Classic Audiobook Collection - The Land of Midian by Richard Francis Burton ~ Full Audiobook [history]

Episode Date: March 31, 2025

The Land of Midian by Richard Francis Burton audiobook. Genre: history In The Land of Midian, Victorian explorer and linguist Richard Francis Burton turns his keen eye to the stark, little-mapped borderlands of northwest Arabia along the Red Sea. Framed as the record of an expedition undertaken with practical aims as well as scientific curiosity, the book follows Burton and his companions as they push through heat, scarcity, and hard geography to investigate rumors of mineral wealth and to observe the peoples and places that lie beyond familiar shipping routes. Burton blends on-the-ground travel narrative with detailed notes on terrain, water sources, routes, ports, and inland wadis, while also sketching the customs, politics, and rivalries of local tribes and the uneasy negotiations required to move safely through their lands. Along the way, he compares ancient place names to modern sites, weighs evidence of earlier settlements and trade, and tests grand theories against what the desert actually permits. Part adventure, part field report, and part cultural portrait, this is Burton at his most methodical and provocative: a portrait of Midian as both a real landscape and a contested idea, where ambition, scholarship, and survival travel side by side. For ad-free listening try our premium subscription Chapters (Approximate) (00:00:00) Chapter 1 (00:26:34) Chapter 2 (01:02:40) Chapter 3 (01:46:24) Chapter 4 (02:22:34) Chapter 5 (02:52:29) Chapter 6 (03:36:22) Chapter 7 (04:15:53) Chapter 8 (05:05:51) Chapter 9 (05:35:24) Chapter 10 (06:01:21) Chapter 11 Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

The land of Midian, revisited by Richard F. Burton. Preface. To the memory of my much-loved niece, Maria Emily Harriet Stistad, who died at Dovercourt, November 12, 1878. Gold shall be found and found in a land that's not now known. Mother Shepton, AD 1448. Preface. A few pages by way of force speech. The plain unvarnished. tale of the travelling Midian, undertaken by the second expedition, which, like the first, owes all to the liberality and foresight of His Highness Ismail the first,

Khadiv 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 2,500 miles by sea and land, of which 600, not including by-paths, were mapped and planned, and we brought back detail of an old new land which the civilised 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. Kagan, Paul and 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 Voxet Prairie a Nehill even to the Lernard 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 foreso would be a tale of discovery and adventure. Thus, readers of the land of Midian revisited may feel that they are not standing up on ground, utterly unknown, and the second publication is shortened and lightened, perhaps the greatest advantage of all, by the prologomena 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 25 tonnes of specimens brought back to Cairo were inspected by good judges from South Africa Australia and California, and all recognised familiar metalliferous rocks.

The collection enabled me to distribute the mining industry into two great branches. One, the rich silicates and carbonates of copper smelted by the ancients in North Midian, and two, the auriferous veins worked but not worked out by comparatively modern races in South Midian. The region lying below the parallel of El Muella. 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 sulfur, of a turquoise mine behind Ziba, of salt and saltpeter, and of vast deposits of gypsum. These are sources of wealth, which the 19th 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 Haraz, or platonic centres, scattered over the seaboard in the interior. I venture to solicit the attention of experts for my notes on Harar, the great volcanic chain whose fair proportions have been so much mutilated by its only explorer, the late Dr. Wellin. Beginning with Damascan traconatus, and situated in the parallel of north latitude 28 degrees, about 60 direct miles east of the Red Sea, it is reported to subtend the whole coast of north-western Arabia between Almouela, north latitude 27 degrees, 30, and so. and Al-Yambu, north latitude 24 degrees, five minutes.

Equally noticeable are the items of information concerning the Wadi Hams, the land's end of Egypt, and the most important feature of its kind in northwestern Arabia. Its name, wrongly given by Walin, is unknown to the hydrographic chart and to the erudite pages of my friend Professor Aloys Springer, who, however, suspects with me that it may be the mouth of the celebrated Wadi al-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 Musalam and Nasser 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 their little exposition at the hippodrome, 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 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 18 ruins of

cities and towns, some of considerable extent in North Midian, besides seeing or hearing of some 20 large Mashral, apparently the ateliers of vagrant gypsy-like gangs. This total of 38 is not far short of the 40 traditional Medianite settlements preserved by the medieval Arab geographers. Many others are reported to exist in the same. central or inland region, and 15 were added by the south country, including the classical temple or shrine found upon the bank of the Wadi Hams before mentioned. The most interesting sites were recommended to Monsieur Lacasse, whose portfolio was soon filled with about 200 illustrations

in oil and watercolours, pencil croquis and sun pictures. All, except the six coloured illustrations which adorned 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 letterpress and prepared at the Citadel, Cairo. The meteorological journal was kept by myself assisted at times by Mr. Clark, Mr. David de Guid, engineer of the Mochbir, whose gallant conduct will be recorded, Chapter 8, and Commander Nasser Ahmed of the Sinar, obliged me by registering simultaneous observations at sea level. The hole 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 Maskeline. The spirit specimens of zoology filled three large canisters, and the British Museum also received a hare and five birds, Mr. R. B. Sharp, four bats, rhinopoma, and a mouse, six reptiles, five fishes, 35 crustaceans, and about the same number of insects. five scorpions, six leeches, 60 mollusks, four echinoderms and three sponges. Dr. A. Gunther, Appendix 3, determined and named two new species of reptiles. Mr. Frederick Smith, Appendix 3, took charge of the insects. Mr. Edward J. Mears, FLS, etc.

described the small collection of crustacea, annals and magazines of natural history for November 1878. Finally, Edgar A. Smith examined and named the shells collection. on the shores of the Akaba Gulf and the northeastern recess of the Red Sea. The main interest of the little horticis was the alpine flora, gathered at an altitude of 5,000 feet above sea level. The plants were offered to Sir Joseph Dalton Hooker of Q

and Professor D. Oliver of the Herbarium has kindly furnished me with a list of the names, Appendix 4. Mr. William Carruthers and his staff also examined the spirit specimens of fleshy plants, Appendix 4. Mr Reginald Stuart Poole, keeper of coins and medals, and Mr. Barkley V. Head were good enough to compare with their rich

collections, the coins of ancient Midian found Chapter 3 for the first time at Mejahre Schwab. Some years ago, Mr. Robert Reddy of the British Museum had bought from a Jew, Yusuf Chalafat, a miscellaneous collection which included about 60 of the so-called Medianitic coins. But the place of discovery is wholly unknown. The assistant keeper read a paper on Arabian imitations of a Athenian coins, Midianitic, Hemiotic, and others, at a meeting of the new Mismatic 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 10th, 1878. Finally, the skulls and fragments of skulls from Midian was submitted to Professor Richard Owen, the Superintendent of Natural History, and my learned friend kindly inspected the Egyptian and Palmerian crania, which accompanied them.

The whole was carefully described by Dr. C. Carter-Blake, PhD, before the last name, 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 300 miles long, once immensely wealthy and ready to become wealthy once more, is not likely to be accepted by everyone.

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 Hammamat and Darfur Mines, Chapter 3, 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 gang from Zeber, Chapter 12, was pronounced by the inexpert mineralogists of 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 turquoise of Midian had been sold for years at sewers, and even at Cairo. There was indeed, much to criticising the collection which had been made with a marvellous carelessness. But we must not be hard upon Monsieur Marie. He is an engineer, utterly ignorant of mineralogy and of assaying. He was told off to do the duty, and he did it 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 quartz-source beds are natural, conduits and sluice boxes, but the search for tailings is completely different for that of gold veins and requires a special practice. The process, indeed, may be called purely empirical. It is not taught in German Street, nor by the Ecole Dimein. In this matter, Ethereum 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 recognising its presence, where the rude prospector of California and Australia will find an abundance of stream gold. Evidently, the proportion of tailings was carefully be laid down before companies are justified in undertaking the expensive operation of quartz crushing.

Hence, Monsieur Tibos Morissot, a practical digger from South Africa, introduced at Cairo by his compatriot Monsieur Marie to my friend Monsieur Jacob Attin B found a fair opportunity of proposing to his highness, Le Chrieve 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 Monsieur Ferdinand de Lesseps when en route to Paris kindly took charge of some case of specimens for analysis, but the poorest stuff had been supplied to him by Monsieur Marie, and the results

of which, I never heard, were probably nil. The samples brought to England, by order of His Highness the Khreiv, were carefully acid. The largest collection was submitted to Dr. John Percy F.R.S. Smaller items were sent to well-known houses, Mrs. Johnston and Mathie of Hatton Garden and Messrs. Edgar Jackson and co. Associates of the Royal School of Mines, 14 samples. Finally, special observations were made by Mr. John L. Jenkin of Carrington, through Mr. J. H. Murchison of British lead mines, etc. etc, etc. by Lieutenant Colonel Ross, the distinguished author of Pyrology, and by Lieutenant Colonel Bolton, who kindly compared the rocks with those in his cabinet.

Monsieur Gastonel Bay's analysis of the specimens brought home by the first expedition who will be found at the end of Chapter 8. The following is the text of Dr. Percy's report, metallurgical laboratory, Royal School of Mines, German Street, London, December 13, 1878. Dear Sir, I now send the roll. 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 Minds by Mr. Richard Smith, who, for the last 30 years, has been constantly

engaged in such work, and in whose accuracy I have absolute confidence. It is impossible that anyone should have taken greater interest 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 Khadiv. Abstract Examination of the mineral specimens contained in the boxes marked as under. An average representative sample of each specimen of about £6 in weight was prepared for examination from portions broken off or otherwise taken by Mr Richard Smith at the Victoria Docks. Number 1. Box 22. Quartz from Mugna or Mackna. Quartz coloured black and red brown with oxides of iron. These were of two varieties marked 22A and 22B respectively.

