons and
filets, varying in thickness from eight metres to a few lines,
are so numerous that the whole surface appears to be quartz
tarnished by atmospheric corrosion to a dull, pale-grey yellow;
while the fracture, sharp and cutting as glass or obsidian, is
dazzling and milk-white, except where spotted with
pyrites--copper or iron. The neptunian quartz, again, has
everywhere been cut by plutonic injections of porphyritic trap,
veins averaging perhaps two metres, with a north-south strike,
and a dip of 75 degrees (mag.) west. If the capping were removed,
the sub-surface would, doubtless, bear the semblance of a
honeycomb.
The Jebel el-Abyaz is apparently the centre of the quartzose
outcrop in North Midian (Madyan Proper). We judged that it had
been a little worked by the ancients, from the rents in the reef
that outcrops, like a castle-wall, on the northern and eastern
flanks. There are still traces of roads or paths; while heaps,
strews, and scatters of stone, handbroken and not showing the
natural fracture, whiten like snow the lower slopes of the
western hill base. They contrast curiously with the hard
felspathic stones and the lithographic calcaires bearing the
moss-like impress of metallic dendrites; these occur in many
parts near the seaboard, and we found them in Southern as well as
in Northern Midian. The conspicuous hill is one of four mamelons
thus disposed in bird's-eye view; the dotted line shows the
supposed direction of the lode in the Jibál el-Bayzá, the
collective name.
On the plain to the north of the Jebel el-Abyaz also, I found
curdles of porphyritic trap, and parallel trap-dykes, cutting the
courses of large-grained grey granite: as many as three outcrops
of the former appeared within fourteen yards. This convinced me
that the whole of the solid square, thirty kilometres (six by
five), where the quartz emerges, is underlaid by veins and
veinlets of the same rock. Moreover, I then suspected, and
afterwards ascertained, that the quartz of the Jibál el-Bayzá, as
the Bedawin call this section, is not a local peculiarity. It
everywhere bursts, not only the plain between the sea and the
coast-range, but the two parallels of mountain which confine it
on the east. In fact, throughout our northern march the Arabs,
understanding that its object was "Marú," the generic name for
quartz,[EN#23] brought us loads of specimens from every
direction. Nothing is easier than to work the purely superficial
part. A few barrels of gunpowder and half a dozen English miners,
with pick and crowbar, suffice. Even our dawdling, feckless
quarrymen easily broke and "spelled" for camel loading some six
tons in one day.
Our short se'nnight was not wasted; yet I had an uncomfortable
feeling that the complication of the country called for an
exploration of months and not hours. Every day some novelty
appeared. The watercourses of the Gháts or coast-range were
streaked with a heavy, metallic, quartzose black sand which M.
Marie vainly attempted to analyze. We afterwards found it in
almost every Wady, and running north as far as El-'Akabah;
whilst, with few exceptions, all our washings of red earth,
chloritic sand, and bruised stone, yielded it and it only. It is
apparently the produce of granite and syenite, and it abounds in
African Egypt. I was in hopes that tungsten and titaniferous iron
would make it valuable for cutlery as the black sand of New
Zealand. Experiments in the Citadel, Cairo, produced nothing save
magnetic iron with a trace of lead. But according to Colonel
Ross, the learned author of "Pyrology, or Fire Chemistry,"[EN#24]
it is iserine or magnetic ilmenite, titaniferous iron-sand,
containing eighty-eight per cent. of iron (oxides and
sesquioxides), with eleven per cent. of titanic acid.
The Arabs brought in fine specimens of hematite and of copper ore
from Wady Gharr or Ghurr, six miles to the south of camp. Here
were found two water-pits in a well-defined valley; the nearer
some ten miles south-west of the Jebel el-Abyaz, the other about
two miles further to the north-west; making a total of twelve.
About the latter there was, however, no level ground for tents. A
mile and a half walking almost due north led to a veinlet of
copper 30 metres long by 0.30 thick, with an east-west strike,
and a dip of 45 degrees south. This metal was also found in the
hills to the south. Crystalline pyroxene and crystallized
sulphates of lime apparently abound, while the same is the case
with carbonate of manganese, and other forms of the metal so
common in Western Sinai. Briefly, our engineer came to the
conclusion that we were in the very heart of a mining region.
We made a general reconnaisance (December 27th) of a place whence
specimens of pavonine quartz had come to hand. Following the Wady
'Ifriyá round the north and east of the White Mountain, we fell
into the Wady Simákh (of "Wild Sumach"), that drains the great
gap between the Pinnacles and the Buttresses of the
'Urnub-Tihámah section. After riding some two miles, we found to
the south-east fragments of dark, iridescent, and metallic
quartz: they emerge from the plain like walls, bearing
north-south, with 36 degrees of westing and a westward dip of 15
degrees to 20 degrees--exactly the conditions which Australia
seeks, and which produced the huge "Welcome Nugget" of Ballarat.
They crop out of the normal trap-dyked grey granite, and select
specimens show the fine panaché lustre of copper. M. Marie
afterwards took from one of the geodes a pinch of powder weighing
about half a gramme, and cupelled a bright dust-shot bead
weighing not less than two centigrammes. Without further
examination he determined it to be argentiferous, when it was
possibly iron or antimony. On the other hand, the silver
discovered in the Grand Filon by so careful and conscientious an
observer as Gastinel Bey, and the fact that we are here on the
same line of outcrop, and at a horizon three hundred feet lower,
are reassuring.
This vein, which may be of great length and puissance, I took the
liberty of calling the "Filon Husayn," from the prince who had so
greatly favoured the Expedition. Here we had hit upon the
Negros,[EN#25] or coloured quartzose formations of Mexico, in
which silver appears as a sulphure; and we may expect to find the
Colorado, or argillaceous, that produces the noble metal in the
forms of chlorure, bromure, and iodure. The former appears
everywhere in Midian, but our specimens are all superficial,
taken à ciel ouvert. To ascertain the real value and the extent
of the deposits required exposure of the veins at a horizon far
lower than our means and appliances allowed us to reach. If the
rock prove argentiferous I should hope to strike virgin silver in
the capillary or aborescent shape below. Above it, as on the
summit of the Jebel el-Abyaz, and generally in the "Marú" hills
and hillocks of North Midian, the dull white quartz is
comparatively barren; showing specks of copper; crystals of
pyrites, the "crow-gold" of the old English miner, and dark dots
of various metals which still await analysis.
Thus, I would divide the metalliferous quartzes of this
North-Midianite region into two chief kinds: those stained green
and light blue, whose chief metallic element is copper, with its
derivatives; and the iridescent Negro, which may shelter the
Colorado. In South Midian the varieties of quartz are
incomparably more numerous, and almost every march shows a new
colour or constitution.
About the Jebel el-Abyaz, as in many mining countries, water is a
serious difficulty. The principal deposit lies some three miles
east of the camping ground in a Nakb or gorge, El-Asaybah,
offsetting from the great Fiumara, "El-Simákh;" and apparently it
is only a rain-pool. Throughout Midian, I may say, men still
fetch water out of the rock. M. Philipin, whilst pottering about
this place, saw two Beden (ibex) with their young, which suggests
a permanent supply of drink.[EN#26]
However that may be, Norton's Abyssinian pumps, for which I had
vainly applied at Cairo, would doubtless discover the prime
necessary in the Wadys, many of the latter being still damp and
muddy. Moreover, the crible continue à grilles filtrantes, the
invention of MM. Huet and Geyler, introduced, we are told, into
the mechanical treatment of metals, a principle which greatly
economizes fluid. Founded upon the fact that sands of nearly the
same size, but of different densities, when mixed in liquid and
subjected to rapid vertical oscillation, range themselves by
order of weight, the heavier sinking and not allowing passage to
lighter matter, the new sieve offers the advantages of a single
and simple instrument, with increased facility for treating poor
"dirt." Finally, as I shall show, the country is prepared by
nature to receive a tramway; and the distance to the sea does not
exceed fourteen miles, liberally computed.[EN#27]
Either the rain-water affected the health of the party, or it
suffered from the excessive dryness and variations of the
atmosphere, eight to nine hundred feet above sea-level (aner.
29.10), ranging in the tents between 92 degrees by day and 45
degrees at night, a piercing, killing temperature in the Desert.
Moreover, the cold weather is mostly the unwholesome season in
hot lands, and vice versâ: hence the Arab proverb, Harárat
el-Jebel, wa lá Bard-há ("The heat of the hills and not their
cold"). Old Haji Wali lost his appetite, complained of
indigestion, and clamoured to return home; Ahmed Kaptán suffered
from Sulb ("lumbago") and bad headache; whilst Lieutenant Yusuf
was attacked by an ague and fever, which raised the mouth
thermometer to 102 degrees--103 degrees, calling loudly for
aconite. These ailments affected the party more or less the whole
way, but it was not pleasant to see them begin so soon. When our
work of collecting specimens--three tons from the Jebel el-Abyaz,
and three from the Filon Husayn--was finished, I resolved upon
returning to the coast and treating our loads at the Sharmá
water. We reached the valley mouth on December 30th, and we
greatly enjoyed the change from the harshness of the inland to
the mildness of the seaboard air.
We stayed at Sharmá, much disliking its remarkably monotonous
aspect, for another week, till January 7, 1878. Yule, "the
wheel," despite the glorious tree-logs and roaring fires, had
been a failure at the White Mountain. The Dragoman had killed our
last turkey, and had forgotten to bring the plum-pudding from
El-Muwaylah: there was champagne, but that is not the stuff
wherewithal to wash down tough mutton. New Year's Day, on the
other hand, had all the honours. Its birth was greeted with a
flow of whisky-punch, wherein wine had taken the place of water;
and we drank the health of his Highness, the Founder of the
Expedition, in a bottle of dry Mumm. The evening ended with music
and dancing, by way of "praying the Old Year out and the New Year
in." Mersál, the Boruji, performed a wild solo on his bugle; and
another negro, Ahmed el-Shinnáwi, played with the Nái or
reed-pipe one of those monotonous and charming minor-key airs--I
call them so for want of a word to express them--which extend
from Midian to Trafalgar, and which find their ultimate
expression in the lovely Iberian Zarzuela.[EN#28] The boy Husayn
Genínah, a small cyclops in a brown felt calotte and a huge
military overcoat cut short, caused roars of laughter by his
ultra-Gaditanian style of dancing. I have also reason to suspect
that a jig and a breakdown tested the solidity of the plank
table, while a Jew's harp represented Europe. In fact, throughout
the journey, reminiscences of Mabille and the Music Halls
contrasted strongly with the memories of majestic and mysterious
Midian. And, to make the shock more violent, some friend, malè
salsus, sent me copies of the cosmopolitan Spectator and the
courteous Mayfair, which at once became waste paper for Bedawi
cartridges.
Our Rosh há Shanah ("New Year's Day") was further distinguished
by the discovery of a vein and outcrop of metalliferous quartz,
about half an hour's walk, and bearing nearly east (80 degrees
mag.) from camp. We followed the Wady Sharmá, and found above its
"gate" the masonry-foundation of a square work; near it lay the
graves of the Wild Men, one with the normal awning of palm-fronds
honoris causâ. There were signs of stone-quarrying, and at one
place a road had been cut in the rock. Leaving on the north the
left side of the watercourse, with its rushes (Scirpus), and
huge-headed reeds (Arundo donax), its dates and Daums--the two
latter often scorched and killed by the careless Bedawi--we
struck into a parallel formation, the Wady el Wuday, bone-dry and
much trodden by camels. Arrived at the spot, we found that the
confused masses of hill subtending the regular cliff-line of the
old coast, are composed of grey granite, seamed with snowy
quartz, and cut by the usual bands of bottle-coloured porphyritic
trap, which here and there becomes red. Some of the heights are
of greenish-yellow chloritic felspar, well adapted for
brick-making. The surface of the land is scattered with fragments
of white silex and fine red jasper, banded with black oligistic
iron: this rock, close, hard, and fine enough to bear cutting,
appears everywhere in scatters and amongst the conglomerates.
Only one fossil was picked up, a mould so broken as to be quite
useless.
We also followed out M. Marie's find, to which he had been guided
by a patch of red matter, conspicuous on the road from Tiryam to
Sharmá. For forty minutes we skirted the seaward face of the old
cliff, a line broken by many deep water-gashes and buttressed by
Goz, or high heaps of loose white sand. We then turned eastwards
or inland, ascended a Nakb ("gorge"), and saw, as before, the
corallines and carbonates of lime altered, fused, scorified, and
blackened by heated injections; the grey granite scored with
quartz veins, running in all rhumbs; and the porphyritic trap
forming crests that projected from the sands. The cupriferous
stone struck east-west, with a dip to the south; the outcrops,
visible without digging, measured fifteen to twenty metres long,
by one to one and a half in breadth.