Number two, the magnetic ironstone 22A was examined and found to contain of the following percentages are rounded to the nearest percentile for gravity. 85% peroxide of iron, 10% protoxide of iron, 3% silica. The oxide of iron together contain of metallic iron 67%. Number three, the Meketius Iron Stone 22B was examined and found to contain of 91% peroxide of iron, 6% silica. The peroxide of iron contains of metallic iron 64%. Number 4. Box number 14, quartz from Magna, gave no result. Number 5. Box number 27, iron from Magna, proved to be hematite, which is magnetic, with some red-brown

oxide of iron and quartz. It was found to contain of 75% peroxide of iron, 5% protoxide of iron. The oxide of iron together, content of metallic iron 56%. Number 6, box number 7, conglomerate from Magna yield the no results. Number 7, box number 25 quartz from Magna. This quartz, veined and coloured black and red-brown with oxides of iron, was assayed with the following results. Gold and silver, none. Numbers 8 and 9. Boxes, numbers 50 and 37, quartz and red dust from Magna yielded no results. Number 10, box number 37A, sulfur from Magna, lumps of sulphur crystallised and massive,

irregularly distributed through a white, dull, porous rock. The latter was examined and found to be hydrated sulphate of lime or gypsum, with a small quantity of magnesium, some of the lumps of rock were coloured with oxides of iron and others intermixed with sand. Numbers 11 and 12. Boxes number 3 and 6. Black quartz and white quartz from the Jebel al-Abiaz gave no results except a small portion of copper pyrites in a lump of quartz, box number 6. Number 13, box number 47, quartz from L-Wedge or which gave only oxide of iron. Number 14, box number 5, red quartz from Elwidge, a quartz with red-brown oxide of iron and earthy substances, was assayed with the following results. Gold, per statue, ton, equals 3,240 pounds.

Two penny weights, 15 grains. Silver, traces. Number 15, box number 16, mecha schist from Elwidge. This mecha schist undergoing decomposition from weathering action, mixed with small lumps of quartz, was acid with the following results. gold per statue tonne six grains silver traces number sixteen box number thirty two white quartz from elwitch this quartz was coloured with red-brown oxide of iron mixed with meekishist was assayed with the following results gold per statue ton three penny weights twenty two grains silver traces number seventeen box number forty eight red sulphur from sham yahar was found to have the following composition while it was free for from native sulfur. 44% peroxide of iron, 15% sand, clay, carbonates and sulfates of lime and magnesium, 30% salt soluble in water, chiefly alkaline chlorides and chlorides and solvates, 11% water.

Total 100. Number 18, box number 48A, gypsum from sham, yahar, partly semi-transparent and granular and partly dull white and opaque. It was found to be hydrated sulfate of lime or gyps. with carbonate of lime and some sand, magnesium and chloride of sodium. Number 19. Box number 35, dust and stones from Sharma, yielded no results. Section 2. Examination of the mineral specimens contained in a box sent from Egypt. As their specimens were unlabeled, they were marked ABC, EF, G, H and I, respectively. Number 21A. Copper ore. A fair average specimen was prepared for examination from several lumps of ore

and marked A. It was submitted to analysis and found to contain carburets of liman magnesium, silica, alumina and oxides of iron, and of 6% copper metallic. 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, chrysacola and carbonate of copper. It was acid and found to contain of 23% copper metallic. Number 22B, a lump of soft oakry 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, was found to consist of 81% peroxide of iron, 12% water, 3% silica, 4% sulfuric acid, lime, magnesium, alumina, total 100. The peroxide of iron contains 57% of metallic iron. The greyish-white substance was found to consist of silica, alumina, sulfate of lime, and a little oxide of iron in magnesium. Number 23, C. Lump of red ironstone, associated with sand and earthy substances containing 68% peroxide of iron, 2% water of iron, 18% silicon sand, 12% lime magnesium in small quantity,

alumina, carbonic acid, sulfuric acid, traces. Total 100. The peroxide of iron contains 48% of metallic iron. Number 24D. 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. Number 25, lump of quartz associated with red-brown oxide of iron. It yielded no results. Number 26, lump of rock in which the turquoise occurs. There was a thin layer of greenish-blue turquoise mineral on one surface and minute seems of a similar substance throughout the specimen. A, the layer of 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 had been separated, a fair average sample of the rock was found to contain 1.69% of metallic copper. It was also acid and found to be free of silver and gold. Number 27g. 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. Number 28 H. Lump of sard of a pale red flesh colour. A variety of calcedony. It was found to consist almost entirely of silica. Number 29, I, lumps of pure ironstone. A small lump of metal, supposed to contain antimony and platinum, was brought for examination by Captain R.F. Burton. It was submitted to analysis and found to be iron, and combined carbon of 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. Dr. Percy concludes the assays in these words.

Three of the specimens, numbers 14, 15 and 19, from the certain 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 adept 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 taking and what was not, and I think it likely that what you have brought home

had been rejected by the ancients as unworkable. 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 numbers 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 number 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 40%. If it is practical well 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 number 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 and the separation of silver from gold by the processed termed cementation. I remain, dear sir, yours, very truly, signed John Percy M.D. F.RS, lecturer on metallurgy at the Royal School of Minds, London, Captain R. F. Burton, etc. Upon this able report, I would offer the following observations. We who have travelled through a country like Midian find everywhere extensive works from metallurages and aqueducts,

systems and tanks, furnaces, fire bricks and scoria, open mines and huge scatters of spalled quartz with the remains of some 18 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 far higher idea of its mineral capabilities than hosu determined them by 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, Assil Uveh and wholly without judgment. I therefore expect that future exploration will develop Midian as it has done India.

The quartz source outcrop called the Winnard Rief, Madras Presidency, produced only a few poorer 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 Clark of Australian Experience, member of the Vice Regional Council. He invited Mr. Brough Smith of Victoria to explore and test the capabilities of the country, and that eminent practical engineer discovered in an area of 25 by 13. miles, 90 outcrops, some yielding, they say, 200 of 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 Winnard. I conclude this abstract of the book, which would have been reduced in size had the mass of matter permitted, with a heartfelt hope that the Grand Old Land of Midian will not be without the attraction to the public of Europe. Richard F. Burton Atheneum Club, December 16.

End of Section 1 Chapter 1 of the Land of Midian Revisited by Richard F. Burton This Libre Vox recording is in the public domain. Part 1, the March through Madian proper, north midian. Chapter 1, 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 primavial prospect.

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 medals, catalogued by the sacred books of the Hebrews. Again, I saw the mining works of the Greek, the Roman, and the Nabathian, whose names are preserved by Ptolemy, the 40 cities, mere ghosts and shadows of their former selves, described in the pages of the medieval Arab geographers, and the ruthless ruin which, under the dominion, which, under the dominion of the Bedouin, gradually crept of the land of Jethro. The tale-hiver 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 her to wealth and health, when the two Chreveal 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 to 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 voice roy 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 Almedian, only the tailings have been washed, whereas in the Bishari country and throughout the Atbay, between the meridians of Baranique and Saurkin, the very thinnest metallic fibrels have been shafted and tunnelled to their end in the rock by those marvellous labourers, the old Egyptians. In the Hammamatt country, again, the excessive distance 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 phasaglou and Darfur, 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 lone 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 Arif Persia, then knowing one.

When told that Monsieur Georges Marie, the government engineer, detailed to accompany their first expedition, had sent in official analyses with sample tubes of gold and silver, thus establishing the presence of auriferous and d'arjun tiferous, rocks on the Arabian shore, Son Excellence exclaimed, Imprudence, Jean, Homme, thus to throw away the chances of life.

Had he only declared the whole affair a farce, a flam, a cell, a canard, the viceroy would have held him to be honest and would have taken care of his future. Still, through bad report, the grieve, who had mastered with his usual accuracy of perception and judgment, the subject of Midian and her minds,

was staunched to his resolve, and when one of his European, financiers a control general de de de pence, the normal round peg in the square hall, warned him that there were no public funds for such purposes. His highness warmly declared, on di, 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 Darfur, 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 Carlsbad and a course of its alkaline fountains of health. Never was there a greater mistake. The area's 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

neurologic, may be judged by the fact that 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 excentious and to counteract the deleterious effect of the Hygian Springs. At last, the happy hour for departure struck, and October 19th, 1877, the Austro-Hungarian Espero Capitano Colombo

steamed out of Trieste. On board, was Saffer Pasha, our host of Castle Bertelsstein, and my learned friends, the Orlik counsellor Alfred von Krimer, Austrian Commissioner to Egypt, and Dr. Heinrich Brech-Bey, the latter gave me a tough piece of work

in the shape of his Egyptian, 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 first day, the second or day of Corfu loved and lost, and the third made memorable by Cephalonia and the glorious canal. All give fine, smooth weather, but the usual rolling began off still vexed Kip Matapan.

It lasted through the fourth day or of candier, this insular nobilis et Amana. Crete, the crown of all the isles, flower of leventine waters, while the fifth, or Mediterranean-Elexandrian day, killed two of the 17 fine horses, yuccas and Anglo-Normans, which Saffir Pasha was conveying to Cairo. On Thursday morning, October 25th, after rolling through the night off the old port,

Eunostas, which looks brand new, we landed, and the next day saw me at Cairo. Such was my haste that I could pay on air flying visit to the broken beer bottles, the burst provisioned tins, the ice blents, and hospitable society of Ramley the Sandheap, 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 utilising the discovery of the first expedition had been formed in London by the Monsieur Vignolle, who knew only the scattered and unofficial notices

issued without my privity by English and continental journals. Their representative General Nuttall, 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, 10% on net profits, 15 being the royalty of the Sewers Canal,

was the magnificent inducement offered to the vice-regional convartees. I could not help noting, by no means silently, the noble illustration of the principle embodied in Sikh vonon-Vobis. I was to share in the common fate of originators, discoverers and inventors. The find was mine.

The prophets were to go elsewhere. General Nuttall professed inability to regard the matter in that light, while to all of those it appeared no other. However, after a few friendly meetings, the representative left Egypt, with the understanding that possibly we might work together when their exploration should have been completed. His Highness, who had verbally promised me either the concession or 4% on gross produce, actad en prides, simply remarking that the affair

was in my hand and as he would not interfere with me. I must not trouble the reader with the tedious tale of the pains and the labour which accompanied their accoucheon of such an expedition. All practicals know that to organise a movement of 60 men is not less troublesome, indeed, rather more so than if it numbered 600 or 6,000. The Viceroy had widely 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, quantitative and qualitative, in London and Paris. Consequently, miners and mining apparatus were wanted, with all the materials for quarrying and blasting, my spirit's side for dynamite, but experiments at Trieste

had shown it to be too dangerous. The party was to consist of an escorting number of 25 Sudan soldiers of the line, Negroes liberated some two years ago, a few Madangiae men, and 30 Hagara, Stonemen or Cori-Men. The government magazines of Cairo contain everything, but the difficulty is to find whether dispersed articles are stored. There is something of red tapism, but all this plain sailing compared with what it would be in Europe.

The express order visits His Highness, Hossein, Camille, 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 live-east 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, CE, locomotive superintendent, who, in the short space of four months, has introduced older and efficiency into the chaos known as the Bullack 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 Cabernet de Trave. Poor Cairo had spent a seedy autumn, the Russo-Turkish campaign which had been on, unjustifiably allowed by foreign powers to drain Egypt over gold and lifeblood, 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 abad typhus, after raging in 1876 and early in 877, 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 philas, who had expected great things from the mission of M.M. Gossin and Joubert asked wonderingly if those financiers had died,

while a scanty Nile, 10 to 12 feet lower, they say, than any known during the last thousand years, added to the troubles of the poor by throwing some 600,000 fedens or 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 weather to feverish and unwholesome autumn.

Briefly, we hardly escaped the horrors of Europe. Herbsterschen, in den Waldern, off den fluren, regentage, bosses, Veta, etc. Meanwhile, in the land of the pharaohs, whose scanty interest about the war was disguised by affected rejoicing at Ottoman's successors, the prophet gallantly took the field,

as in the days of Yusuf bin Ishak. This time, the vehicle of Revelation was a learner Sheikh Aleesh, who was ordered and dreamed by the apostle of Allah, upon whom be peace, to announce the victory of the Muslim over the infidel, and, as the vision took place in Jemada El Acheir, or 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 voir-de-fay 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 Tsar,

the former administering Condine personal punishments to his hereditary foe. This, the enlightened sheikh determined, was a sign that in September the Uzmanli would be gloriously triumphant. Not 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 entrenching themselves in Idrianople, 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, were able to speak a word of Turkish, preserving their Bosniak family names, and without one drop of Turkish blood in their veins. Suleiman Pasha army was about as Turkish as are the Poles or the Hungarians. Nonetheless, did Cairo develop the normal season humour of the Frank? Among the various ways of doing the pyramids, I registered a new one. Mr. A. Jr., unwilling wholly to neglect them, sent his valet with a special orders to stand upon the topmost plateau.

The second water of irrigation made November dangerous. Many of the shepherds suffered from A.N.L. Moloch, the evil of kings or gout. In the gloomy form, as well as the gay, and whiskey-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 dund into buying for a few piastres, a ragged little manuscript from a pauper Magrabi. 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 hordes 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 Macrabi Daouesh went his ways assuring the 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 Daphnea or horde of great value. He was directed by the manuscript to a certain spot upon the Mukatam range, immediately behind the Kareen 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 workman began, and the direction proved true, borrowing the treasure,

towards which progress was still being made. Such was the legend of Cairo, as recounted to be by my good friend, Jakub Artin Bay. I can only add to it, Allah al-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 from any a year and the sole results were money difficulties in debt. The European finances 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 actionaires were to receive, with a punctuality hardly possible in the East, the serious interest of 6%, not including 1% for a sinking fund. Meanwhile, the officers and officials, military, naval and civil, had been in arrares of salary for 7 to 15 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 30 find their way into the treasury. Ten times worse was the condition of the miserable fellahin, who were selling for three or four Napoleons the bullock worth 15 per head. Thus they were tied over the present year, but a worse than Indian famine was threatened for the following. And the Bacall, at once petty trader and moneylender, whose interest and compound interest here amount, as in Bombay to hundreds of percent, would complete the ruin which the Low Nile and the Christian creditor had begun. A temporary reduction of interest to three percent, with one percent of amortization, should content the greedy

Sheelda, who seeks to combine high profits with perfect security. During November, 1877, there were five MPs at Shepherds, and all cried shame upon the financial condition of the country. So George Campbell opened the little game. In his inside view of Egypt, Fortinight of the Review, December 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 bondholders have been too exclusively considered, and he concluded that no more payments of debt interest should be made until official areas are discharged. At last, the far, D'Alexandri, November 29, 1877, doubtless under official inspiration, put forth the following article, greatly to the satisfaction of the unfortunate employee.

If our Rents'Enseman particular are exacted. The Committee de Finances comes to pronder an excellent decision. It consists in what, in situ, the money for the payment of the prochequerque. coupon, prepare the minister, before all the other, proceed to the payment of appellations arrearious of employees. We are nother,

that it's a, the minister of finance, even, a declare, more the appropriate, that just go complete payment of arreierre due to the employees,

and in the case where he would it would be a deposit of great importance preview or even by the budget to not

on a day, the payment are pre-a-lable, to submit to the decision of the committee. We applauded to all our forces to this good news, because she affirmed, one-of-the-plus, the scuplea's exactitude that we all appellate to payment of coupons. Then, it proves the viv interred

conspire to government the situation of these number of employees. Finally, it's made it and espere that, after having changed to them, we'll be occupied also to pay the other some poté and pre-viewed in budget the year. 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 be presently made good. On the same day, his highness issued to the expedition 2,000 Napoleons, in addition to the 620, already expended upon instruments and provisions. This was the more liberal, as I had calculated the total at 1,500. 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 ions, 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-gner-i. He would utterly fail at the criterion, and even at shepherds, but in the wilderness he will serve coffee within 15 minutes, and dished the best of dinners within the hour after the halt. Mr. Clark and Lieutenant Amir worked with a wood. will, and they were ably seconded by Colonel Ali B. Robi and Lieutenant Colonel of the staff Mohamed B. Balich. But the finishing touch to such preparations must be done by the masterhand, and my unhappy visit to Carlsbad rendered that impossible. The stores and provisions were

supplied by Monsieur Voltaire brothers of Cairo. I cannot say too much in their praise, and the packing was as good as the material, Monsieur Grot of Shepherds, was good enough to let me have a barrel of claret, which improved every week by travelling, and which cost only a france. a bottle. It began as a bon ordinaire and the little that returned to Cairo ranked with a quasi-range vang, at least as good as the four-shilling medoc. Finally, Dr. Lowe of Cairo, kindly prepared for as a medicine chest containing about 10 pounds worth of the usual drugs and appliances, calomel, tartar emetic and lodonym, blister, plaster and simple ointment. A special train was made ready for Thursday, December 6th and at 10 a.m., after taking leave of

their highnesses, who courteously wish me good luck and godspeed, the expedition fell itself underway. We were accompanied to the station by many kind friends, my excellent kinsman Lord Francis and Lady F. Cunningham, Yakubartin Bé, General Stone and Monsieur Georges, Gerold and Gilemin. 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 Zagazig, remarking that this young focus of railway traffic had become the eastern key of Lower Egypt, as Benhar is to the Western Delta, and prophesying that someday, not far distant, will see the glories of Bobastis revived. Here we picked up my old French Hajiwali, whom age he declares that he was born in the

month Misan of 1797, had made only a little fatter and greedier. We gave a wide birth to the future Alexandria, Ismailia, whose splendid climate had been temporarily spoilt by the sweetwater canal of the same name. The soil became literally sopped, and hence the intermittent fever which have lately assailed it. A similar disregard for draining. has ingeniously managed to convert into pest houses similar and other Himalayan sanitaria. The day ended up with running the train into the sewer's docks so as to embark all our impediments on the next morning, and I fondly expected Saturday to see a sail, but the weather-wise had been true in their forecast. 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 25 steamers were delayed near the bitter lake. It broke down the railway and sanded it up for miles, and it levelled 50 English and 40 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 meals without horseboxes. On Sunday the waves ran high, but the gale fell about sunset to a dead calm, as usually in the Gulf, the breakers and white horses at once disappeared, and the slaty surface, fringed with dirty yellow, immediately re-ezumed its robes of purple and turquoise blue. The ill wind, however, had blown us sunken 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, Kehack, which begins the first Arabian 40-day period, and the fourth day is known as the Imtisage El Fazlean, or mixture of the two seasons, autumn and winter. The storm is expected to blow three days from the ASEAB or southeast or from the Shurs southwest. The qualities of the several wind are described in the following district.

Merisi Shaitan, Wahabi wazirhu. Tiab Sultan, Hua Shaki Nazirhu. The southwesters are Satan and the westers, his minister. The northers are sultan and the easters his man.

On the other hand, fair weather was predicted after the first quarter of the moon, December the 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, Naim or Rakid, also called Yamani, is that of the first quarter which we mark concave to the left.

The standing moon is that of the last. Our stay at sewers was saddened by the sudden death of Marius Isnad, who had acted Cook to the first chrivial expedition. The poor lad, aged only 18, had met us at the sewer 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 Key in the boat of the sea, Tehral Bahra, the harbour mush or little steam launch accompanied by the governor, Said B, who has not yet been made a pasha by Mr. Consul West, by the genial Raif B, Wakil El Camantania,

or acting Commodore of the station by Mr Willoughby Faulkner my host at Suez, by the Monsieur Levique and by other friends in the highest spirits we boarded our gun carriage, the aviza of Mochbir Captain Mohammed Siraj and after many mutual good wishes

we left the new docks at 610pm Nothing could be more promising than the weather, a young moon mirrored in a sea smooth as oil. The giver of good news, El Makhbir, however for once failed in her mission. She had lately conducted herself well upon a trial trip, around the Zanobia Light Ship, or Newport Rock,

but the two Arab firemen who act as engineers, worn out grey beards that hated the idea of formless on the barbarous Arabian shore, had choked the tubes with wastage and to fill the single boiler, taking care to plug up, instead of opening the relief pipe. The consequence was that the engine 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-upon-Tine 1866, a good article in prime condition, as far as a literally rotten boiler would allow, presently revenged itself by splitting the airpipe of the condenser from top to bottom, and after two useless halts, the captain reported to me that we must return to sewers. What a beginning. The fracture somewhat relieved the machinery. We did better work after than before the accident, but we were ignobly towed into the docks by the ship's boats.