New Year's Day also restored to us the pup "Páijí." When quite a
babe, it had walked up to me in the streets of Cairo, evidently
claimed acquaintanceship, and straightway followed me into
Shepheard's, where; having a certain sneaking belief in
metempsychosis, I provided it with bed and board. During our
third march to the White Mountain, being given to violent yelps,
which startled both mules and camels, the small thing had been
left to walk, and had apparently made friends with an Arab
goatherd. After nine days' absence without leave, "Páijí"
reappeared, with dirty rags tied round its bony back and wasted
waist, showing an admirable skeleton, and making the most frantic
demonstrations of joy. The loss of the poor little brute had
affected all our spirits: we thought that the hyenas and the
ravens had seen the last of it; and it received a warm welcome
home.
M. Lacaze, unlike the rest, took a violent fancy for the Wady
Sharmá: the water-scenery enchanted him. His sketches were almost
confined to the palm-growth, and to the greenery so unexpected in
arid Midian, where, according to the old and exploded opinion,
Moses wrote the Book of Job. The idea of Arabia is certainly not
associated with flowing rills, and waving trees, and rustling
zephyrs. Every morning I used to awake surprised by the song of
the Naiad, the little runnel whimpling down its bed of rushes,
stone, and sand; and the response of the palms making music in
the land-breeze.
Finally, on New Year's Day, Lieutenant Amir, guided by Shaykh
Furayj, and escorted by soldiers and miners, made a three days'
trip to the Wady 'Urnub. There he surveyed a large isolated
"Mará," or quartz-hill, some twenty-two to twenty-five direct
miles south-east of the main outcrop; thus giving a considerable
extent to the northern mining-focus. This feature is described as
being four or five times larger than the Jebel el-Abyaz (proper);
and the specimens of quartz and grey granite proved it to be of
the same formation. It showed a broken outline, with four great
steps or dykes, which had apparently been worked. In the basal
valleys, and spread over the land generally, was found a heavy
yellow sand, calcareous and full of silex: the guide called it
Awwal Hismá (the "Hismá frontier").
Our travellers returned by a parallel line, southerly and more
direct. In the Wady 'Urnub, the Ma'ázah of the Salímát clan
received them with apparent kindness, inwardly grumbling the
while at their land being "spied out;" and they especially
welcomed Furayj, who, being a brave soldier, is also noted as a
peacemaker. All the men were armed, and wore the same dress as
the Huwaytát; like these, they also breed camels and asses--that
is, they are not cow-Arabs. Certain travellers on the Upper Nile
have distributed the Bedawin into these two groups; add
horse-Arabs and ass-Arabs, and you have all the divisions of the
race as connected with the so-called "lower animals." About three
hours (= eleven miles) from Sharmá camp, some pyramids of sand
were pointed out in the Wady Rátiyah: the Bedawin call one of
them the Goz et-Hannán ("Moaning Sand-heap"). They declare that
when the Hajj-caravan passes, or rather used to pass, by that
way, before the early sixteenth century, when Sultán Selim laid
out his maritime high-road, a Naubah ("orchestra") was wont to
sound within its bowels. This tale, which, by-the-by, is told of
two other places in Midian, may have been suggested by the Jebel
el-Nákús ("Bell Mountain") in Sinai-land; but as the Arabs
perform visitation and sacrifice to the "Moaning-heap," the
superstition probably dates from ancient days. Ruins are also
reported to exist in the Jebel Fa's, the southern boundary of the
'Urnub valley; and, further south, in the Jebel el-Harb, I was
told by some one whose name has escaped me, of a dolmen mounted
upon three supports. Lieutenant Amir also brought copper ore from
the Wady 'Urnub, and from the Ras Wady el-Mukhbir specimens of a
metal which the Arabs use as a kohl or collyrium. It proved,
however, iron, not antimony; and the same mistake has been made
in the Sinaitic Peninsula.
At Wady Sharmá we rigged up, under the superintendence of M.
Philipin, a trough and a cradle for washing the black sands, the
pounded quartz of the Jebel el-Abyaz, and the red sands; these
latter had shown a trace of silver (1/10000) to the first
Expedition. We mixed it with mercury and amalgamed it in
goatskins; the men moved them to and fro; but, of course, the
water evaporated, and the mass speedily became dry. The upper or
superficial white yielded only, as far as our engineer could
judge, a little copper and bright knobs of pyrites. The Negros,
or iridized formations, of the "Filon Husayn" on a lower horizon,
gave the dubious result already alluded to. All the experiments
were conducted in the rudest way. Of course, a quantity of metal
may have escaped notice; and a fair proportion of the powdered
stone was reserved for scientific treatment in Europe.
During our first trip we had found, upon the right jaw of the
Wady Sharmá, a ruined village of workmen, probably slaves, whose
bothans measured some twelve feet by eight. They differ from the
Nawámis, or "mosquito-huts," as the word is generally translated,
only in shape--the latter are circular, with a diameter of ten
feet--and they perfectly resemble the small stone hovels in the
Wady Mukattab, which Professor Palmer ("Desert of the Exodus," p.
202) supposes to have been occupied by the captive miners and
their military guardians. This time we ascended the coralline
ridge which forms the left jamb. At its foot a rounded and half
degraded dorsum of stiff gravel, the nucleus of its former self,
showed a segment of foundation-wall, and the state of the stone
suggested the action of fire. Possibly here had been a furnace.
The summit also bears signs of human occupation. The southern
part of the buttress-crest still supports a double concentric
circle with a maximum diameter of about fifteen feet; the outside
is of earth, apparently thrown up for a rampart behind a moat,
and the inside is of rough stones. Going south along the dorsum,
we found remains of oval foundations; a trench apparently cut in
the rock, pottery often an inch and more thick, and broken
handmills made of the New Red Sandstone of the Hismá. Finally, at
the northernmost point, where the cliff-edge falls abruptly, with
a natural arch, towards the swamp, about one kilometre broad at
the Báb, we came upon another circle of rough stones. We were
doubtful whether these rude remains were habitations or old
graves; nor was the difficulty solved by digging into four of
them: the pick at once came upon the ground-rock. Hitherto these
ruins have proved remarkably sterile; the only products were
potsherds, fragments of hand-mills, and a fine lump of white
marble (Rukhám), supposed to come from the Jebel el-Lauz.
Amongst our followers was a "Kázi of the Arabs," one Jabr bin
'Abd el-Nabi, who is a manner of judge in civil, but not in
criminal matters. Before the suit begins the plaintiff, or his
surety, deposits a certain sum in coin, corn, or other valuables,
and lays his damages at so much. The defendant, if inclined to
contest the claim, pays into court the disputed amount, and the
question is settled after the traditional and immemorial customs
of the tribe. This man, covetous as any other disciple of
Justinian, was exceedingly anxious to obtain the honorarium of a
Shaykh, and he worked hard to deserve it. Shortly before our
departure from Sharmá, he brought in some scoriae and slag,
broken and streaked with copper--in fact, ekvolades. They are
thinly scattered over the seaward slope of the left jaw, where
the stone nowhere shows a trace of the mineral in situ. As,
however, the Expedition had found native copper in three places,
more or less near the Jebel el-Abyaz, it was decided that the ore
had been brought from the interior.
We were again much puzzled concerning the form of industry which
gave rise to such a large establishment as Sharmá. Agriculture
was suggested and rejected; and we finally resolved that it was a
branch-town that supplied ore to the great smelting-place and
workshop of the coast, 'Aynúnah, and possibly carbonate of lime
to serve for flux.
The distance along the winding Wady, between the settlement and
the sea westward, where the watercourse ends in sand-heaps, is
seven to eight miles, and the coast shows no sign of harbour or
of houses. About three miles, however, to the northwest is the
admirable Bay of 'Aynu'nah, unknown to the charts. Defended on
both sides by sandspits, and open only between the west and the
north-west, where reefs and shoals allow but a narrow passage,
its breadth across the mouth from east to west measures at least
five thousand metres, and the length inland, useful for refuge,
is at least three thousand. At the bottom of this noble Límán,
the Kolpos so scandalously abused by the ancients, are three
sandy buttresses metalled with water rolled stones, and showing
traces of graves. Possibly here may have been the site of an
ancient settlement. The Arabs call the southern anchorage, marked
by a post and a pit of brackish water, El-Musaybah or Musaybat
Sharmá. Its only present use seems to be embarking bundles of
rushes for mat-making in Egypt. The north-eastern end of the
little gulf is the Gád (Jád), or Mersá of El-Khuraybah, before
described as the port of 'Aynu'nah.
At the Musaybah I stationed our tender, the Sambúk El-Musahhil,
which carried our heavy goods, specimens by the ton; rations and
stores; forge, planks, and crowbars. The sailors lost no time in
showing their rapacity. Every day they dunned us for tobacco; and
when we made a counter-demand for the excellent fish which was
caught in shoals, they simply asked, "What will you pay for it?"
I imprudently left my keg of specimen-spirits on board this
ignoble craft, and the consequence was that it speedily became
bone-dry. The Musaybah bight is a direct continuation of the Wady
el-Melláh, which, joining that of El-Maka'dah, runs straight up
to the Jebel el-Abyaz and to the Filon Husayn. These
metalliferous quartzes cannot be further from the coast than a
maximum distance of fourteen miles, and the broad, smooth
watercourse, with its easy gradients, points it out as the site
of the future tramway. I should prefer a simpler form of the
"Pioneer Steam Caravan or Saddleback-Railway System," patented by
Mr John L. Haddan, C.E., formerly of Damascus.[EN#29] He
recommends iron as the best material for the construction; and
the cost, delivered at Alexandria, would not exceed £1200,
instead of £3000 to £20,000 per kilometre, including the rolling
stock. As the distance from the port is nothing, £300 per
kilometre would be amply sufficient for "fixing up;" but I should
reduce the price to £500 for the transport of some 50 tons per
diem. By proper management of the rails or the main rail, it
would be easy for trained camels to draw the train up the Wady;
and the natural slope towards the sea would give work only to the
brake where derailments are not possible.
At Sharmá we saw the crescent, when the Englishmen turned their
money in their pockets, and the Egyptian offficers muttered a
blessing upon the coming moon. Every day we waxed more weary of
the place; possibly the memories of the first visit were not
pleasant. Many in camp still suffered; and an old Bedawi, uncle
to Shaykh 'Alayan, died and was buried at 'Aynúnah. The number of
servants also made us uncomfortable. The head Dragoman, whose
memory was confined to his carnet, forgot everything; and, had we
trusted to him, half the supplies would have returned to Suez,
probably for the benefit of his own shop at Zagázig. I soon found
his true use, and always left him behind as magazine-man,
storekeeper, and guardian of reserve provisions. He was also a
dangerous, mischief-making fellow; and such men always find
willing ears that ought to know better. Petros, the Zante man,
was the model of a tipotenios (an "anybody"), who seemed to have
been born limp, without bones or brains. He was sent back as soon
as possible to Cairo. The worst point of these worthies was, that
they prevented, for their own reasons, the natives working for
us; while they preferred eternal chatter and squabbles to working
themselves. So the Greek element was reduced to George the cook,
a short, squat, unwashed fellow, who looked like a fair-Hercules
out of luck; who worked like three, and who loudly clamoured for
a revolver and a bowie-knife. His main fault, professionally
speaking, was that he literally drenched us with oil till the
store happily ran out. His complexion was that of an animated
ripe olive, evidently the result of his own cookery. His surprise
when I imperatively ordered plain boiled rice, instead of a mess
dripping with grease; and when told to boil the fish in sea water
and to serve up the bouillon, was high comedy. Doubtless he has
often, since his return, astounded his "Hellenion" by describing
our Frankish freaks and mad eccentricities.
The stationary camp also retained Lieutenant Yusuf and MM. Duguid
and Philipin, with thirteen soldiers and sixteen miners. The six
camels were placed under Gabr, Kázi el-'Orbán; and all the
stay-behinds were charged with washing the several earths, with
scouring the country for specimens, and with transporting sundry
tons of the black sand before mentioned. Old Haji Wali, probably
frightened by the Arabs, and maddened by the idea that, during
his absence in the thick of the cotton season, the Fellahs of
Zagázig would neglect to pay their various debts, began to
"malinger" with such intensity of purpose, that I feared lest he
would kill himself to spite us. The venerable Shylock, who ever
pleaded poverty, had made some £300 by lending a napoleon, say,
on January 1st, which became a sovereign on February 1st; not to
speak of the presents and "benevolences" which the debtor would
be compelled to offer his creditor. So he departed for
El-Muwaylah, whence some correspondent had warned him that a
pilgrim boat was about to start; declaring that he was dying, and
trotting his mule as hard as it would go, the moment a safe
corner was turned. He stayed two days on board the gunboat, and
straightway returned to Egypt and the cotton season:--we had the
supreme satisfaction, however, to hear that he had gone through
the long quarantine at Tor. Yet after our return he reproached
me, with inimitable coolness and effrontery, for not having
behaved well to him.