A telegram with a prosé verbal was at once sent off to the prince, Said B, and the Raif Bay hastenedore. and Mr. Williams' superintending engineer of the Chrevia line with the whole of his staff stripped and set to work at the peccant tubes and the 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 they would guarantee the engines for eight days when we were starting off on a dangerous cruise for four months. He also supplied his with an Egyptian boiler-maker and we're 11 instead of 16 new tubes. We lost 42 of the older ones between sewers and El Mouela.

Before sunset we made a trial trip, the wretched old kettle acting tant-bion-germel. We returned to embark the soldiers and the mules, and we set out for a second time at 5.30 p.m. The mhbighur, 130 feet long, 380 tons, and 80-to-go horsepower on the charge of the English or rather Scotch engineer, Mr David Dugide, who had taken the place of the two Arab firemen,

began with seven and a half knots an hour, 68 revolutions per minute, and a pressure of 9 pounds to the square inch. The condenser vacuum was 26 inches, 30 being complete, or 13 pounds. Next morning, the rate declined to 6 miles in consequence of the boiler leaking, and the matters became steadily worse.

As a French writer of the genre Humane, where we were placed not under le bien and la male, but under le mal and la pier. After sundry narrow escapes in the Gulf of Aqaba, we were saved, as will be seen, by a manner of miracles. Briefly, the Mochbibir caused as much risk, heartburn and loss of time. 7am, December 11th, found us crossing the Biocat Farahun Pharaoh's Gulf, some 60 miles from the great port.

It's horrors to native craft I've already described in my pilgrimage. Between this point and Rass Zafferana, higher up, the wind seems to split. A strong southerly gale will be blowing, whilst a northerer of equal pressure prevails at the gulf head and vice versa. 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 streets of Jabal and Deadless Light, and the ebb tide runs out about two points across the narrows,

while the flood runs in on a line parallel with it. Finally, when we returned hardly making headway against an angry norther, sewers enjoying the sweet south was congratulating the voyages upon their weather. The loss of a good working day soon made itself felt. The north wind rose, causing the lively Mokbier, whose ballast, by the by, was all on deck, to waddled dangerously for the poor mules, and it was agreed, Nemcon, to put into Tor Harbour. We found ourselves at 10am, December 12th, within the natural pier of Coraline, and we were not alone

in our misfortune, an English steamer making sewers was our companion. This place had superseded Elwitch as the chief quarantine station for the return pilgrimage, and I cannot sufficiently condemn the change. The day lagged slowly as we walked in grief by the merge of many-voiced-sounding sea. But we looked in vain for our tender, a sambook of 50 tons, El Muzahil, Reis Ramazan, which Prince Hussein had thoughtfully sent with us as a postboat. She disappeared on the evening of the 11th, and she did not make active presence until the 16th, when her master was at once imprisoned in the fort of El Muella. Moreover, the owner, Mohamed Bouchet of Suez, who had received £90 as advance for three months. Others said £60 for four, provided her with only a few

days provision, 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 Aqaba Gulf, it lasts three days and dies after a quiet noon, whereas on the 13th, when we expected an escape, it rose angrily at 1pm. I was much cheered by the pleasant use of Monsieur Bianchi, the local Deputato di Sanita, who assured us that a peniseur was raging at El Muella and that it was certain death to pass one night in the fort. The only fire that omitted 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 a journey was Chauajé, Constantine, a Syrian Greek trader, son of the old agent of the convent, whose blue goggles and comparatively tight pantalines denoted a certain varnish and veneer. It is his practice to visit Elmuela 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 as the course and custom of all these small monopolists who at Rether and elsewhere much dislike to see quiet things moved.

At length, after a weary day of faniente, when even La Samael let'sse fes-pre-e, we hardened our hearts, and at 9pm, as the gale seemed to slumber, we stood southwards. The Mochabia rolled painfully off Ras-Mohamed, which obliged us with its own peculiar gusts, and the Akabar Gulf, as usual, acted wind sail. A long detour 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 sharpening of detail. Once more, the power of the hills was on us. 3pm had struck before I found ourselves in broken water off the fort of Elmuela, where our captain cast a single anchor and where we had our first escape from drifting upon the razor-like edges of the Coraline reefs. In fact, everything looked so menacing with surging sea around, and sailor storm clouds to westward

that I resolved upon revisiting our old haunt the safe and dock-like sham yahar. Here we entered without accident and were presently greeted by the Saeedabd al-rahim, our former Khalifa Abashi, who had ridden from El Muella to receivers. The news was good, a truce of one month

had been concluded between the Huayatat and the Mazar, probably for the better plundering of the pilgrims. This year the latter were many. The wakpha, or standing upon Mount Arifat, fell upon a Friday. Consequently, it was hard al-Aqbaar, or greater pilgrimage, very crowded and very dangerous, in more ways than one. I had given a free passage to one Suleimanav Thahi, who declared himself to be one of the Beni Uchbah,

when he was a hueti of the Giraffin clan. After securing free passage and provision gratis, when the ship anchored, he at once took French leave. On return, I committed to him the tender mercies of the Governor Saeed Bay. The soldiers, the quarrymen 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 difficulty at Cairo, at sewers, the death of poor Marius Isid, and the furious storm, the breakdown of the engine, the fire in the waste room, and lastly, the rough and threatening gale between the harbour and El Muehela. 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 for the present case. In the presence of our working ground, all evils were incontinently forgotten, and after the usual dankness of the Egyptian cabinet, 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 Tapé del Uel with the clearest of consciences.

The preliminary stage ended with disembarking at the Fort El Muella all our stores and properties, including sundry cases of cartridges and 500 pounds of pebble powder, which had been stored immediately under the main cabin and its eternal cigarettes and elements. The implements, as well as the provisions,

were made over to the charge, of an old Albanian one Rajab Acha, who at first acted as a magazine man for a consideration of two Napoleons per month in advance if possible. This done, the Makhbib returned into the Dockyahah 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 Behram Id or Greater Festival, nothing whatever would be done during its three days duration. The respite was not a welcome to me. It seemed to offer an opportunity for recovering strength. At Cairo, I had taken the advice of a Leonard friend, if not an Apostle of Temperance,

at any rate sorely afflicted with the temperance idea, who, by threats of confirmed gout and lumbago, fatigination of the heart and liver, ended 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 file of thin gladstone, was a limbago which lasted me a long month and which disappeared, only after a liberal adhibition of diffusable 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 a half dozen who wrote good English. He either fears his fate too much, or his desserts 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 number one. End of chapter one. Chapter 2 of the land of Midian, revisited by Richard F. Burton. This Libre Vox recording is in the public domain, read by Paul Wellford. Chapter 2. The start from Melmauela to the White Mountain and Ainua.

I landed at Elmuella, described in my last volume on the auspicious Wednesday, December the 19th, 1877, under a salute from the gunboat Mochbier, 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 basque-bozhoux en beaujouis, and mostly armed with matchlocks, then came out quarrymen in uniform but without weapons, and lastly, the escort of 25 men held a place of, of honour on the right. The latter gave me a loud, hip, hip, hurrah, as I passed. The tents,

a total of 20, included two, four-poilers for our mess and for the stores, with several large canvas sheds, pals the Anglo-Indians called them, gleamed white against the dark green fronts of the date grove, and the magnificent background of the scene was the debach, block of the Tehamar or Leland 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 pounds, mostly to be spent at Al-Mawela, the unsettled Arabs plunder and slay, the settled Arabs slander and cheat. A whole day was spent in inspecting the soldiers and meals in dispatching

a dromedary post to sewers with news of our unexpectedly safe arrival and in conciliating the claims of rival Bedouin. His Highness the Viceroy had honoured with an order to serve as Hassan Ibn Salim, Sheikh of the Benny Akbar, and a small tribe which will be noticed in a future page. Last spring, these men had carried part of our caravan to Enuna, and they're having no important blood feuds. I had preferred to employ them, but Abedal Nabi of the Taguat-Hoyat clan had been spoiled by over-kindness during my reconnaissance of 1877. Besides, I'd given him a bow-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 falahedawi.

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 words of peace, salaam ceremoniously ejaculated by both mouths. Then came the screaming voices, the high words, and the gestures, which looked as if the kerbage or whip were being administered.

The Hueti stubbornly refused to march with the other tribe, whom, moreover, he grossly insulted. He professed perfect readiness to carry me and mine gratis, thus while driving the hardest bargain. He spoke of our land when the country belongs to Kriiv. He openly denied his allegiance. He was convicted of saying, if these Christians find gold, there will be much trouble or fitney to us Muslims. And at a subsequent time, he went so far as to abuse an officer. I had sheikhed him, that is, promoted him in rank, said the Saeed Abad al-rahim, and the honour had completely changed his manners. Nasarhu, we will small him.

was my reply. The only remedy, in fact, was to undo what had been done, to cut down, as Easternists 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 wad or lad, under the lead of his uncle, Sheikh Alan Ibn Rabi. The latter is a man of substance who can collect at least two thousand camels. The 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,

Sheikh Frege, an excellent man of whom I shall have much to say, and thus we had to feed three Badawi chiefs, including Hassan. The latter was a notable intriguer and mischief maker, ever breeding bad blood, and his temper 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 to threatening to shoot, 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 $1 per stage of 12 hours, and the postdramidary demands the same sum, besides subsistence money and bachish, but our long and frequent holes rendered this proceeding unfair

to the Bedouin. I began by offering seven piastres tariff, and ended by agreeing to pay five per diem while in camp and ten one on the road. 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 higher would be $1. On the other hand, the animal carries during short much as £700. The American officers in Upper Egypt reduced this to £300, the £500 heaped on by the Sudani merchants. In India, we considered £400 a fare load, and the Midianite objects to anything beyond £200.

pans. I have no intention of troubling the reader with a detailed account of our first three stages from El Mawila to Jebel Abiazza White Mountain. On December 21st, leaving camp the most disorderly of caravans, 106 camels instead of 80, dromedaries not included, we marched to the mouth of Wadi-Tirium, where we arrived before our luggage and provisions, lacking even Adam's ale. The sheikhs took all the water which could be found in the palm boothies near the shore and drank coffee behind a bush. This suffice to give me the measure of these wall jumpers. Early next morning I set the quarrymen to work with pick and basket at the northwestern angle of the old fort. The latter shows above ground only the normal skeleton tracery of corraline

crowning the gentle sandswell which defines the lip and jaw of the wadi and defending the townlet built on the northern slope in Palaisne. The dimensions of the work are 55 metres each way. The curtains, except the western, where stood the barbell-bacher or sea gate, were supported by one central as well as by angular bastions. The northern face had a cant of 32 degrees east magnetic and the northwestern tower was distant from the C-72 metres whereas the southwestern numbered only 60. The spade showed a substratum of thick old wall, untrimmed granite and other hard materials. Further down were various shells, especially Benitia, Dachna gigantia, the harp, here called Cidin bars and the pearl oyster, sheepbones and palm charcoal. Pottery admirably

as the Bedouin remarked, and glass of surprising thinness iridized by damp to rainbow hues. This possibly the remains of lacrimaturis 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 Epiphanius was without inscription. Whilst we were digging, the two staff officers rode to the date-grodes of Waditirium and made a plan of the ancient defences. The results of the first Hedivila 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 at first. It reminded me of driving a train of unbroken meals over the prairies.