On the morning of January 7th, a walk of two hours and twenty
minutes (= seven miles) northwards, and mostly along the shore of
the noble "Musaybat Sharmá," transferred us to well-remembered
'Aynúnah. The sea in places washed over slabs of the fine old
conglomerates which, in this country, line the banks and soles of
all the greater Wadys: these are the Cascalho of the Brazil, a
rock which is treated by rejecting the pebbles and by pounding
the silicious paste. The air was softer and less exciting than
that of Sharmá; and, although the vegetation was of the crapaud
mort d'amour hue--here a sickly green, there a duller brown than
April had showed--the scene was more picturesque, the "Gate" was
taller and narrower, and the recollection of a happy first visit
made me return to it with pleasure. Birds were more abundant:
long-shanked water-fowl with hazel eyes; red-legged rail; the
brown swallow of Egypt; green-blue fly-catchers; and a black
muscivor, with a snowy-white rump, of which I failed to secure a
specimen. We also saw the tern-coloured plover, known in Egypt as
Domenicain and red kingfishers. The game species were fine large
green mallard; dark pintail; quail, and red-beaked brown
partridge with the soft black eye.
New formations began to develop themselves, and the sickly hues
of the serpentines and the chlorites, so rich in the New World,
appeared more charming than brow of milk or cheek of rose.[EN#30]
There were few changes. A half-peasant Bedawi had planted a strip
of barley near the camping place; the late floods had shifted the
course of the waters; more date-trees had been wilfully burned; a
big block of quartz, brother to that which we had broken, had
been carried off; and where several of the old furnaces formerly
stood, deep holes, dug by the "money-hunter," now yawned. I again
examined the two large fragments of the broken barrage, and found
that they were of uncut stone, compacted with fine cement, which
contained palm-charcoal.
At 'Aynúnah we gave only one day to work. While M. Lacaze
sketched the views, we blasted with gunpowder more than half
charcoal the Ma'dan el-Fayrúz ("turquoise mine"), as the Arabs
called it, on the right side of the Wady. The colour and texture
were so unlike the true lapis Pharanitis that we began to
suspect, and presently we ascertained from the few remaining
fragments, it had been worked for copper,--the carbonates and the
silicates which characterize Cyprus. Presently good specimens of
the latter were brought to us from the Jebel el-Fará by a Bedawi
pauper, 'Ayd of the Tagaygát-Huwaytát tribe. These half-naked
shepherds and goatherds, who know every stone in the land, are
its best guides; not the Shaykhs, who, as a rule, see little or
nothing outside their tents. From our camp the direction, as
reported by Ahmed Kaptán, was 102 degrees (mag.), and the
distance three miles. I afterwards sent Lieutenant Yusuf from
El-Muwaylah to make a detailed plan.[EN#31]
We also dug in an old pit amongst the Christian graves to the
south-east of the camp, and below the left jamb of the "Gate."
Here also the Bedawin had been at work; and, when unable to work
deep enough, they told us wonderful tales of an alabaster slab,
which doubtless concealed vast treasures. In Arabia, as in
Africa, one must look out for what there is not, as well as for
what there is. After spending a morning in sinking a twelve-feet
shaft, we came upon a shapeless coralline-boulder, which in old
times had slipped from the sea-face of the cliff to the left of
the valley. I ascended this height, and saw some stones disposed
by the hand of man; but there were no signs of a large
slave-miner settlement like that on the other side of the Báb.
In the afternoon Mr. Clarke led a party of quarrymen across the
graveyards to El-Khuraybah, the seaport of 'Aynúnah, and applied
them to excavating the floor of a cistern and the foundations of
several houses; a little pottery was the only result. It was a
slow walk of forty minutes; and thus the total length of the
aqueducts would be three miles, not "between four and five
kilometres." I had much trouble and went to some expense in
sending camels to fetch a "written stone" which, placed at the
head of every newly buried corpse, is kept there till another
requires it. It proved to be a broken marble pillar with a modern
Arabic epitaph. In the Gád el-Khuraybah, the little inlet near
the Gumruk ("custom-house"), as we called in waggery the shed of
palm-fronds at the base of the eastern sandspit, lay five small
Sambúks, which have not yet begun fishing for mother-of-pearl.
Here we found sundry tents of the Tagaygát-Huwaytát, the half
Fellahs that own and spoil the once goodly land; the dogs barked
at us, but the men never thought of offering us hospitality. We
had an admirable view of the Tihámah Mountains--Zahd, with its
"nick;" the parrot-beak of Jebel el-Shátí; the three
perpendicular Pinnacles and flying Buttresses of Jebel 'Urnub;
the isolated lump of Jebel Fás; the single cupola of Jebel Harb;
the huge block of Dibbagh, with its tall truncated tower; the
little Umm Jedayl, here looking like a pyramid; and the four
mighty horns of Jebel Shárr.
I left 'Aynúnah under the conviction that it has been the great
Warshah ("workshop") and embarking-place of the coast-section
extending from El-Muwaylah to Makná; and that upon it depended
both Wady Tiryam and Sharmá, with their respective establishments
in the interior. Moreover, the condition of the slag convinced me
that iron and the baser metals have been worked here in modern
times, perhaps even in our own, but by whom I should not like to
say.
Chapter III.
Breaking New Ground to Magháir Shu'ayb.
On January 9th we left 'Aynúnah by the Hajj-road, and passed
along the Quarry Hill visited during my first journey: the crest
has old cuttings and new cuttings, the latter still worked for
Bedawi headstones. The dwarf pillar with the mysterious cup is
reflected by the Nubians, who hollow out the upper part of the
stela to a depth of eight or ten inches without adding any
ornament. Hence, perhaps, the Sawahíli custom of the inserted
porcelain-plate.
After issuing from the stony and sandy gorge which forms the
short cut, we regained the Hajj-road, and presently sighted a
scene readily recognized. Fronting us, the northern horizon was
formed by the azure wall of Tayyib Ism,[EN#32] the "Mountain of
the Good Name," backed by the far grander peaks of Jebel
Mazhafah: the latter rises abruptly from the bluer Gulf of
El-Akabah, and both trend to their culminating points inland or
eastward. On our right followed the unpicturesque metalliferous
heap of Jebel Zahd or 'Aynúnah Mountain, whose Brèche de Roland
seems to show from every angle; its chocolate-coloured heights
contain, they say, furnaces and "Mashghal," or ateliers, where
the Marú ("quartz") was worked for ore. In places it is backed by
the pale azure peaks of Jebel el-Lauz. This "Mountain of Almonds"
is said to take its name from the trees, probably bitter, which
flourish there as within the convent-walls of St. Catherine,
Sinai. They grow, I was told, high up in the clefts and valleys;
and here, also, are furnaces both above and below. Of its white,
sparkling, and crystallized marble, truly noble material, a
tombstone was shown to me; and I afterwards secured a slab with a
broken Arabic inscription, and a ball apparently used for rubbing
down meal. The Lauz appears to be the highest mountain in
Northern Midian-land; unfortunately, it is to be reached only viâ
Sharaf, two long stations ahead, and I could not afford time for
geographical research to the prejudice of mineralogical. Its
nearer foot-hill is the Jebel Khulayf; and this feature contains,
according to the Bedawin, seven wells or pits whose bottom cannot
be seen. Between the "Almond Block" and its northern
continuation, Jebel Munífah, we saw a gorge containing water, and
sheltering at times a few tents of the 'Amírát Arabs; in the same
block we also heard of a Sarbút or rock said to be written over.
The regular cone of El-Maklá' ends the prospect in the
north-eastern direction. Looking westward, we see the ghastly
bare and naked Secondary formation, the Rughám of the Bedawin,
not to be confounded with Rukhám ("alabaster or saccharine
marble"). We afterwards traced this main feature of the 'Akabah
Gulf as far south as the Wady Hamz. It is composed of the
sulphates of lime--alabaster, gypsum, and the plaster with which
the Tertiary basin of Paris supplies the world; and of the
carbonates of lime--marble, chalk, kalkspar, shells, and eggs.
The broken crests of the Jibál el-Hamrá, the red hills backing
Makná,[EN#33] and the jagged black peaks of their eastern
parallel, the Kalb el-Nakhlah, look like plutonic reefs or
island-chains emerging from the Secondary sea. The latter, whose
bleached and skeleton white is stained, here and there, by
greenish-yellow sands, chlorite and serpentine, stands boldly out
from the chaos of purpling mountains composing Sinai, and ending
southwards in the azure knobs of three-headed Tirán Island. The
country, in fact, altogether changed: quartz had disappeared, and
chlorite had taken its place.
We passed the night at El-'Usaylah, a Ghadir (or "hollow")
without drainage, which the sinking of water cakes with mud and
covers with an irregular circle of salsolaceous trees, a patch of
dark metallic green. This "'Usaylah" is eaten by camels, but
rejected by mules. Here our post reached us from Suez on the
seventh day, having started on the 2nd inst. A dollar was offered
to the Bedawi, who eyed the coin indignantly, declaring that it
ought to be a ginni (guinea). I had also given him some tobacco,
and repented, as usual, my generosity.
Next day we finished the last and larger part of the second
pilgrim-stage from El-Muwaylah. Our Arabs had been "dodging;"
and, much disappointed about converting a two days' into a three
days' march, they punished us by feeding their camels on the
road, and by not joining us till the evening. As before, there
was no game till we approached the springs; yet tufts and
scatters of tamarisks, Samur (Inga unguis) and Arák (Salvadora),
looked capable of sheltering it. And now, beyond the level and
monotonous Desert, we began to see our destination;--palms and
tufty trees at the mouth of a masked Wady. This watercourse runs
between a background of reddish-brown rock, the foot-hills and
sub-ranges of the grand block, "El-Zánah," to the north; and a
foreground of pale-yellow, stark-naked gypsum, apparently
tongue-shaped. Above the latter tower two sister-quoins of ruddy
material, the Shigdawayn, to which a tale hangs.
Presently we fell into and ascended the great Wady 'Afár, which
begins in the Hismá, or Red Region, east of the double
coast-range. After receiving a network of Secondary valleys that
enable it to flow a torrent, as in France, every ten to twelve
years, it falls into the Mínat el-'Ayánát, a little port for
native craft, which will presently be visited. We left this Wady
at a bend, some two hundred metres wide, called the "Broad of the
Jujube," from one of the splendid secular trees that characterize
North Midian. Near the camping-ground we shall find another
veteran Zizyphus, whose three huge stems, springing from a single
base, argue a green old age. Here both banks of the Fiumara are
lined with courses of rough stone, mostly rounded and rolled
boulders, evidently the ruins of the water-conduits which served
to feed the rich growth of the lower 'Afa'l. The vegetation of
the gorge-mouth developed itself to dates and Daums, tamarisks
and salsolaceæ, out of which scuttled a troop of startled
gazelles. We turned the right-hand jamb of the "Gate," and found
ourselves at the water and camping-ground of Magháir Shu'ayb.
The general appearance of the station-basin is novel,
characteristic, and not without its charms, especially when the
sunset paints the plain with the red, red gold, and washes every
barren peak with the tenderest, loveliest rosy pink. Under an
intensely clear sapphire-coloured sky rises a distant rim of
broken and chocolate-coloured trap-hills, set off by pale
hillocks and white flats of gypsum, here and there crystallized
by contact with the plutonics. The formation mostly stands up
either in stiff cones or in long spines and ridges, whose
perpendicular wall-like crests are impossible to climb. The snowy
cliffs rest upon shoulders disposed at the "angle of rest," and
the prevailing dull drab-yellow of the base is mottled only where
accidental fracture or fall exposes the glittering salt-like
interior. The gashes in the flank made by wind and rain disclose
the core--grey granite or sandstone coloured by manganese. The
greater part of the old city was built of this
alabaster-like[EN#34] material. When new, it must have been a
scene in fairy-land; Time has now degraded it to the appearance
and the consistence of crumbling salt. The quoin-shaped hills of
the foreground, all uptilted and cliffing to the north, show the
curious mauve and red tints of the many-coloured clays called in
the Brazil Tauá. Even the palms are peculiar. Their tall, upright
crests of lively green fronds, their dead-brown hangings, and
their trunks charred black by the careless Bedawi, form a quaint
contrast with the genteel, nattily dressed, and cockneyfied
brooms of Egypt and the Hejaz. And that grandeur may not be
wanting to the view, on the east rise the peak and pinnacles of
the Almond Mountain (Jebel el-Lauz), whilst northwards the Jebel
el-Za'nah, a huge dome, forms the horizon.
This place, evidently the capital of Madyan Proper, is the <Greek
word> which Ptolemy (vi. 7) places amongst his "Mesogeian
towns" in north lat. 28 degrees 15 minutes;[EN#35] and it
deserves more than the two pages of description which Ruppell
bestowed upon it.[EN#36] We will notice its natural features
before proceeding to the remains of man. Here the Wady 'Afár
takes the name of "El-Badá." Sweeping from west to east, it is
deflected to a north-south line, roughly speaking, by the gate of
the Shigdawayn, twin-hills standing nearly east and west of one
another. Now become a broad, well-defined, tree-dotted bed, with
stiff silt banks, here and there twenty to twenty-five feet high,
it runs on a meridian for about a mile, including the
palm-orchard and the camping-ground. It then turns the west end
of the Jebel el-Safrá, a mass of gypsum on the left bank, and it
bends to the east of south, having thus formed a figure of Z.