The men were as wild and unmanageable as their beasts. It was everyone's object to get the maximum of money for the minimum of work. The escort took a special care to see that all their belongings were loaded before ours were touched. Each load was felt, and each box was hand-wayed before being accepted. The heaviest, rejected by the rich, were invariably left to the poorest and lowest clansmen with the weakest and leanest of animals. All at first, especially objected to the excellent boxers, a great comfort made for the expedition

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 pass them on the march comfortably riding for the Auburn can't walk and no wonder. At the halting place they unbag a little barley and wheatmeal make dough, thrust it into the fire, bake bread and wash it down with a few drops of dirty water. This copious refection ends in a thimble full of thick, blank coffee and a pipe. At home they have milk and ghee or 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 al-Trui. 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 around al-Aqabar. The people declare that the experiment has been tried,

but that the civilised animals sicken and die in these barons. 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 Mahbat, a flail-like staff, and caught in a large circle of matting al-hassaf. 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 called, or they wanted to browse, or to meet a friend. Every movement was punished with a ringing of the halter and the result may be imagined. We slept that night at Wadi Sharma. 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 metalworking to the northeast of the Encent where the furnace probably stood. The outline measures 19106 metres, not several kilometres, and desultory digging yielded nothing but charcoal, cinders and broken pottery. It was not before 9 a.m. on the next day that I could mount my old white, stumbling, starting mule, the delay being caused by Monsieur Marie's small discovery,

which will afterwards be noticed. We crossed both branches of the Shama water, and ascending the long sand slope of the right bank, we again passed the Badawi Cemetery. I sent Lieutenant Amir and Yusuf to prospect certain stone heaps which lay seawood of the graves, and they found a little,

heptangular demi-lune concave to the north. The curtains varying from a minimum length of 10 to a maximum of 80 metres and the thickness averaging 2 metres 75 centimetres. It was possibly intended like those above Wadi-Tirium 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 Badawi loves for his last sleeping place. Thence we passed through the dry barb sea gate, cut by a torrent in the regular line of the Coraline cliff, the opening of the Wadi-Malar, off which lay our sambuk.

Matching up the Wadi Makada, 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 diked with two different classes of platonic 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 in the harder granite. The ride was made charming by the frontage of picturesque Jebel Ernab, with its perpendicular pinnacles upon rock sheets, dropping clear a thousand feet, its jutting bluffs, its three huge flying buttresses

that seem to support the mighty wall crest, and its many spits and organs, some capped with finials that assumed 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 hairs, suggesting the leperide, signs of gazelles appeared, and the Bedouin spoke of wolves and hyenas, foxes and jackals. We camped upon the old ground to the south-west of the Jebel El Abiyaz, 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-Felah Badawin, like the shepherds, their predecessors, in the days of Abimelech and Jethro, are ever chary of their treasure,

the only object being extra camel hair. 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 Tamil, pits and holes acting as wells. At the head of the Wadi al-Macrada, we halted six days December 24th to 30th. This delay gave us time to correct the misapprehensions of our flying visit. The height of the Jebel at La Labias, 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 is a mauveau-plaisant of a reviewer called the Grand Filou, forms a nick near the hilltop, but does not bifurcate the interior. The fork is of heavy greenish, porphyritic trap, also probably titaniferous iron with a trace of silver, where it meets the quartz and the granite. Standing upon the old man with which we had marked the top, I counted five several dikes or outcrops to the east inland, and one to the west, cutting the prism from the north to the 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 diked and sliced by quartz veins of the amorphous type, crystals being everywhere rare in midian. The phyllons and fillets, 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 platonic injections of porphyritic trap, veins averaging perhaps two metres with a north-south strike and dip of 75 degrees magnetic west. If the capping were removed, the subsurface would doubtless bear the semblance of a honeycomb. The Jebel Labias is apparently the centre the Quartzau's outcrop in North Midian, Madian proper. We judged that it had been little worked by the ancients from the rents in the reefs 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, white and like snow, the lower slopes of the western hill base. They contrast curiously with the hard phalspathic stones and the lithographic calcairs bearing the moss-like impress of metallic dendrites. These occur in many parts near the seaboard, found them in the southern as well as in northern Midian. The conspicuous hill is one of four mammals thus disposed in bird's eye view. The dotted line shows the supposed direction of the load in the Gibral-Al-Baza, the collective name. On the plain to the north of Jebel Abias, I found curdles of porphyritic trap and parallel trap-dikes,

cutting the courses of large-grained grey granite, as many as three outcrops of the former, appeared within 14 yards. This convinced me that the whole of the solid square, 30 kilometres, 6 by 5, 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 Jebel al-Bezer, as the Bedouin 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 Arab's understanding that its object was Maru, the generic name for quartz, brought us loads of specimens from every direction. Nothing is easier than to work the purely superfluing. part. A few barrels of gunpowder and half-dozen English miners with pick and crowbar suffice. Even our doodling, feckless quarrymen easily broke and spelled for camel-loading some six tons in one day. Our short senite 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 Gats or Coast Range were streaked with a heavy metallic quartz-source black sand which Monsieur Marie vainly attempted to analyse. We afterwards found it in almost every wady and running north as far as Alacabar, whilst, with few exceptions, all our washings of red earth, claretic sand and Bruce Stone yielded it and it only. It is apparently the produce of granite and cyanite, 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 of Pyrology or Pyrogyllogy or Fire Chemistry, it is Issyrine or Magnetic Illmanite, titaniferous iron sand containing 88% of iron oxides and sesquois oxides with 11% of titanic acid. The Arabs brought in fine specimens of hematite and of copper ore from Wadiqa or Ghe, six miles to the south of camp. Here we were found two waterpits in a well-defined valley, the nearer some 10 miles southwest of Jebelo Abiyaz, the other about two miles, further to the northwest, making a total of 12. 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 0.3 thick, with an east-west strike and dip of 45 degrees south. This metal was also found in the hills to the south. Crystalline, pyroxene and crystallised sulphates of lime apparently abound, while the same is the case of 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 reconnaissance December 27th of a place when specimens of pavanine quartz had come to hand. Following the Wadi Iphria,

round the north and east of the White Mountain, we fell into the wadi Simach, or wild Sumach, that drains the great gap between the pinnacles and the buttresses of Ernab to Harma section. After riding some two miles, we found to the southeast fragments of dark, iridescent and metallic quartz. They emerged from the plain-like walls,

bearing north-south with 36 degrees of westing and a westward dip 15 to 20 degrees exactly the conditions which Australia seeks and which produces the huge welcome nugget of Ballarat. They crop out of the normal trapdite grey granite and select specimens show the fine panache luster of copper. Monsieur Marie afterwards took from one of the geodes a pinch of powder weighing about half a gram and coupled a bright dust-shot bead weighing not less than two centigrams. 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 Fion by so careful and conscientious an observer as Gastonel Bay and the fact that we are here

on the same line of outcrop and at a horizon 300 feet lower are reassuring. This vein, which may be of great length and puissance, I took the liberty of calling the Fionne Hussein from the prince who had so greatly favoured the expedition. Here we had hit upon the negroes or coloured quixos formations of Mexico in which silver appears as a sulphure and we may expect to find the Colorado, or Agalaceous, that produces the noble metal in the forms of Cloreau, bromio, and iodure. The former appears everywhere in Midian, but our specimens are all superficial, taken our siluvres, 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 proves Argentiferous, I should hope to strike virgin silver in the capillary or arboressence shape below. Above it, as on the summit of Jebler Labiaz, and generally in the Maru hills and hillocks of North Midian, the dull white quartz is comparatively barren, showing specks of copper, crystallites of pyrites, the crow gold of the Old English miner, and dark dots of various metal, which still await analysis. Thus I would divide the metallivorous quartzes of the North Midianite region into two chief kinds, thus 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 incomparally more numerous,

and almost every march shows a new colour or constitution. About Jebel al-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 Nacab or Gorge, El Saba, offsetting from the great Fiumara El Simach, and apparently it is only a rain-pole. Throughout Midian, I may say men still fetch water out of the rock. Monsieur Philippine, while pottering about this place, saw two Bidon or Ibex, with their young, which suggests a permanent supply of drink. However, that may be Norton's Abyssinian pumps, for which I had vainly applied at Cairo,

would doubtless discover the prime necessary in the Wadis, many of the latter being still damp and muddy. Moreover, the Cruebillet continued agrile of filtrance, the invention of Monsieur Hue and Gailer, 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, arranged themselves by of weight, the heavier sinking and not allowing passage to lighter matter, the new sieves offer the advantage 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 14 miles liberally computed. Either the rainwater affected the health of the party, or it suffered from excessive dryness and variations of the atmosphere, 8 to 900 feet above sea level, 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 hotlands and vice versa, hence the Arab proverb Hararat El Jebel Wal-Abad Ha, the heat of the hills and not their cold. Alt-Hadji Wali lost his appetite, complained of indigestion, and clamoured to return home.

Ahmed Kapitan suffered from Sulb or Lumbago and bad headache, while Lieutenant Yusuf was attacked by an ague and fever, which raised the mouth thermometer to 102 to 103 degrees, calling loudly for aconite. These elements 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 Abias and three from Fidelins-Husain, was finished, I resolved upon returning to the coast and treating our loads at the Sharma water. We reached the valley mouth on December 30th, we greatly enjoyed the change from the harshness of the inland to the mildness of the seaboard air. We stayed at

Charmar, much disliking its remarkably monotonous aspect for another week till January 7, 1878. Ewell, the wheel, despite the glorious tree logs and roaring fires, had been a failure at the White Mountain. The Drago Man had killed our last turkey and forgotten to bring the plum pudding from El Muella. 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 greased with a flow of whiskey 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 mum. The evening ended with music and dancing by praying the old year out and the new year in.

Massal, the Barugi, performed a while solo on his bugle, and another Negro Ahmad al-Sinawi, played with the Nye 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 find their ultimate expression in the lovely Iberian Zazuela. The boy, Hossein, ghanina, a small cyclone. in a brown felt collot and a huge military overcoat, caught short, caused rows of laughter by his ultra-Gaditanian style of dancing. I have also reason to suspect that a Jake and a breakdown tested the solidity of the plank table

while a Jew's harp represented Europe. In fact, throughout the journey, reminiscences of Mabil and the music halls contrasted strongly with the memories of majestic and mysterious midian. And to make the shock more violent, some friend, Malé Salsus, sent me copies of the cosmopolitan spectator and the courtiest Mayfell which at once became waste paper for Badawi cartridges. Our Roche-Hanar, New Year's Day, was further distinguished by the discovery of vain and outcrop

of metalliferous quartz about half an hour's walk and burying nearly east 80 degrees magnetic from camp. We followed the Wadi Shama 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 onori Kozhar. 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 watercoss with its russes scurpus and huge-headed reeds arundo donucks its dates and dorms the two latter often scorch and killed by the careless bedawe we struck into a parallel formation the wadi al-wooday bone-dry and much troddened by camels arrived at the spot we found that the confused mass of hills subtending the regular cliff-line of the old coast i composed of a grey granite seamed with snowy quartz and cut by the usual bands of bottle-coloured poraphritic trap, which here and there becomes red. Some of the heights are of greenish-yellow, cleritic felspar, well-adapted for brick-making. The surface of the land is scattered with fragments of white silics and fine red jasper, banded with black or logistic 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 moulds so broken as to be quite useless. We also followed out Monsieur Maurice Maurice's find, to which he had been guided by a patch of red matter, conspicuous on the road from Tyrium to Charmar. For 40 minutes we skirted the seawood face of the old cliff, a line broken by many deep water gashes and buttressed by gauze, or high heaps of loose white sand. We then turned eastward or inland, ascended a Nacabogorge, and saw, as before, the corallines and carbonates of lime altered, fused, scorified, and blackened by heat injections, the grey granites cord, with quartz veins

running in all rums and the porphyritic trap forming crests that projected from the sand. The cupriferous stone struck east-west with a dip to the south. The outcrops, visible without digging, measured 15 to 20 metres long, by one-to-one and a half in breadth. New Year's Day also restored to us the pup, Pagy, when quite a babe it had walked up to me in the streets of Cairo, evidently claimed acquaintanceship and straightway followed me into the shepherds where, having a certain sneaking belief in metampsychosis, I provided it was, 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 apparently made friends

with an Arab goathood. After nine days' absence without leave, Pagy reappeared with dirty rags tied round its money back and wasted waste, 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. Monsieur Lacasse, unlike the rest, took a violent fancy for the Weddi Shama. The water of 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, an exploded opinion, Moses wrote the book of Job. The idea of rabia is certainly not associated with the flowing rills and waving trees

and rustling zephyrs. Every morning I used to awake, surprised by the song of the Naid, the little runnel wimpling down its bed of rushes, stone and sand, and the respite. And the response of the palms making music in the land breeze. Finally, on New Year's Day, left end Amir, guided by Sheikh Farage, and escorted by soldiers and miners, made a three-day trip to the Wadi Urnub. There, he surveyed a large isolated mara or quartzhill, some 22 to 25 direct miles southeast 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 Jabal al-Abiaz 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 dikes, which had apparently been worked. In the Basel valleys, and spread over the land generally, was found a heavy yellow sand, calcerius and full of silex. The guide called it Awal Hizma, the Hizma frontier. Our travellers returned by a parallel line, subtly and more direct. In the Wadi Ernob, the Maza of the Salamat clan received them with apparent kindness, inwardly grumbling the while at their land being spied out, and they especially welcomed Farage, who, being a brave soldier, also known as a peacemaker. All the men were armed and wore the same dress as the Huitat.

Like these, they also breed camels and asses, that is, they are not cow Arabs. Certain travellers on the Upper Isle have distributed the Bedouin into these two groups, add horse Arabs and ass herbs, and you have all the divisions of race that's connected with the so-called lower animals. About three hours or 11 miles from Shamar camp,

some pyramids of sand were pointed out in the Wadi Rattir. The Bedouin called one of them the Gozit Hanan, moaning sand heap. They declare that when the Hodge caravans pass, or rather used to pass by that way, before the early 16th century, when Sultan Saleem laid out his maritime high road, a no-bar or orchestra was wont to sound within its bowels. This tale, which by the by is told of two of the places in Midian, may have suggested by the Nebel El Nakhis or Bell Mountain in Sinai land,

but as the Arabs perform visitation and sacrifice to the mourning heap, the superstition probably dates from ancient days. Ruins are also reported to exist in the Jabal Fas, the southern boundary of the Ernab Valley and further south in the Jebel al-Har. I was told by someone whose name had escaped me of a dolman mounted upon three supports. Lieutenant Amir also brought copper ore from the Wadi Urnub and from Wazwadi al-Muchbier, specimens of a metal which the Arab used as a kohl or cholerium. It proved, however, iron, not antimony, and the same mistake had been made in the Sinaitic peninsula.

At Wadi Shama, we rigged up, under the superintendence of Monsieur Philippine, a trough and a cradle for washing the black sands, the pounded quarts of the Jebel El Abiyaz and the red sands. These latter had shown a trace of silver, one in ten thousand 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 negroes, or iridized formations of the Philon-Hossain, on the lower horizon gave the dubious results 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 Wadi Shahmar, a ruined village of workmen, probably slaves, whose boathens measured some 12 feet by 8. They differ from the Noamese or mosquito huts, as the word is generally translated only in shape. The latter are circular with a diameter of 10 feet, and they perfectly resemble a stone hovels in Nawadi Makatab,

which Professor Palmer, Desert of the Exodus, page 202, supposes to have been occupied by the captive miners and their military guardians. This time we ascended the Coraline Ridge, which forms the left jaum. 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 Butterus crest still supports the double concentric circle with a maximum diameter of about 15 feet. The outsiders 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 new red sandstone of the Hizma.

Finally at the northernmost point where the cliff edge falls abruptly with a natural arch towards the swamp, about one kilometre broad at the barb, 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 product were pot-shed fragments of handmills and a fine lump of white marble or ruckham, supposed to be come from Jebelah Lowers. Amongst our followers was a kazi of the Arabs, one Jabr bin Abbott el Nibi, who is a manner of judge in civil but not in criminal matters.

Before the suit begins, the plaintiff or his surety deposit 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 the 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 sheikh, and he worked hard to deserve it. Shortly before I departure from Sharma He brought in some scoria and slag Broken and streaked with copper

In fact, equaloids They are thinly scattered over the seawood 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 Jebelar Labias It was decided that the ore had been brought

From the interior We were again puzzled Concerning the form of industry Which gave rise to such a large establishment As Sharma Agriculture was suggested and rejected And we finally resolved that it was a brand town that supplied ore to the great smelting place and workshop of the coast, Inuna,

and possibly carbonate of lime to serve for flux. The distance along the winding wadi between the settlement and the sea westward where the watercourse ends in sandheaps is 7 to 8 miles and the coast shows no sign of harbour or of houses. About three miles, however, to the north-west is the admiral bay of Ainuna, unknown to the charts. Defended on both sides by sandpits and open only between the west and the northwest where reefs and shores allow but a narrow passage, its breadth across the mouth from east to west measures at least 5,000 metres, and the length inland, useful for refuge, is at least 3,000. At the bottom of this noble Liman, the culpus, so scandalously abused by the ancients, are three sandy buttresses

mettle 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 Masebba, or Mosebeth Shama. Its only present use seems to be embark bundles of rushes for mat making in Egypt. The north-eastern end of the Little Gulf is the gad or Jad, or Mercer of El-Hareba, before described as the port of Enuna. At the Moseba, I stationed our tender the Sambuk El-Musahil, which carried our heavy goods, specimens by the ton, rations and stores,

forge, planks, and crowbars. The sailors lost no time ensuring their rapacity. Every day they dund 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 Moseba bite is a direct continuation of the Wadi El Malar,

which, joining that of El-Makada, runs straight up the Jebel Al-Abbias and to the Philon-Hossain. These metalliferous quartz can not be further from the coast than a maximum distance of 14 miles, and the broad, smooth water course, with its easy gradients, pointed out as the site of the future tramway. I should prefer a simpler form of the Pioneer Steam Caravan or Saddlepack Railway System patented by Mr John L. Haddon, C.E, formerly of Damascus. He recommends iron as the best material for the construction,

and the cost delivered at Alexandria would not exceed £1,200, instead of £3,000 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 per deal. By proper management of the rails or the main rail, it would be easy for the trained camels to draw the train up the waddy, and the natural slope towards the sea would give work only to the brake where derailments are not possible. At Shama, we saw the crescent when the Englishmen turned their money into their pockets,

and the Egyptian officers 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 camps still suffered, and an old Badawi, uncle to Sheikh Alain, died and was buried at Enuna. The number of servants also made his uncomfortable. The head Drago man, whose memory was confined to his carne, forgot everything. And had we trusted to him, half the supplies would have returned to sewers, probably for the benefit of his own shop at Zagazig.