After escaping from the imprisoning hills, the Fiumara bed, now
about three-quarters of a mile broad, is bisected longitudinally
by a long and broken lump of chloritic or serpentine sandstone;
and rises in steps towards the right bank, upon which the
pilgrims camp. Reaching the plain, the Wady flares out wildly,
containing a number of riverine islands, temporary, but sometimes
of considerable size. It retains sufficient moisture to support a
clump of palms--that which we saw from afar;--it bends to the
south-east, and, lastly, it trends seaward.
The "Water of Bada'" springs from the base of the hill El-Safrá,
oozing out in trickling veins bedded in soft dark mud. It can be
greatly increased by opening the fountains, and economized by a
roofing of mat: we tried this plan, which only surprised the
unready Arab. After swinging to the left bank and running for a
few yards, it sinks in the sand; yet on both sides there are
signs of labour, showing that, even of late years, the valley has
seen better days. Long leats and watercourses have been cut in
the clay, and are still lined with the white-flowered "Rijlah,"
whose nutritive green leaf is eaten, raw or boiled, by the
Fellahs of Egypt: the wild growth, however, is mostly bitter. On
both sides are little square plots fenced against sheep and goats
by a rude abattis of stripped and dead boughs, Jujube and acacia.
Young dates have been planted in pits; some are burnt and others
are torn; for the Bedawi, mischievous and destructive as the
Cynocephalus, will neither work nor allow others to work. The
'Ushash or frond-and-reed huts, much like huge birds'-nests, are
scattered about in small groups everywhere except near the water.
Wherever a collection of bones shows a hyena's lair, the hunters
have built a screen of dry stone.
In fact, Magháir Shu'ayb was spoken of as an Arab "Happy Valley."
But its owners, the Masá'íd, a spiritless tribe numbering about
seventy tents, are protégés of the Tagaygát. This Huwayti clan is
on bad terms with Khizr and 'Brahim bin Makbúl; and the brother
Shaykhs of the 'Imrán, recognized by the Egyptian Government,
claim the land where they have only the right of transit. Bedawi
clans and sub-tribes always combine against stranger families;
but when there is no foreign "war," they amuse themselves with
pilling and plundering, sabring and shooting one another. I
believe that the palms were roasted to death by the 'Imrán,
although the Shaykhs assured me that the damage was done this
year, by a careless Mas'údi when cooking his food. The tribe
appears to be Egypto-Arab, like the Huwayta't and the Ma'ázah,
having congeners at Ghazzah (Gaze) and at Ras el-Wady, near
Egyptian Tell el-Kebir. Consequently Rüppell is in error when he
suspects that die Musaiti are ein Judenstamm. The unfortunates
fled towards the sea and left the valley desolate about seven
months ago. Their Shaykh is dead, and a certain Agíl bin
Muhaysin, a greedy, foolish kind of fellow, mentioned during my
First Journey, aspires to the dignity and the profit of
chieftainship. He worried me till I named a dog after him, and
then he disappeared.
The ruins, of large extent for North Midian, and equal to those
of all the towns we have seen put together, begin with the
palm-orchard on the left bank. The Jebel el-Safrá shows the
foundations of what may have been the arx. It is a double quoin,
the taller to the south, the lower to the north, and both bluff
in the latter direction. The dip is about 45 degrees; the upper
parts of the dorsa are scatters of white on brown-yellow stone;
and below it, where the surface has given way, appear
mauve-coloured strata, as if stained by manganese. Viewed in
profile from the west, the site of El-Muttali'[EN#37], as the
Arabs call the hauteville, becomes a tall, uptilted wedge;
continued northwards by the smaller feature, and backed by a long
sky-line, a high ridge of plaster, pale coloured with glittering
points.
This isolated "Yellow Hill," a "horse" in Icelandic parlance,
rising about two hundred feet above the valley-sole, is separated
by a deep, narrow gorge from the adjacent eastern range. The
slopes, now water-torn and jagged, may formerly have declined in
regular lines, and evidently all were built over to the crest
like those of Syrian Safet. The foundations of walls and rock-cut
steps are still found even on the far side of the eastern
feature. The knifeback is covered with the foundations of what
appears to be a fortified Laura or Palace; a straight street
running north-south, with 5 degrees west (mag.). It serves as
base for walls one metre and a half thick, opening upon it like
rooms: of these we counted twenty on either side. At the northern
end of the "horse," which, like the southern, has been weathered
to a mere spur, is a work composed of two semicircles fronting to
the north and east. A bastion of well-built wall in three
straight lines overhangs the perpendicular face of the eastern
gorge: in two places there are signs of a similar defence to the
south, but time and weather have eaten most of it away. The
ground sounds hollow, and the feet sink in the crumbling heaps:
evidently the whole building was of Rughám (gypsum); and in the
process of decay it has become white as blocks of ice, here and
there powdered with snow.
On the narrow, flat ledge, between the western base of this Safrá
and the eastern side of the Bada' valley, lie masses of ruin now
become mere rubbish; bits of wall built with cut stone, and
water-conduits of fine mortar containing, like that of the
Pyramids, powdered brick and sometimes pebbles. We carried off a
lump of sandstone bearing unintelligible marks, possibly intended
for a man and a beast. We called it "St. George and the Dragon,"
but the former is afoot--possibly the Bedawin stole his steed.
There was a frustum or column-drum of fine white marble, hollowed
to act as a mortar; like the Moslem headstone of the same
material, it is attributed to the Jebel el-Lauz, where ancient
quarries are talked of. There were also Makrákah ("rub-stones")
of close-grained red syenite, and fragments of the basalt
handmills used for quartz-grinding. Part of a mortar was found,
made of exceedingly light and porous lava.
South-east of the hauteville falls in the now rugged ravine,
Khashm el-Muttalí, "Snout of the high" (town). It leads to the
apex of the coralline formations, scattered over with fragments
of gypsum, here amorphous, there crystalline or talc-like, and
all dazzling white as powdered sugar. Signs of tent foundations
and of buildings appear in impossible places; and the heights
bear two Burj or "watchtowers," one visible afar, and dominating
from its mamelon the whole land. The return to the main valley
descends by another narrow gorge further to the south-east,
called Sha'b el-Darak, or "Strait of the Shield:" the tall,
perpendicular, and overhanging walls, apparently threatening to
fall, would act testudo to an Indian file of warriors. High up
the right bank of this gut we saw a tree-trunk propped against a
rock by way of a ladder for the treasure-seeker. The Sha'b-sole
is flat, with occasional steps and overfalls of rock, polished
like mirrors by the rain-torrents; the mouth shows remains of a
masonry-dam some fourteen feet thick by twenty-one long; and
immediately below it are the bases of buildings and watercourses.
Walking down the left bank of the great Wady, and between these
secondary gorges that drain the "Yellow Hill," we came upon a
dwarf mound of dark earth and rubbish. This is the Siyághah
("mint and smiths' quarter"), a place always to be sought, as
Ba'lbak and Palmyra taught me. Remains of tall furnaces, now
level with the ground, were scattered about; and Mr. Clarke, long
trained to find antiques, brought back the first coins picked up
in ancient Midian. The total gathered, here and in other parts of
Magháir Shu'ayb, was 258, of which some two hundred were carried
home untouched; the rest, treated with chloritic and other acids,
came out well. One was a silver oval which may or may not have
been a token. Eleven were thick discs, differing from the normal
type; unfortunately the legends are illegible. The rest, inform
bits of green stuff, copper and bronze, were glued together by
decay, and apparently eaten out of all semblance of money until
the verdigris of ages is removed.
All are cast like the Roman "as", before B.C. 217, and some show
the tail. The distinguishing feature is the human eye; not the
outa of Horus,[EN#38] so well known to those who know the
Pyramids, but the last trace of Athene's profile. Two are Roman:
a Nerva with S.C. on the reverse; and a Claudius Augustus,
bearing by way of countermark a depressed oblong, of 20/100 by
14/100 (of inch), with a raised figure, erect, draped, and
holding a sceptre or thyrsus. There is also a Constantius struck
at Antioch. The gem of the little collection was a copper coin,
thinly encrusted with silver, proving that even in those days the
Midianites produced "smashers": similarly, the Egyptian miners
"did" the Pharaoh by inserting lead into hollowed gold. The
obverse shows the owl in low relief, an animal rude as any
counterfeit presentment of the <Greek words>
ever found in Troy. It has the normal olive-branch, but without
the terminating crescent (which, however, is not invariably
present) on the proper right, whilst the left shows a poor
imitation of the legend <Greek word> (NH). The silvering of
the reverse has been so corroded that no signs of the goddess's
galeated head are visible. My friend, Mr. W. E. Hayns, of the
Numismatic Society, came to the conclusion that it is a barbaric
Midianitish imitation of the Greek tetradrachm, which in those
days had universal currency, like the shilling and the franc. The
curious bits of metal, which also bear the owl, may add to our
knowledge of the Nabathaean coins, first described, I believe, by
the learned Duc de Luynes.[EN#39]
Another interesting "find" was a flat-bottomed, thick-walled clay
crucible of small size (2 10/16 inches high by 2 4/16 inches
across the mouth), exactly resembling the article picked up at
Hamámát. The latter, however, contains a remnant of litharge,
possibly showing that the old Egyptians worked the silver, which
may have been supplied by the Colorado quartz.
I would here crave leave to make a short excursus to the ancient
Ophirs of Egypt Proper, where, we are told by an inscription in
the treasury of Ramses the Great (fourteen centuries before
Christ), the gold and silver mines yielded per annum a total of
32,000,000 minæ = £90,000,000. Dr. H. Brugsch-Bey first drew
attention to Hamámát, where, as he had learned from Diodorus (i.
49--iii 12) and from the papyri, the precious metals had been
extensively worked. The "Wells of Hama'ma't" lie between Keneh on
the Nile and Kusayr (Cosseir) on the Red Sea; and the land is
held by the Abábdah Arabs, who have taken charge, from time
immemorial, of the rich commercial caravans. The formation of the
country much resembles that of Midian; and the metalliferous
veins run from northeast to south-west. In Arabia, however, the
filons are of unusual size; in Africa they are small, the
terminating fibrils, as it were, of the Asiatic focus; while the
Dark Continent lacks that wealth of iron which characterizes the
opposite coast.
By the courtesy of Generals Stone and Purdy I was enabled, after
return to Cairo in May, 1878, to inspect the collection.
Admirably arranged in order of place, and poor as well disposed,
it is, nevertheless, useful to students; and it was most
interesting to us. The only novelty is asbestos produced in the
schist: the raw material is now imported by the United States,
and used for a variety of purposes. It is said to exist in Mount
Sinai; we found none in Midian, where the schist formations are
of great extent, probably because we did not look for it. The
collection was made by Colonel Colston; and Mr. L. H. Mitchell, a
mining engineer attached to the Egyptian Staff, spent several
weeks spalling sundry tons of quartz. After finding a speck of
gold, the work was considered to be done. General Stone, however,
sensibly deprecated any attempt to exploit the minerals: the
country lacks wood and water, and the expense of camel-transport
from Hamámát to Kusayr, and thence in ships to Suez, would
swallow up all the profits.
That Egypt was immensely rich in old days we know from several
sources. Appian tells us that the treasury of Ptolemy
Philadelphus contained 740,000 talents; and assuming with
Ebers[EN#40] the Egyptian at half the Æginetan, we have the
marvellous sum of £83,250,000. According to Diodorus (i. 62), the
treasury of Rhampsinit, concerning which Herodotus (ii. 121, 122)
heard a funny story from his interpreter, contained 4,000,000
talents, equal to at least £450,000,000. This rich king's
treasure-house has been found portrayed in the far-famed Temple
of Medinat Habú: the mass of wealth, gold, silver, copper, and
spices, is enormous; and, while the baser metals are in bars, the
precious are stored in heaps, sacks, and vases.
The gold-mines of the old Coptos-plain, the modern Kobt, south of
Keneh, are preserved to all time by the earliest known map. It
has survived; whilst those of the Milesian Anaximander (B.C. 610-
547), of Hekataeus (ob. B.C. 4 76), also from Miletus and called
the "Father of Geography" (Ebers), and of Ptolemy the Pelusian
are irretrievably lost. A papyrus in the Turin Museum contains a
plan of the mineral region spoken of in two stel, those of
Radesiyyah and Kuban, describing the supply of drinking-water
introduced into the desert between Kuban and the Red Sea.
Chabas[EN#41] has published a coloured facsimile of this map: the
gold-containing mountains are tinted red, and the words "Tu en
nub" (Mons aureus) are written over them in hieratics.
The only modern gold-workings of Egypt are in the Mudíriyyat
(Nomos) of Famaka, the frontier town, better known as Fayzoghlú
from its adjacent heights. The washings were visited lately
(March, 1878) by my enterprising friend, Dr. P. Matteucci, and M.
Gessi. In old days this local Cayenne had a very bad name;
convicts were deported here with a frightful mortality. It is
still a station for galley-slaves, and it has a considerable
garrison, but we no longer hear of an abnormal fatality. The
surface was much turned over by the compulsory miners, and
European geologists and experts were sent to superintend them; at
last the diggings did not pay and were abandoned. But the natives
do by "rule of thumb," despite their ignorance of mineralogy,
without study of ground, and lacking co-ordination of labour,
what the Government failed to do. They have not struck the chief
vein' if any exist; but, during the heavy rains of the Kharif
("autumn") in the valley of the Túmát river, herds of slaves are
sent yearly to wash gold, and they find sufficient to supply the
only known coin--bars or ingots.
Beyond the Siyághah, the left bank is gashed by the ravines
draining the south-eastern prolongation of the "Yellow Hill."
Water cuts through this rotten formation of rubbish like a knife
into cheese; forming deep chasms, here narrow, there broad, with
walls built up, as it were, of fragments, and ready to be
levelled by the first rains. The lines of street and the outlines
of tenements can be dimly traced, while revetments of rounded
boulders show artificial watercourses and defences against the
now dried-up stream. The breadth of this, the eastern settlement,
varies with the extent of the ledge between the gypsum-hills and
the sandy Wady; the length may be a kilometre. The best preserved
traces of crowded building end with the south-eastern spur of the
Jebel el-Safrá. Beyond them is a huge cemetery. The ancient
graves are pits in the ground; a few still uncovered, the many
yawning wide, and all of them ignoring orientation. Those of the
moderns, on the contrary, front towards Meccah. The Bedawin of
this country seem ever to prefer for their last homes the most
ancient sites; they place the body in a pit, covered with a large
slab or a heap of stones, but they never fill in the hollow, as
is usual among Moslems, with earth. The arrangements suit equally
well the hyena and the skull-collector; and thus I was able to
make a fair collection of Bedawi crania.
At the south-eastern end of the outliers projected by the Jebel
el-Safrá, where a gentle slope of red earth falls towards the
valley-bank, is the only group of building of which any part is
still standing. The site may be old, but the present ruins are
distinctly mediæval, dating probably from the days of the
Egyptian "Mameluke" Sultans. Beginning from below and to the
south-west is a Hauz, or "cistern," measuring twenty-six by
nineteen and a half metres, with a depth of nine to ten feet. The
material is cut sandstone, cemented outside with mortar
containing the normal brick-crumbs and pebbles, and inside mixed
with mud. At the north-eastern and south-western corners are
retaining buttresses in two steps, exactly like those in the
inland fort of El-Wijh; at the two other angles are flights of
stairs, and the sole is a sheet of dried silt. To the south-east
lies the remnant of a small circular furnace, and on the
north-north-east a broken wall shows where stood the Bayt
el-Saghir, or smaller reservoir. A narrow conduit of cut stone
leads, with elaborate zigzags, towards two Sakiyah ("draw-wells")
hollowed in the gypsum. The Southern, an oval of five metres ten
centimetres, is much dilapidated; and its crumbling throat is
spanned by a worn-out arch of the surrounding Secondary rock.
Close to the north-west is the other, revetted with cut stone,
and measuring six metres in diameter. It is an elaborate affair;
with a pointed arch and a regular keystone, circular Sadúd, or
"walls for supporting the hauling-apparatus," and minor
reservoirs numbering three. On a detached hillock, a few paces to
the north, stands the Fort which defended the establishment. The
short walls of the parallelogram measure fifteen metres forty
centimetres; and the long, eighteen metres sixty centimetres: the
gate, choked by ruins, leads to a small hall, with a masked
entrance opening to the right. There is a narrow room under the
stone steps to the west, and two others occupy the eastern side.
This Fort is to be restored for the better protection of
pilgrims; and shortly after our departure an Egyptian engineer,
Sulayman Effendi, came from Suez to inspect and report upon it.
According to local modern tradition this scatter of masonry was
the original site of the settlement, called after the builder Bir
el-Sa'idáni--"the Well of Sa'ídán." For watering each caravan the
proprietor demanded a camel by way of fee; at last a Maghribí,
that is, a magician, refused to "part;" betook himself to the
present camping ground, sank pits, and let loose the copious
springs. The old wells then dried up, and the new sources gave to
this section of the great Wady 'Afál its actual name, Wady
el-Badá--"of the innovation," so hateful to the conservative
savage. Hence Rüppell's "Beden," which would mean an ibex.
On the opposite or right bank of the broad and sandy bed, the
traces of ancient buildings extend to a far greater distance, at
least to two kilometres. They have been a continuous line of
forts, cisterns, and tenements, still marked out by the bases of
long thick walls; the material is mostly gypsum, leprous-white as
the skin of Gehazi. But here, and indeed generally throughout
Midian, the furious torrents, uncontrolled during long ages by
the hand of man, have swept large gaps in the masses of homestead
and public buildings. Again the ruins of this section are
distributable into two kinds--the City of the Living, and the
City of the Dead.
The former, of considerable extent, hugs the watercourse, and
crowns all the natural spurs that buttress the bed. Beginning
from the north lie two blocks of building considerable in extent:
the southern, called by the Arabs El-Malká, is a broken
parallelogram. Further down stream the bank is a vast strew of
broken pottery; and one place, covered with glass fragments, was
named by our soldiers El-Khammárah--"the tavern" or "the hotel."
As in ancient Etruria, so here, the people assemble after heavy
rains to pick up what luck throws in the way. It is said that
they often gather gold pieces, square as well as round, bearing
by way of inscription "prayers" to the Apostle of Allah. Some of
us, however, had a shrewd suspicion that the Tibr, or "pure
gold-dust," is still washed from the sands, and cast probably in
rude moulds.
Behind, inland or westward of this southern town, lies the City
of the Dead. Unlike the pitted graveyard to the north-east, the
cemetery is wholly composed of catacombs, which the Bedawin call
Magháir ("caves") or Bíbán ("doors"). The sites are the sides and
mouths of four little branch-valleys which cut through the
hillocks representing the Wady-bank. The northernmost is known as
Wady el-Khurayk, because it drains a height of that name: the
others bear the generic term Wady el-Safrá, so called, like the
hauteville hill, from the tawny-yellow colour of the rocks. The
catacombs, fronting in all directions, because the makers were
guided by convenience, not by ceremonial rule, are hollowed in
the soft new sandstone underlying the snowy gypsum; and most of
the façades show one or more horizontal lines of natural
bead-work, rolled pebbles disposed parallelly by the natural
action of water. In the most ruinous, the upper layer is a
cornice of hard sandstone, stained yellow with iron and much
creviced; the base, a soft conglomerate of the same material, is
easily corroded; and the supernal part caves in upon the
principle which is destroying Niagara. At each side of the
doorways is a Mastabah ("stone bench"), also rock-hewn, and with
triple steps. The door-jambs, which have hollowings for hinges
and holes for bars, are much worn and often broken; they are
rarely inclined inwards after the fashion of Egypt. A few have
windows, or rather port-holes, flanking the single entrance. The
peculiarities and the rare ornaments will be noticed when
describing each receptacle; taken as a whole, they are evidently
rude and barbarous forms of the artistic catacombs and
tower-tombs that characterize Petra and Palmyra.
The "Magháir" may roughly be divided into four topical groups.
These are--the northern outliers; the "Tombs of the Kings," so
called by ourselves because they distinguish themselves from all
the others; the "buttressed caves" (two sets); and the southern
outliers. The first mentioned begin with a ruin on the right jaw
of the Khurayk gorge: it is dug in strata dipping, as usual, from
north-west to south-east; it faces eastward, and the entrance
declines to the south. All external appearance of a catacomb has
disappeared; a rude porch, a frame of sticks and boughs, like the
thatched eaves of a Bulgarian hut, stands outside, while inside
signs of occupation appear in hearths and goat-dung, in smoky
roof, and in rubbish-strewn floor. Over another ruin to the west
are graffiti, of which copies from squeezes and photographs are
here given: there are two loculi in the southern wall; and in the
south-eastern corner is a pit, also sunk for a sarcophagus. A
hill-side to the south of this cave shows another, dug in the
Tauá or coloured sandstone, and apparently unfinished: part of it
is sanded up, and its only yield, an Egyptian oil-jar of modern
make, probably belonged to some pilgrim. Crossing the second
dwarf gorge we find, on the right bank, a third large ruin of at
least fourteen loculi; the hard upper reef, dipping at an angle
of 30 degrees, and striking from north-west to southeast, fell in
when the soft base was washed away by weather, and the anatomy of
the graves is completely laid bare. Higher up the same Wady is a
fourth Maghárah, also broken down: the stucco-coating still shows
remnants of red paint; and the characters **--possibly Arab
"Wasm," or tribe-marks--are cut into an upright entrance-stone.
The precipitous left bank of the third gorge contains the three
finest specimens, which deserve to be entitled the "Tombs of the
Kings." Of these, the two facing eastward are figured by Rüppell
(p. 220) in the antiquated style of his day, with fanciful
foreground and background.[EN#42] His sketch also places solid
rock where the third and very dilapidated catacomb of this group,
disposed at right angles, fronts southwards. Possibly the façades
may once have been stuccoed and coloured; now they show the bare
and pebble-banded sandstone.
The southernmost, which may be assumed as the type, has an
upright door, flanked by a stone bench of three steps. Over the
entrance is a defaced ornament which may have been the bust of a
man: in Rüppell it is a kind of geometrical design. The frontage
has two parallel horizontal lines, raised to represent cornices.
Each bears a decoration resembling crenelles or Oriental ramparts
broken into three steps; the lower set numbers eight, including
the half ornaments at the corners, and the higher seven. The
interior is a mixture of upright recesses, probably intended for
the gods or demons; and of horizontal loculi, whose grooves show
that they had lids. There is no symmetry in the niches, in the
sarcophagi, or in the paths and passages threading the graves.
The disposition will best be understood from the ground-plans
drawn by the young Egyptian officers: their sketches of the
façades are too careless and incorrect for use; but the want is
supplied by the photographs of M. Lacaze.
Above these three "Tombs of the Kings" are many rock-cavities
which may or may not have been sepulchral. Time has done his
worst with them. We mounted the background of a quoin-shaped hill
by a well-trodden path, leading to the remnants of a rude Burj
("watch-tower"), and to a semicircle of dry wall, garnished with
a few sticks for hanging rags and tatters. The latter denotes the
Musallat Shu'ayb, or praying-place of (prophet) Jethro; and here
our Sayyid and our Shaykh took the opportunity of applying for
temporal and eternal blessings. The height at the edge of the
precipice which, cliffing to the north, showed a view of our camp
and of Yubú and Shu'shú' Islands, was in round numbers 450 feet
(aner. 29.40--28.94). From this vantage-ground we could
distinctly trace the line of the Wady Makná, beginning in a round
basin at the western foot of the northern Shigd Mountain and its
sub-range; while low rolling hills, along which we were to
travel, separated it from the Wady Bada'-Afál to the south.
Two other important sets of catacombs, which I will call the
"buttressed caves," are pierced in the right flank of the same
gorge, at the base of a little conical hill, quaintly capped with
a finial of weathered rock. The material is the normal silicious
gravel-grit, traversed and cloisonné by dykes of harder stone.
Beginning at the south, we find a range of three, facing eastward
and separated from one another by flying buttresses of natural
rock. No. 1 has a window as well as a door. Next to it is a
square with six open loculi ranged from north to south. No. 3
shows a peculiarity--two small pilasters of the rudest
(Egyptian?) Doric, the only sign of ornamentation found inside
the tombs; a small break in the south-western wall connects it
with the northernmost loculus of No. 2. Furthest north are three
bevel-holes, noting the beginning of a catacomb; and round the
northern flank of the detached cone are six separate caves, all
laid waste by the furious northern gales.
The second set is carved in the bluff eastern end of an adjoining
reef that runs away from the Wady; it consists of four sepulchres
with the normal buttresses. They somewhat resemble those of the
Kings, but there are various differences. No. 2 from the south is
flanked by pilasters with ram's-horn capitals, barbarous forms of
Ionic connected by three sets of triglyphs: the pavement is of
slabs; there is an inner niche, and one of the corners has
apparently been used as an oven. On a higher plane lies a sunken
tomb, with a deep drop and foot-holes by way of ladder; outside
it the rocky platform is hollowed, apparently for graves. The
other three facades bear the crenelle ornaments; the two to the
north show double lines of seven holes drilled deep into the
plain surface above the door, as if a casing had been nailed on;
while the northernmost yielded a fragmentary inscription on the
southern wall. These are doubtless the "inscribed tablets on
which the names of kings are engraved," alluded to in the
Jihan-numá of Haji Khahífah.[EN#43] Rounding the reef to the
north, we found three catacombs in the worst condition: one of
them showed holes drilled in the façade.