I soon found his true use, and always left him behind as a magazine man, storekeeper, and a guardian of reserve provisions, who 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, or 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 were these 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, with that he literally drenched us with the oil till a 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 seawater and to serve out 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 Monsieur Dugrid and Philippine with 13 soldiers and 16 minors. The six camels were placed under Gabor, Kazi-Loban, 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 Hajiwali, probably frightened by the Arabs,

and maddened by the idea that, during his absence in the thick of the cotton season, the philaz of Zag would neglect to pay their various debts, began to malinger, with which intensity of purpose that I feared lest he would kill himself to spiders. The venerable Shylock, whoever pleaded poverty, had made some £300 by lending, and Napoleon say on January 1st, which became a sovereign on February the 1st,

not to speak of the presence and benevolences which the debtor would be compelled to offer his creditor, so he departed for El Mowela, 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 serf corner was turned. He stayed two days on board the gunboat and straight away 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 the 7th, a walk of two hours and 20 minutes, seven miles northwards, and mostly along the shore of the noble

Mosebeth Sharma, transferred us to well-remembered Inuna. The sea in places washed over slabs of the fine old conglomerates which, in the country, line their banks and souls of all the greater wadis. These are the Cascalho of the Brazil, a rock which is treated by rejecting the pebbles and by pounding the silica's paste. The air was softer and less exciting than that of Sharma, and although the vegetation was of the crapao more d'armour 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 waterfowl with hazel eyes, red-legged rail, the brown swallow of Egypt, green blue flycatchers, and a black muskivore with a snowy-white rump, of which I fail to secure a specimen. We also saw the turn-coloured plover,

known in Egypt as Dominicane and Red Kingfishers. The game species were fine, large, green mallard, dark pintail, quail, and red-beaked brown partridge with 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 the brow of milk or cheek of rose. There were few changes. A half-peasant Badawi had planted a strip of barley near the camping place. The late floods has shifted the course of the waters. More date trees had been willfully 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 their 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 anuna, we gave only one day to work. While Monsieur Lacasse sketched the views, we blasted with gunpowder more than half the charcoal, the madame, El-Feruze turquoise mine, as the Arabs called it on the right side of the wadi. The colour and texture were so unlike the true lapis farantis that we began to suspect,

and presently we as attained from the few remaining fragments. It had been worked for copper, the carbonates and the silicates, which characterised cyprus. Presently, good specimens of the latter were brought to us from Jebel Al-Fara by a Bedoui pauper, aid of the Tagiat-Hawiat tribe. These half-naked shepherds and goat-hards who knew every stone in the land are its best guides, not the sheikhs who, as a rule, see a little or nothing outside their tent. From our camp, the direction, as reported by Ahmed Captain, was 102 degrees magnetic, and the distance three miles.

I afterwards sent Lieutenant Yusuf from El Mawila to make a detailed plan. We also dug in an old pit among the Christian graves to the southeast of the camp and below the left jean of the gate. Here also the Bedouin had been at work, and when unable to work deep enough, they told us wonderful tills 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 and sinking a 12-feet shaft, we came upon a shapeless Coraline boulder,

which in all 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 was no sign of a large slave-miner settlement like that on the other side of the barb. In the afternoon, Mr. Clark led a party of quarrymen across the graveyards to El Krebba, the seaport of Ainuna and applied them to excavating the floor of a system and the foundation of several houses a little pottery was the only result

it was a slow walk of 40 minutes unless the total length of the aqueducts would be three miles not between four and five kilometres I had much trouble I went to some expense in sending camels to fetch a written stone which placed at the head of every new buried corpse is kept there till another requires it it proved to be a broken marble pillar

with a modern Arabic epitaph in the Gad al-Hareba the little inlet near their gumrak or custom house, as we called in Wagari the shed of palm fronds at the base of the eastern sandspit lay five small sandbooks, which have not yet begun fishing for mother of Pearl. Here we found sundry tents of the Tagayat, the half-filars that own and spoil the once-godly land. The dogs sparked at us, but the men never thought of offering us hospitality. We had an admirable view of the Taharmah mountains, Zahad with its nick, the parrot beak of Jebel el-Shattie, the three perpendicular pinnacles and the flying buttresses of Jebel Ernab, the isolated lump of Jebel Fass,

the single Coppola of Jebel Harb, the huge block of Debach with its tall truncated tower, the little Umjidale here looking like a pyramid and the four mighty horns of Jebel Shar. I left Inona under the conviction that it had been a great Washa workshop, an embarking place of the coast section extending from Elmuella to Machna, and that upon it depended both Wadi Teriam and Shon. Mar with their respective establishments in the interior. Moreover, the condition of the slag convinced me that the 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.

End of Chapter 2. Section 4 of the Land of Midian, revisited by Richard F. Burton. This Libre Vox recording is in the public domain, read by Paul Wellford. Chapter 3, Bricking New Ground to Mghe Sheweb. On January 9th, we left Enuna by the hardrood and passed along the quarry hill visited during my first journey. The crest has old cuttings and new cuttings, the latter still worked for Badawi headstones. The dwarf pillar with a mysterious cup is reflected by the Nubians who hollow out the upper part of the steeler to a depth of

eight or ten inches without adding any ornament, hence perhaps the Swaley custom of the inserted porcelain plate. After issuing from the stony and sandy gorge which forms the short cut, we regained the hardsured and presently cited a scene readily recognized, fronting us the nethered. north horizon was formed by the azure wall of Taibism, the mountain of the good name. Backed by the far grander peaks of Jebel Mazhafer, the latter rises abruptly from the bluer gulf of Alakabar, and both trend to their culminating points inland or eastward. On her right followed the unpicturesque metiliverous heap of Jebel Sahad or Anino Mountain, whose Braque de Roland seems to show from every angle. Its chocolate-colored heights contain, they say, furnaces, and Mashal or Ateliers,

where the Maru Quartz was worked for ore. In places it is backed by the pale azure peaks of Jebel El Laus. This mountain of almonds is said to take its name from the trees, probably bitter, which flourished 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 Lowers appears to be the highest mountain in northern Midian land. Unfortunately, it is to be reached only via Sharaf two long stations ahead and I could not afford time for geographical research to the prejudice of mineralogical. Its nearer foothill is the Jebel Khleaf, and this feature contains, according to the Bedouin, seven wells or pits whose bottom cannot be seen.

Between the almond block and its northern continuation, Jebel Munifa, we saw a gorge containing water and sheltering at times a few tents of the Amarat Arabs. In the same block, we also heard of a sarbut or rock said to be written over. The regular cone of Elmachla ends the prospect in the northeastern direction. Looking westwards, we saw the ghastly bear and naked secondary formation, the rugam of the Bedouin, not to be confounded with rockham, alabaster or saccharine marble. We afterwards traced to this main feature of the Aqabar Gulf as far south as the Wadi Ham's.

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, calc-spar, shells, and eggs. The broken crest of the Jubilel Hamara, the Red Hills, Viking Mackna, and the jagged black peaks on their eastern parallel, the Kalbal Nacla,

look like platonic 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, chloride and serpentine, stands boldly out from the chaos of purpling mountains, composing Sinai and ending southwards in the azura knobs of three-headed Tyran Island. The country, in fact, altogether changed. Quartz had disappeared and chlorite had taken its place.

We passed the night at Al-Solela, a gris or hollow without drainage, in which the sinking of watercakes with mud is covered within a regular circle of sassolaceous trees, a patch of dark metallic green. This ocella is eaten by camels, but rejected by mules. Here are post-reached-ers from sewers on the seventh day, having started on the second inst. A dollar was offered to the Badawi who eyed the coin indignantly, declaring that it ought to be a guinea. I had also given in some tobacco and repented, as usual, by generosity. Next day we finished the last and larger part of the second pilgrim stage from El Mawela. 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 tamarisk's Samur, Inga, and Nia, Guis and Arac Salvador 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 wadi. This watercourse runs between a background of reddish brown rock, the foothills and sub-ranges of the Grand Block El Zanar to the north and a foreground of pale yellow, stark naked gypsum, apparently tongue-shaped. Above the latter tower, two sister coins of ready material, the sugar-doyan to which a tail hangs.

Presently we fell into and ascended the great Wadi Afar, which begins in the Hizma 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 10 to 12 years, it falls into the Minot al-Ayanat, a little port for native craft which will presently be visited. We left this wadi at a bend some 200 metres wide, called the Broad of Jujube, from one of the splendid secular trees that characterise North Midian. Near the camping ground we shall find another veteran Zizifius, whose three huge stems springing from a single base, argue a green old age. Here both banks of the Fiormara 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 afal. The vegetation of the gorgemouth developed itself to dates and dorms, tamarisks and salsalese, out of which scuttled a troop of startled gazelles.