The southern outliers lie far down the Wady 'Afál, facing east,
and hewn in the left flank of a dwarf gulley which falls into the
right bank not far from the site called by our men "the tavern."
The group numbers three, all cut in the normal sandstone, with
the harder dykes which here stand up like ears. The principal
item is the upper cave, small, square, and apparently still used
by the Arabs: in the middle of the lintel is a lump looking like
the mutilated capital of a column. The two lower caves show only
traces.
There is a tradition that some years ago a Frank (Rüppell?),
after removing his Arab guides, dug into the tombs, and found
nothing but human hair. Several of the horizontal loculi
contained the bones of men and beasts: I did not disturb them, as
all appeared to be modern. The floors sounding hollow, gave my
companions hopes of "finds;" but I had learned, after many a
disappointment, how carefully the Bedawi ransack such places. We
dug into four sepulchres, including the sunken catacomb and the
(southern) inscribed tomb. Usually six inches of flooring led to
the ground-rock; in the sarcophagi about eight inches of tamped
earth was based upon nine feet of sand that ended at the bottom.
The only results were mouldering bones, bits of marble and
pottery, and dry seeds of the Kaff Maryam, the Rose of Jericho
(Anastatica), which here feeds the partridges, and which in Egypt
supplies children with medicine, and expectant mothers with a
charm. As the plant is bibulous, opening to water and even to the
breath, it is placed by the couch, and its movement shows what is
to happen. The cave also yielded specimens of bats (Rhinopoma
macrophyllum), with fat at the root of their spiky tails.
I have described at considerable length this ruined Madiáma,
which is evidently the capital of Madyan Proper, ranking after
Petra. In one point it is still what it was, a chief station upon
the highway, then Nabatí, now Moslem, which led to the Ghor or
Wady el-'Arabah. But in all others how changed! "The traveller
shall come; he that saw me in my beauty shall come: his eyes
shall search the field; they shall not find me."
Chapter IV.
Notices of Precious Metals in Midian--the Papyri and the Mediæval
Arab Geographers.
In my volume on "The Gold-Mines of Midian," the popular Hebrew
sources of information--the Old Testament and the Talmud--were
ransacked for the benefit of the reader. It now remains to
consult the Egyptian papyri and the pages of the mediæval Arab
geographers: extracts from the latter were made for me, in my
absence from England, by the well-known Arabist, the Rev. G.
Percy Badger.[EN#44] I will begin with the beginning.
Dr. Heinrich Brugsch-Bey, whose "History of Egypt"[EN#45] is the
latest and best gift to Egyptologists, kindly drew my attention
to an interesting passage in his work, and was good enough to
copy for me the source of his information, tile Harris Papyrus
(No. 1) in the British Museum.
The first king of the twentieth Dynasty, born about B.C. 1200,
and residing at Thebes, was Rameses III., whose title, Ramessu
pa-Nuter (or Nuti), "Ramses the god," became in the hands of the
Greeks Rhampsinitos. This great prince, ascending the throne in
evil days, applied himself at once to the internal and external
economy of his realm; he restored the caste-divisions, and
carried fire and sword into the lands of his enemies. He
transported many captives to Egypt; fortified his eastern
frontier; and built, in the Gulf of Suez, a fleet of large and
small ships, in order to traffic with Pun and the "Holy
Land,"[EN#46] and to open communication with the
"Incense-country" and with the wealthy shores of the Indian
Ocean.
"Not less important," says our author (p. 594), "for Egypt, which
required before all things the copper applied to every branch of
her industry, was the sending of commissioners, by land (on
donkey back!) and by sea, to explore and exploit the rich
cupriferous deposits of 'Atháka (in the neighbourhood of the
'Akabah Gulf?). This metal, with the glance of gold, was there
cast in brick-shape, and was transported by sea to the capital.
"The king also restored his attention to the treasures of the
Sinaitic Peninsula, which had excited the concupiscence of the
Egyptians since the days of King Senoferu[EN#47] (B.C. 3700).
Loaded with rich presents for the sanctuary of the goddess
Hathor, the protectress of Mafka-land, chosen employés were
despatched on a royal commission to the peninsula, for the
purpose of supplying the Pharaoh's treasury with the highly
prized blue-green copper-stones (Mafka, Turkisen?[EN#48])."
These lines were published by Dr. Brugsch-Bey before he had heard
of my discoveries of metals and of a modern turquoise-digging in
the Land of Midian. He had decided that "'Atháka" lay to the east
of Suez, chiefly from the insistence laid upon the shipping;
sea-going craft would certainly not be required for a sail of
three or four hours. Moreover, as I have elsewhere shown, Jebel
'Atakáh, the "Mountain of Deliverance," at the mouth of the Wady
Musá, was referred to the Jews at some time after the Christian
era, and probably during the fourth and fifth centuries, when
pilgrimages to the apocryphal Mounts Sinai became the fashion.
During the summer of 1877, Dr. Brugsch-Bey was kind enough to
copy and to translate the original document, upon which he
founded his short account of the "'Atháka" copper-mines. I offer
it to the reader in full.
The order of the alphabet is that adopted by Dr. Brugsch-Bey. It
relies for the first letter upon the authority of Plutarch, who
asserts that the Egyptian abecedarium numbered the square of five
(twenty-five); and that it opened with --<Greek>--, which also
expresses the god Thoth;--this is the case with --<hieroglyph>--
the leaf of some water-plant. The sequence of the letters has been
suggested by a number of minor considerations: we begin with the
vowels, and proceed to the labial, the liquids, and so
forth.[EN#49]
The sense of the highly interesting inscription, in its English
order, would be:--
"I have sent my commissioners to the land 'Atháka; to the (those)[EN#50]
great mines of copper (or coppers)[EN#51] which are in this place
('Atháka); and their (i.e. the commissioners') ships[EN#52] were loaded,
carrying them (the metals); while other (commissioners were sent and)
marched on their asses. No! one never (ter-tot) had heard, since the
(days of the olden) kings, that these (copper) mines had been
found.[EN#53] The loads (i.e. of the ships and the asses) carried copper;
the loads were by myriads for their ships, which went thence (i.e. from
the mines) to Egypt. (After) happily arriving, the loads were landed,
according to royal order, under the Pavilion,[EN#54] in form of copper-
bricks;[EN#55] they were numerous as frogs (in the marsh),[EN#56] and in
quality they were gold (Nub) of the third degree.[EN#57] I made them
admired (by) all the world as marvellous things."
The following lines upon the subject of Midian are from the notes
(p. 143) of Jacob Golius in "Alferganum" (small 4to. Amsterdam,
1669), a valuable translation with geographical explanations.
Ahmad ibn Mohammed ibn Kathír el-Fargháni derived his "lakab" or
cognomen from the province of Farghán (Khokand), to the
north-east of the Oxus; he wrote a work upon astronomy, and he
flourished about A.H. 184 (= A.D. 800).
"Ibidem (<Arabic> Madyan) Medjan sive Midjan, Antiqui nominis oppidum in
Maris Rubri littore, sub 29 degrees grad. latitudine; ad ortum brumalem
deflectens à montis Sinæ extremitate: ubi feré site Ptolemæi Modiana,
haud dubié eadem cum Midjan. A Geographorum Orientalium quibusdam ad
Ægyptum refertur; à plerisq; omnibus ad Higiazam: quod merito et recté
factum. Nullus enim est, qui Arabibus non annumeret Madianitas; et Sinam,
quæ Madjane borealior, montem Arabiæ facit D. Paulus Gal. iv. Midjan
autem fuit Abrahami ex Kethura filius: unde tribus illa et ab hac urbs
nomen habent. Quam quidem tribum coaluisse, sedibus ut puto et affinitate
in unam cum Ismaëlitis, innuere videntur Geneseos verba. Nam
conspirantibus in Josephi exitium fratribus dicuntur supervenisse
Ismaëlitae; transivisse Midjanite; ipse v ditus ab Ismaëlitis. Ceterum
urbem Midjan Arabes pro ea habent, quæ in Corano vocatur (<Arabic>
Madínat Kúsh): Xaib[EN#58] enim illis idem est, qui Jethro dicitur Exod.
iii. cujus filiam Sipporam Moses uxor duxit, cum ex Ægpto profugisset in
terram Midjan; ubi Jethro princeps erat et Sacerdos. Autonomosia illa
Arabibus familiaris. Ita Hanoch (<Arabic> Aknúkh) appelatus, Abraham (El-
Khalíl), Rex Saul (<Arabic> Tálút), etc., licet eorundem propria etiam
usurpentur nomina. Et in ipsis Sacris Libris non uno nomine hic Jethro
designatur. Loci illius puteum[EN#59] Scriptores memorant fano circum
extructo Arabibus sacrum, persuasis Mosem ibi Sipporam et sorores à
pastorum injuriis vindicasse; prout Exod., cap. ii., res describitur. Sed
primis Muhammedici regni bellis universa fere, quae rune extabat, urbs
vastata fuit."
El-Fargháni is followed by the Imám Abú 'Abbás Ahmed bin Yáhyá
bin Jábir, surnamed and popularly known as El-Balázurí, who
flourished between A.H. 232 and 247 (= A.D. 846 to 861), and
wrote the Futú'h el-Buldán, or the "Conquests of Countries." His
words are (pp. 13-14, M. J. de Goeje's edition; Lugduni
Batavorum, 1866)--"It was related to me by Abú Abíd el-Kásim bin
Sallám; who said he was told by Ishák bin Isa, from Malík ibn
Anas and from Rabíat, who heard from a number of the learned,
that the Apostle of Allah (upon whom be peace!) gave in feoff
(Iktá'at) to Bilál bin el-Háris el-Muzni, mines (Ma'ádin, i.e. of
gold) in the district of Furú' (variant, Kurú'). Moreover, it was
related to me by Amrú el-Nákid, and by Ibn Saham el-Antáki (of
Antioch), who both declared to have heard from El-Haytham bin
Jamíl el-Antáki, through Hammád bin Salmah, that Abú Makín,
through Abú Ikrimah Maulá Bilál bin el-Háris el-Muzni, had
averred 'The Apostle of Allah (upon whom be peace!) enfeoffed the
said Bilál with (a bit of) ground containing a mountain and a
(gold) mine; that the sons of Bilál sold part of the grant to one
'Umar bin 'Abd el-'Azíz, when a (gold) mine or, according, to
others, two (gold) mines were found in it; that they said to the
buyer, Verily we sold to thee land for cultivation, and we did
not sell thee (gold) mining-ground; that they brought the letter
of the Apostle (upon whom be peace!) in a (bound) volume: that
'Umar kissed it and rubbed it upon his eyes, and said, Of a truth
let me see what hath come out of it (the mine) and what I have
laid out upon it.' Then he deducted from them the expenses of
working and returned to them the surplus. . . . And I was told by
Musa'b el-Zubayri, from Malik ibn Anas, that the Apostle of Allah
(upon whom be peace!) gave in feoff to Bilál bin Háris mines in
the district of Fara' (sic). There is no difference of opinion
among our learned men on this subject, nor do I know any of our
companions who contradicts (the statement) that the (gold) mine
paid one-fourth per ten (= 2 1/2 per cent.) royalty (to the Bayt
el-Mál, or Public Treasury). Musa'b further relates, from
El-Zahri, that the (gold) mine defrayed the Zakát or poor-rate:
he also said that the proportion was one-fifth (= 2 per cent.);
like that which the people of El-Irák (Mesopotamia) take to this
day from the (gold) mines of El-Fara' (sic), and of Nejrán, and
of Zúl-Marwah, and of Wady El-Kura[EN#60] and others. Moreover,
the fifth is also mentioned by Safáin el-Thauri, and by Abú
Hanífah and Abú Yúsuf, as well as by the people of El-'Irák."
Follows on my list the celebrated Murúj el-Dahab, or "Meads of
Gold," by El-Mas'údi, who died in A.H. 346 (= A.D. 957), and
whose book extends to A.H. 332 (= A.D. 943). Unable to find the
translation of my friend Sprenger, I am compelled to quote from
"Maçoudi. Les Prairies d'Or," texte et traduction par C. Barbier
de Meynard et Pavet de Courteille. Société Asiatique, Paris,
1864, vol. iii. pp. 301-305.
"Les théologians ne sont pas d'accord sur la question de savoir à
quel peuple appartenait Choâïb (Shu'ayb), fils de Nawil, fils de
Rawaïl, fils de Mour, fils d'Anka, fils de Madian, fils
d'Abraham, l'ami de Dieu, quoiqu'il soit certain que sa langue
était l'arabe. Les uns pensent qu'il appartenait aux races arabes
éteintes, aux nations qui ont disparu, à quelque une de ces
générations passées dont nous avons parlé. Suivant d'autres, il
s'agirait ici des descendants d'el-Mahd, fils de Djandal, fils de
Yâssob, fils de Madian, fils d'Abraham, dont Choâïb etait frére
par la naissance. De cette race sortit un grand nombre de rods
qui s'étaient dispersés dans des royaumes contigus les uns aux
autres ou sépare's. Parmi ces rods il faut distinguer ceux qui
étaient nommés Aboudjed, Hawaz, Houti, Kalamoun, Çafas et
Kourichat,[EN#61] tous, comme nous venons de le dire, fils
d'el-Mahd, fils de Djandal. Les lettres de l'alphabet sont
représentées précisément par les noms de ces rois, oú l'on
retrouve les vingt-quatre lettres sur lesquelles roule
l'Aboudjed.[EN#62] Il a e'te' dit beaucoup d'autres choses à
propos de ces lettres, comme nous l'avons fait remarquer dans cet
ouvrage; mais il n'entre pas dans notre sujet de rapporter ici
tous les systèmes contradictoires imaginés pour l'expliquer la
signification des lettres.[EN#63] Aboudjed fut roi de la Mecque
et de la partie du Hédjaz qui y confine. Hawaz et Houti régnérent
conjointement dans le pays de Weddj (El-Wijh), qui est le
territoire de Tayif, et la portion du Nedjd qui lui est contigue.
Kalamoun exerçait la suzeraineté sur le royaume de Madian; il y a
même des auteurs qui pensent que son autorité s'étendait
conjointement sur tous les princes et les pays que nous venons de
nommer. Le châtiment du jour de la nuée (Koran, xxvi. 189) eut
lieu sous le re'gne de Kalamoun. Choâïb appelant ces impies à la
pénitence, ils le traitèrent de menteur. Alors il les mena,ca du
châtiment du jour de la nuée, à la suite de quoi une porte du feu
du ciel fut ouverte sur eux. Choâïb se retire, avec ceux qui
avaient cru, dans l'endroit connu sous le nom d'el Aïkah, qui est
un fourré dans la direction de Madian. Cependant, lorsque lcs
incrédules sentirent les effets de la vengeance céleste, et que,
consumés par une chaleur terrible, ils comprirent enfin la
vérité, ils se mirent à la recherche de Choâïb et de ceux qui
avaient cru en lui. Ils les trouvérent abrités sous un nuage
blanc, doucement rafraichi par le zéphire, et ne ressentant en
rien les atteintes de la douleur. Ils les chassèrent de cet
asile, s'imaginant qu'ils y trouveraient eux-mêmes un refuge
contre le fléau qui les poursuivait. Mais Dieu changea cette nuée
en un feu qui se précipita sur leurs têtes. Mountassir, fils
d'el-Moundir el-Médéni, a parlé de ce peuple et a déploré son
triste sort dans des vers où il dit:
"Les rois des enfants de Houti et de Çafas, qui vivaient dans
l'opulence, et ceux de Hawaz, qui possédaient des palais et des
appartements somptueux,
"Régnaient sur la contrée du Hédjaz, et leur beauté était
semblable à celle des rayons du soleil ou à l'éclat de la rune;
"Ils habitaient l'emplacement de la maison sainte, ils
adoucissaient les moeurs de leurs compatriotes et gouvernaient
avec illustration et honneur....
"Rien de plus curieux que l'histoire de ces rois, le ré'cit de
leurs guerres, de leurs actes, de la manière dont ils
s'emparèrent de ces contrées et établirent leur domination, apres
en avoir exterminé les premières possesseurs. Ceux-ci étaient des
peuples dont nous avons parlé dans nos précédents ouvrages, en
traitant ce sujet; nous appelons l'attention dans ce livre sur
nous premiers écrits, et nous engageons le lecteur à les
consulter."
The next in order of seniority is the well-known Idrísí (A.H. 531
= A.D. 1136). Dr. Badger's Arabic copy not being paged, he has
forwarded to me extracts from the French translation by M. P.
Amadée Jaubert (Paris, 1836), having first compared them with the
original:--
Tome 1 p. 5: "De cette mer de la Chine dérive encore le golfe de
Colzoum (Kulzum), qui commence à Bab el-Mandeb,[EN#64] au point
ou se termine la mer des Indes. Il s'étend au nord, en inclinant
un peu vers l'occident, en longeant les rivages occidentales de
l'Iemen, le Téháma, l'Hédjaz, jusqu'au pays de Madian, d'Aila
(El-'Akabah), et de Faran; et se termine à la ville de Colzoum,
dont il tire son nom."
P. 142: "Les districts fortifiés, dependents de la Mecque, sont .
. . Ceux qui sont sous la dépendance de Médine sont . . .
Madyan."
P. 328: "Pour aller de Misr (Cairo) à' Yetrib (sic pro Yathrib),
on passe par les lieux suivants, Aïlah (Aylah) Madian," etc.
P. 333: "Sur les bords de la mer Colzoum est la ville de Madian
(in orig. Madiyan) plus grande qui Tabouk (Tabúk), et le puits ou
Moïse (sur qui soit le salut!) abreuva le troupeau de Jethro
(E1Shu'ayb). On dit que ce puits est (maintenant) à sec [Note at
foot: Je lis Mu'attilah comme porte le MS. B., et non
Mu'azzamah,[EN#65] leçon donnee par le MS. A.]; et qu'on a élevé
audessus une construction. L'eau nécéssaire aux habitants
provient de sources. Le nom de Madiyan (sic) de'rive de celui de
la tribu à laquelle Jethro appartenait. Cette ville offre trés
peu de ressources et le commerce y est misérable."
The following notice of Madyan is taken from the Kitáb el-Buldán
("Book of Countries"),[EN#66] by Ahmed ibn Abí Ya'kúb bin Wádhih,
surnamed El-Ya'kúbí and El-Kátib (the writer); according to the
Arabic colophon it was completed on the morning of Saturday,
Shawwál 21, A.H. 607 (= A.D. 1210). The author gives (p. 129, T.
G. J. Juynboll, Lugduni Batavorum, 1861) a description of the
route from Misr (Egypt, here Cairo) to Meccah. The first ten
stages are--1. Jubb el-'Umayrah; 2. El-Kerkirah (variant,
Karkírah); 3. 'Ajrúd, the well-known fort on the direct
Suez-Cairo line; 4. Jisr el-Kulzum, where the Gulf was crossed;
and, lastly, six Desert marches (Maráhil) to Aylah.[EN#67] The
latter station is described as a fine city upon the shore of the
Salt Sea, the meeting-place of the pilgrim-caravans from
Syria,[EN#68] Egypt, and the Maghrib (West Africa). It has
merchandise in plenty, and its people are a mixed race (Akhlát
min el-Nás).[EN#69] Here also are sold the fine cloaks called
Burdu habaratin, and also known as the Burd of the Apostle of
Allah[EN#70] (upon whom be peace!). He resumes, "And from Aylah
you march to Sharaf el-Baghl, and from the latter to Madyan,
which is a large and populous city, with abundant springs and
far-flowing streams of wholesome water; and gardens of
flower-beds. Its inhabitants are a mixed race (Akhlát min
el-Nás).[EN#71] The traveller making Meccah from Aylah takes the
shore of the Salt Sea, to a place called 'Aynúná (variant, 'Uyún,
plural of 'Ayn, an eye of water, a fountain): here are buildings
and palm clumps, and seeking-places (Matalib: see Lane for the
authorities), in which men search for gold." Dr. Badger draws my
attention to the last sentence, which seems also to have been
noticed by Sprenger (Alt. Geog. p. 32).[EN#72]
The following is from the Kitáb Asár el-Bitad ("Book of the
Geographical Traditions of Countries"), by the far-famed
Zakariyyá bin Mohammed bin Mahmúd, surnamed El-Kazwíní, who died
A.H. 653 = A.D. 1255:--"Madyan" (p. 173, edidit. F. Wustenfeld,
Göttingen, 1848) "is a city of the tribe (Kaum) of Shu'ayb upon
whom be peace!): it was founded by Madyan, son of Ibrahim, the
Friend (of Allah), the grandfather of Shu'ayb. It exports the
merchandise of Tabúk between El-Medinah and El-Shám (Damascus).
In it is the well whence Musá (upon whom be peace!) watered the
flocks of Shu'áyb, and it is said that the well is of great
depth; and that over it is a building visited by (pious) men.
This settlement Madyan is subject to the district of Tabaríyyah
(Tiberias); and near it is the well, and at it a rock which Moses
uprooted,[EN#73] and which remains there to the present day."
The Imám Abú'l-Abbás Ahmed ibn 'Ali Takiyy el-Dín, better known
as "El-Makrízi," wrote his book El-Mawáiz w'el-I'tibár fi' Zikr
el-Khitat w'el-'Asár ("The Admonition and Examples in
Commemorating Habitations and Traditions") in A.H. 825 (= A.D.
1421), during the latter part of the second Mamlúk dynasty; and
he brings down the history to the reign of Kansu Ghori, whose
fort we shall see at El-'Akabah. He tells us (edition of
Gottingen, 1848, Sahífah 48), "The loftiest mountain in Madyan
is called Zubayr.[EN#74] . . . It is also related that amongst
the settlements of the (Madyanite) tribe are the villages of
Petræa (<Arabic>), namely, the Kúrat (circuit) of El-Tor, and
Fárán (Pharan), and Ráyeh, and Kulzum, and Aylah (El-'Akabah)
with its surroundings; Madyan with its surroundings; and Awíd and
Haurá (Leukè-Kóme) with their surroundings, and Badá[EN#75] and
Shaghab."[EN#76] He speaks of many ruined cities whose
inhabitants had disappeared: forty, however, remained; some with,
and others without, names. Between El-Hejaz and Egypt-Syria were
sixteen cities, ten of them lying towards Palestine. The most
important were El-Khalasah,[EN#77] with its idol-temple destroyed
by Mohammed, and El-Sani'tah, whose stones had been removed to
build Ghazzah (Gaza). The others were El-Mederah, El-Minyah,
El-A'waj, El-Khuwayrak, El-Bírayn, El-Máayn, El-Sebá, and
El-Mu'allak.[EN#78]
The Marásid el-Ittílá 'alá Asmá el-Amkanat w'el-Buká'
("Observations of Information on the Names of Places and
Countries"), which contains two dates in the body of the work,
viz. A.H. 997 ( = A.D. 1589) and A.H. 1168 (A.D. = 1755), and
which is probably compiled from El-Kazwíní, says sub voce Madyan,
after giving the "movement" of the word: "It is a city of the
tribe of Shu'ayb, opposite Tabúk, and upon the sea of El-Kulzum,
six stages (Maráhil) separating the two. It is larger than Tabúk,
and in it is the well whence Moses watered the flocks of
Shu'ayb." Finally, it repeats that Madyan is under the district
of "Tabariyyá" or Tiberias[EN#79] (vol. iii. p. 64, edidit. T. G.
J. Juynboll, Lugduni Batavorum, 1854, e duobus Codd. MSS.).
I conclude this unpopular chapter with some remarks by Dr. Badger
concerning the apparent connection of Jethro and
El-Medínah:[EN#80] "It struck me when studying 'Madyan,' which is
the name of a place as well as of a man,[EN#81] that 'Yáthrib,'
the ancient term of al-Madínah, might have served the same double
purpose. At all events, it was singular to find a Yáthrib
somewhere near Madyan, and that the word was not far removed from
the <Hebrew> (Yithro), the name given in Hebrew to Moses'
Midianite father-in-law. I also note that the Septuagint renders
the Hebrew Yithro by <Greek> Peshito by <Arabic> (Yathrûn),
which the new Arabic version of the Bible, published at Bairu't
(Syria), follows; making it <Arabic> (Yáthrûn). The name in
Hebrew (Exod. iv. 18) is also written <Hebrew> (Yether).
"My theory is this. Firstly, there is no dependence to be placed
on the Masoretic points, especially when affixed to names of
places. Secondly, we have no certain knowledge of the language
used by the Midianites in those ancient times. Their territory
extended northwards towards Palestine, and from their very
intimate relations with the Israelites, as friends and as
enemies, both nations appear to have understood each other
perfectly. May not their language, then, have been a dialect of
the Aramean?[EN#82] If so, the <Hebrew> (Yithro) of the Bible
might have been <Hebrew> (Yithrab, Yathrib, etc.). Instances of
the apocopated <Hebrew> (b) are common in the Chaldean or
Syro-Chaldaic at the present day; e.g. <Arabic> (Yáheb Alaha) is
pronounced Yáu-Alaha; <Arabic> (Yashuá'-yaheb) becomes
Yashuá-yau, etc., the final Beth <Arabic> (b) or the <Arabic>
(heb) being converted into a <Arabic> (w). Hence why may not
<Hebrew> (Yithro) have been originally <Hebrew> (Yithrab or
Yathrib)? Of course, this is only a conjecture of mine."
Mr. E. Stanley Poole (loc. cit.) says that the Arabs dispute
whether the name "Medyen" be foreign or Arabic; and whether
"Medyen" spoke Arabic. He considers the absurd enumeration of the
alphabetical kings (El-Mas'údi, quoted above) to be curious, as
possibly containing some vague reference to the language of
Midian. When these kings are said contemporaneously to have ruled
over Meccah, Western Nejd, Yemen, "Medyen," Egypt, etc., it is
extremely improbable that Midian ever penetrated into Yemen,
notwithstanding the hints of Arab authors to the contrary. Yákút
el-Hamawi (born A.H. 574 or 575 = A.D. 1178-79, and died A.H. 626
= A.D. 1228), in the Mu'jam el-Buldán (cited in the Journ. of the
Deutsch. Morgen. Gesellschaft), declares that a South Arabic
dialect is of Midian, and El-Mas'údi (apud Schultens, pp.
158-159) inserts a Midianite king among the rulers of Yemen. The
latter, however, is more probable than the former; it may be an
accidental and individual, not a material occurrence.
The following list of ruins, some cities, others towns, were all,
with two exceptions (Nos. 2 and 18), visited or explored by the
second Khedivial Expedition. The Mashghal, ateliers or subsidiary
workshops, were in cases learned only by hearsay:--
1. Old 'Akabah (Aylah) Mashghal, up Valley el-Yitm. 3.
2. El-Hakl (pronounced "Hagul"), the <Greek> of Ptolemy: it
was seen from the sea, and notes were taken of its ruins and
furnaces.
3. Nakhil Tayyib Ism, in mountain of the same name: its ruined
dam (?) and buildings were surveyed by Lieutenant Amir.
4. Makná. Twice visited.
5. Magháir Shu'ayb. Two ateliers inspected, and one heard of on
the Jebel el-Lauz: total, 3.
6. 'Aynúnah. In Jebel Zahd (ruins and furnaces). 1.
7. Sharmá. An atelier on the Jebel Fás, and another on the Jebel
Harb, both high up: total, 2.
8. Tiryam. An atelier in the Wady Urnub. 1.
9. Abu Hawáwít, near El-Muwaylah. Scoriæ found about the fort of
El-Muwaylah and near Sharm Yáhárr. 2.
10. Zibayyib in Wady Surr. Atelier Sayl Umm Laban (Wady Sadr). 1.
11. Khulasah.[EN#83] Saw specimens of worked metal from Wady
Kh'shabríyyah, and the upper Wady Surr; also ruins in the Sayl
Abú Sha'r, south-west and seawards of the Shárr block.
12. Ma' el-Badá, alias Diyár el-Nasárá, in the upper Wady Dámah.
13. Shuwák, the <Greek> of Ptolemy. Atelier in Jebel
el-Sání. 1.
14. Shaghab, another large city mentioned by El-Makrízi.
15. Ruins of El-Khandakí. Broken quartz, and made road at
El-Kutayyifah; two other ateliers in Wady Ruways to the west:
total, 3.
16. Umm Amil. Near it an atelier still called El-Dayr, or the
Convent. 1.
17. Ziba', old town; Umm Jirmah to the north. 1.
18. Majirmah (pronounced M'jirmah), one day's march south of
Zibá. Large ruins, supposed to have been the classical
Rhaunathos.
Thus, besides a total of eighteen ruins, more or less extensive,
twenty ateliers were seen or heard of; making up a total of
thirty-eight--not far removed from the forty traditional
settlements of the mediæval Arab geographers.
In the plateau of New Red Sandstone called El-Hismá, ruins and
inscriptions are said to be found at the Jebel Rawiyán, whose
Wady is mentioned by Wallin (p. 308); at Ruáfá, between the two
hills El-Rakhamatayn; and at sundry other places, which we were
unable to visit. Beyond the Hisma' I also collected notices of
El-Karáyyá, large ruins first alluded to by Wallin (p.
316).[EN#84]
During our exploration of the region below El-Muwaylah (my
Southern Midian), and our cruise to El-Haura', the following
sites were either seen or reported:--
1. Ruins in the Wady Dukhán, south of the Wady el-Azlam: north of
El-Wijh.
2. El-Nabaghah, in the Wady el-Marrah: north of El-Wijh.
3. Ruins, furnaces and quartz-strews, in the Fara't Lebayyiz.
4. El-Wijh, the port of Strabo's "Egra" (?).
5. Inland fort of El-Wijh; an old metal-working ground.
6. The great mine and ruins, Umm el-Karayya't, everywhere
surrounded by ateliers.
7. El-Kubbah, a small isolated ruin to the east of No. 6.
8. El-Khaur, a working-place to the west of No. 6.
9. The large works called Umm el-Hara'b, with two ruined ateliers
near them.
10. Aba'l-Gezáz, a working-place in the watercourse of the same
name, an upper branch of the Wady Salbah.
11. The fine plain of Bada', with the Mashghal el-'Arayfát heard
of to the north.
12. Marwát, ruins on a ridge near Badá, and signs of a settlement
in the valley. In the Wady Laylah, remains also spoken of.
13. Aba'l-Marú, probably the Zu'l-Marwah of Bilázurí; extensive
remains of buildings; a huge reef of quartz, carefully worked,
and smaller ruins further down the valley.
14. The classical temple or tomb on the left bank of the great
Wady Hamz, dividing Southern Midian from El-Hejaz in the Turkish
dominions.
15. Large remains, in two divisions, at El-Haurá.[EN#85]
Concerning the ateliers, details will be found in the following
pages. Many of them suggest a kind of compromise between the
camps and settlements of the Stone Age, where, e.g. at Pressigny
and Grimes' Graves, the only remnant of man is a vast strew of
worked silexes; and the wandering fraternity of Freemasons who
hutted themselves near the work in hand. And I would here lay
special stress upon my suspicion that the ancestors of the
despised Hutaym may have been the Gypsy-caste that worked the
metals in Midian.
For the date of the many ruins which stud the country, I will
assume empirically that their destruction is coeval with that of
the Christian Churches in Negeb, or the South Country,[EN#86]
that adjoins Midian Proper on the north-west. It may date from
either the invasion of Khusrau Anúshírawán, the conquering
Sassanian King Chosroes (A.D. 531-579); or from the expedition,
sent by the Caliph Omar and his successors, beginning in A.D.
651. But, as will appear in the course of these pages, there was
a second destruction; and that evidently dates from the early
sixteenth century, when Sultán Selim laid out his maritime road
for the Hajj-caravan. Before that time the Egyptian caravans, as
will be seen, marched inland, and often passed from Midian to
El-Hijr.
Chapter V.
Work At, and Excursions From, Magháir Shu'Ayb.
By the blessing of Nebi Shu'ayb and a glance from his eyrie, I at
once suspected that the western Shigd was the "Mountain on a
mountain" alluded to by Haji Wali;[EN#87] and, on January 12,
1878, I ascertained that such was the case. The old man had given
me a hand-sketch of the most artless, showing a gorge between two
rocks, a hill of two stages to the left or west, and a couple of
Wadys draining it to the sea; one (Wady Makná) trending
northwest, and the other (Wady 'Afál) south-west. The word
"Ishmah," affixed to the northern part of the route, is evidently
the Hismá plateau, and not, as I had supposed it to be, the Jebel
Tayyib Ism.
Nor had we any difficulty in discovering Haji Wali's tree, a
solitary Mimosa to the right of the caravan-track, springing from
the sands of the Shigdawayn gorge. The latter is formed by the
sister-blocks before alluded to. The western Shigd, on the right
of the Wady 'Afál, is composed of carbonate of lime and
sandstones dyed with manganese, the whole resting upon a core of
grey granite; the formation is the same as the eastern feature,
but the lines of the latter are gentler, and the culminating
tower is wanting.
The western Shigd, indeed, is sufficiently peculiar. It is the
southern apex of a short range, numbering some four heads: the
eastern flank discharges the Wady Kizáz, which feeds the 'Afál;
and the western the Wady Makná. The summit of the broken and
spiny cone is a huge perpendicular block, apparently inaccessible
as a tower, and composed of the dull yellow ferruginous
conglomerate called "El-Safrá:" the tint contrasts strongly with
a long line of bright white Rugham (gypsum), bisecting the head
of the Wady Makná. Below the apex is a thick stratum of
manganese-stained rock: the upper line, with a dip of 15 deg.
towards the main valley, looks much like a row of bulwarks which
had slipped from the horizontal, while still bluff between the
north-east and east. Indeed, the shape is so regular that M.
Lacaze, at first sight, asked if it was une construction.
As soon as the washing-trough was brought up from Sharmá, we
opened operations by digging a trench, at least twelve feet deep,
in the re-entering angle of the bed close to the Mimosa tree. The
sand, pink above and chloritic yellow below, ended in a thick bed
of water-rolled pebbles, not in ground-rock; nor did it show the
couch of excellent clay which usually underlies the surface, and
which, I have said, is extracted through pits to make sun-dried
brick, swish, and other building materials. We also secured some
of the blood-red earth from the eastern tail of the northern
"Shigh," the manganese-stained Tauá and the gravelly sand washed
out of the Cascalho-gravel, the latter very promising. The result
of our careless working, however, was not successful; the normal
ilmenite, black sand of magnetic iron, took the place of
gold-dust. And this unlooked-for end again made us suspicious of
my old friend's proceedings: the first occasion was that of his
notable "malingering." Had he bought a pinch of "Tibr" (pure
gold) from the Bedawin, and mixed it with the handful of surface
stuff ? Had the assayer at Alexandria played him a trick ? Or had
an exceptionally heavy torrent really washed down auriferous
"tailings"? I willingly believe the latter to have been the case;
and we shall presently see it is within the range of possibility.
Traces of gold were found by Lieutenant-Colonel W. A. Ross,
through his pyrological process, in the sandy clays brought from
the mouth of Wady Makná.
Meanwhile, despite our magnificent offers, the Arabs managed to
keep inviolate their secret--if they had one. An old man, now a
rich merchant and householder at Suez, had repeatedly declared to
Mr. A. G. K. Levick, that in his young days the Bedawin washed
gold in Midian, till the industry fell into disrepute. During my
last visit he was unfortunately absent upon a pilgrimage; after
our return he asserted that he had sent for specimens of the
sand, but that it paid too little even for transport. This 'Abd
el-Hámid el-Shámi, interviewed, after our return, by Mr. Clarke,
declared more than once, and still declares, that many years ago
he obtained from the Wady Zibá, behind the settlement, a certain
quantity of reddish sand which appeared auriferous. He roasted
and washed the contents of three small baskets called
"Coffas"[EN#88] by Europeans; and this yielded a pinch of "what
looked like pure gold."
In camp our men spoke freely of Tibr stored in quills, carried
behind the ear, and sold at Suez--not at Cairo for fear of
consequences. Yet neither promises nor bribes would persuade the
poorest to break through the rule of silence. The whole might
have been a canard: on the other hand, there was also a valid
reason for reticence; the open mouth would not long have led to a
sound throat. So our many informants contented themselves with
telling us frequent tales of gold ornaments picked up after rain;
they showed us a ring made from a bit found on the Tabúk road,
and they invariably assure us that we shall find wondrous
things--about the next station.
At Magháir Shu'ayb we wasted a whole fortnight (January 11-24,
1878) in vain works; and I afterwards bitterly repented that the
time had not been given to South Midian. Yet the delay was
pleasant enough, after the month which is required to acquire, or
to recover, the habit of tent-life. The halting-day was mostly
spent as follows: At six a.m., and somewhat later on cold
mornings, the Boruji sounds his réveillé--Kum, yá Habíbí, sáh
el-Naum ("Rise, friend! sleep is done"), as the Egyptian officers
interpret the call. A curious business he makes of it, when his
fingers are half frozen; yet Bugler Mersál Abú Dunya is a man of
ambition, who persistently, and despite the coarse laughter of
Europeans, repairs for quiet practicing to the bush. We drink tea
or coffee made by Engineer Ali Marie, or by Quartermaster Yusuf,
not by Europeans; two camels supply us with sweet milk; butter we
have brought; and nothing is wanted for complete comfort but
bread.
We then separate to our work, after telling off the quarrymen to
their several tasks. Inveterate idlers and ne'er-do-weels, their
only object in life is not to labour; a dozen of them will pass a
day in breaking ten pounds' weight of stone. They pound in the
style of the Eastern tobacconist, with a very short stroke and a
very long stay. At last they burst the sieves in order to enjoy a
quieter life. They will do nothing without superintendence;
whilst the officer is absent they sit and chat, smoke, or lie
down to rest; and they are never to be entrusted with a
water-skin or a bottle of spirits. The fellows will station one
of their number on the nearest hill, whilst their comrades enjoy
a sounder sleep; they are the greatest of cowards, and yet none
would thus have acted sentinel even in the presence of the enemy.
These useful articles all expect a liberal "bakhshísh" when the
journey is done, with the usual Asiatic feel
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