We turned the right-hand charm of the gate and found ourselves at the water and camping ground of Marais Schweb. 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 watches every barren peak with the tenderest, loveliest rosy pink. Under an intensely clear sapphire-coloured sky rises a distant rim of broken and chocolate-colored trap-hills set off by pale hillocks and white flats of gypsum,

here and there crystallised by contact with the platonics. 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 fractures 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 material. when new it must have been a scene in fairyland. Time has now degraded it to the appearance and consistence of crumbling salt. The coins-shaped hills of the foreground, all uptilted and clifing to the north, show the curious mauve and red tints of the many-coloured clays called in the Brazil tower. 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 Badawi

form a quaint contrast with the genteel, natally dressed and cognified brooms of Egypt and Hajjah. and that grandeur may not be wanting to the view on the east rise the peaks and pinnacles of the Armoured Mountain Jebel Al-Luaz, whilst northwards the Jebel Al-Zana, a huge dome, forms the horizon. This place, evidently the capital of Madian proper, is that which Ptolemy, 6, 7, places among his Mesogean towns in northern latitude 28 degrees 15 minutes, and it deserves more than the two pages of description which Rupple bestowed upon it. We will notice its natural features before proceeding to the remains of man. Here the Wadi Afar takes the name of El Bada, sweeping from west to east, it is deflected to a north-south line, roughly speaking, by the gate of Shigdawain,

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 20 to 25 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 Safra, a mass of gypsum on the left bank, and it bends to the east of south, having thus formed a figure of Zed. After escaping from the imprisoning hills, the Fiormara bed, now about three-quarters of a mile broad, is bisected longitudinally by a long and broken lump of cloretic or serpentine sandstone,

and rises in steps towards the right bank, upon which the pilgrims camp. Reaching the plain, the wadi flies out wildly, contending 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 southeast, and lastly it trends seawood. The water of Bada springs from the base of the hill El Saffra, 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 leits and watercourses have been cut in the clay and are still lined with the white-flowered Regla, whose nutritive greenleaf is eaten, raw or boiled by the flowers of Egypt. The wild growth, however, is mostly bitter. On both sides are little square plots fenced against sheep and goats by 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 Badawi, mischievous and destructive as the cynocephalus will neither work nor allow others to work. The Ushash, or front and reed huts, much like huge birds' nests, are scattered about

in small groups everywhere except near the water. Wherever a collection of bones showed the hyena's lair, the hunters were built a screen of dry stone. In fact, Maghah Shoeb was spoken of as an Arab Happy Valley, but its owners, Masaid, a spiritless tribe numbering about 70-tenths, a protégers of the Tagayat. This Huiti clan is on bad terms with Khazir and Brahim bin Makbul and the brother sheikhs of the Imran,

recognised by the Egyptian government, claim the land where they have only the right of transit. Badawi clans and sub tribes always combine against stranger families but when there is no foreign war they amused themselves with pilling and plundering sabering and shooting one another I believe that the palms were rusted to death by the Imran although the sheikhs assured me that the damage was done this year

by Carlos Masudi when cooking his food the tribe appears to be Egypto-Arab like the Huetat and the Maazah having congenas or Khazha or gays and at Razalawadi near Egyptian Tel al-Kabir consequently Ruppel is in error when he suspects that de Muzaiti are in Judenstam. The unfortunates fled towards the sea and left the valley desolate about seven months ago. Their Sheikh is dead and a certain Agil bin Mohisin, a greedy, foolish kind of fellow

mentioned during my first journey aspires to the dignity and the prophet of chieftainship. He worried me till I named a dog after him and then he disappeared. The ruins of larger extent from 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-Safra shows the foundations of what may have been the arcs. It is a double coin, 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 Elmottali, as the Arabs call the Hort Ville, becomes a tall, up-tilted wedge. continued northwards by the smaller feature and backed by a long skyline a high ridge of plaster pale-coloured with glittering points. The isolated yellow hill, a horse in Icelandic parlance, rising about 200 feet above the valley's sole, is separated

by deep, narrow gorge from the adjacent to eastern range. The slopes, now water-torn and jagged, may formally have declined in regular lines, and evidently all were built over to the crest like those of the Syrian Sepet. The foundations of walls and rock cut steps are still found even on the far side of the eastern feature. The knife

back is covered with the foundations of what appears to be a fortified laura or palace. A straight street running north-south with five degrees west magnetic. It serves as base for walls, one meter and a half thick, opening it up like rooms. Of these, we counted 20 on either side. At the northern of the horse, which, like the southern, has been weathered to a mere spur, is a work composed of two semicircles fron 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 rigam or 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 Safra and the eastern side of the Bada Valley lies masses of ruins 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 Bedouin stole his steed. There was a frustum, or

column drum, a fine white marble hollowed to act as a mortar like the Muslim headstone of the same material. It is attributed to the Jebelah Laus, where ancient quarries are talked of. There were also Macraca rubstones, or close-grained red cyanite and fragments. of the basalt handmills used for quartz grinding. Part of a mortar was found, made of exceedingly light and porous lava. Southeast of the Huttville falls in the now rugged Ravain, Hashim El Mutali, snout of the high town. It leads to the apex of the Coraline formations,

scattered over with fragments of gypsum, here amorphous, there crystalline or talclike, and all dazzling white as powdered sugar. Signs of tent foundations and of buildings appear in impossible places, and the heights bare two birge or watchtowers, one visible afar and one dominating from its mammal on the whole land. The return to the main valley descends by another narrow gorged further to the southeast called Shab al-Darach, or straight 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 Shab sole is flat with occasional steps and overfalls of rock polished like mirror by the rain torrents. The mouth shows remains of a masonry dam some 14 feet thick by 21 long, and immediately below it are the bases of buildings and watercourses. Walking down the left bank of the Great Wadi, and between these secondary gorges that drain the yellow hill, we came upon a dwarf mound of dark earth and rubbish. This is the Siara, Mint and Smith's

quarter, a place always to be sought, as Balbac and Palmyr taught me. Remains of tall furnaces now level where the ground were scattered about, and Mr. Clark, long-trained to find antiques, brought back the first coins picked up in ancient Midian. The total gathered here, and in other parts of Mre Choureb, was 258, of which some 200 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 disks, differing from the normal type. Unfortunately, the legends are illegible. The rest informed bits of green stuff, copper and bronze were glued together by decay and apparently eaten out of all semblance of money until the verdigri of ages is removed. All I cast like the Roman as before BC217 and some show the tale. The distinguishing feature is the human eye, not the outer of Horus, so well known to those who know the pyramids, but the last trait of Athene's profile. To a Roman, a nerva with SC on the reverse and a Claudius Augustus bearing by way of a countermark a depressed oblong of 20-100th by

14-100ths of an inch with a raised figure erect, draped and holding a scepter 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 smashes. 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 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, while the left shows a poor imitation of the legend N.H. The silvering of the reverse has been so corroded that no signs of the goddess's galliated head are visible.

My friend, Mr. W. E. Haynes, of the numismatic society, came to the conclusion that it is a barbaric, Midianitish imitation of the Greek tetradrachim, 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 Nabathian coins first described I believe by the learner Duke de Loins. Another interesting find was a flat-bottomed, thick-walled clay crucible of small size, two and ten-sixteenth-of-an-inch high by two and four-sixteenths of an inch across the mouth, exactly resembling the article picked up at Hammamatt. The latter, however, contains, a remnant of lithage, possibly showing that the old Egyptians worked the silver, which may have

been supplied by the Colorado courts. I would hear Craveleaf to make a short excursus to the ancient of affairs of Egypt proper, where we are told by an inscription in the treasury of Ramesses the Great 14 centuries before Christ, the gold and silver mines yielded per annum a total of 32 million minai equals 90 million pounds. Dr. H. Bush-Bae first drew attention to Hamamat where, as he had learned from Deodorus 1-49 to 312 and from the papyrite the precious metals have been extensively worked. The wells of Hamamat lie between the Kenei on the Nile and the Khosir, Kosser, on the Red Sea, and the land is held by the Ababdar Arabs who have taken charge from time immemorial of the royal commercial caravans. The formation of the country much resembled that of Midian.

The metalliferous veins run from northeast to southwest. In Arabia, however, the fions are of unusual size. In Africa they are small, the terminating fibrales, as it were, of the Asiatic focus, while the dark continent lacks the wealth of iron which characterises the opposite coast. By the courtesy of General Stone and Purdy, I was enabled after return to Cairo in May 178 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. United States and used for a variety of purposes. It is said to exist in Mount Sinai. We found

non 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 attempts to exploit the minerals. The country lacks wood and water, and the expense of camel transport bought from Hammamatt to Hasseh, and thence into ships to sewers, 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 Philadelphia contained 740,000 talents,

and assuming with Ibras the Egyptian at half the Agenitian, we have the marvellous sum of 83,250,000 pounds. According to Deodorus 162, the Treasury of Ramps in it concerning which Herodotus 2121 and 112 heard a funny story. story from his interpreter contained four million talents equal to at least 450 million pounds. This rich king's treasure house has been found portrayed in the far-famed temple of Medina at Habu. 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 Coptus plain, the modern Cobb south of Cene, are preserved to

all time by the earliest known map. It has survived, while those of the Melisian Anaximander, BC-610-547, have Hecateus, also from Miletus and called the father of geography, 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 Stili, those of Rhodesia and Cuban, describing the supply of drinking water introduced into the desert between Cuban and the Red Sea. Chabas has published a coloured facsimile of this map. The gold-containing mountains are tinted red and the words to and nub monso-aureus are written over them in hieratics. The only modern gold workings of Egypt are in the Mudiriat Nomos of Famaka, the frontier town, better known as Faizoglu,

from its adjacent heights. The washings were visited lately March 1878 by my enterprising friend Dr. P. Matucci and Monsieur Gese. 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 abnormal

fatality. The surface was much turned over by the compulsory miners and the 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 the and lacking coordination of labour, what the government failed to do.

They have not struck the chief vein, if any, exists, but during the heavy rains of the Khreif or autumn, in the valley of the Tumat 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 sierchre, the left bank is gashed by the ravines draining the southeastern prolongation of the yellow hill. Water cuts through this rotten formation of rubbish like a knife into cheese,

forming deep chasms here narrow, they're broad, with walls built up as it were of fragments and ready to be levelled by the first rains. The lines of streets 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 wadi, the length may be a kilometre. The best preserved traces of crowded building end with the south-eastern spur of the Jebelalal side, 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 are the moderns on the contrary, front towards Mecca. The Bedouin 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 Muslims with earth. The arrangements suit equally well the hyena and the skull collector, and thus I was able to make a fair collection of Badawi Crania. At the southeastern end of the outliers, projected by the Ijabal al-Safra,

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 medieval, dating probably from the days of the Egyptian Mamaluk sultans.

Beginning from below and to the southwest is a haws or cistern, measuring 26 by 19 and a half metres with a depth of 9 to 10 feet. The material is cut sandstone, cemented outside with mortar containing the normal brick crumbs and pebbles and inside mixed with mud. At the northeastern and southwestern corners are retaining buttresses in two steps, exactly like those in the inland fort of al-ovedge. At the two other angles are flights of stairs

and the sole is a sheet of dried silt. To the southeast lies the remnants of a small circular furnace and on the north-northeast a broken wall shows where stood the betel sagir, or smaller reservoir. A narrow conduit of cut stone leads with elaborate zigzags towards two sarkier or draw. row wells hollered in the gypsum. The southern, an oval of 5 metres, 10 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, riveted with cut stone and measures six metres in diameter. It is an elaborate affair with a pointed arch and a regular keystone, circular saddad or walls for supporting the hollering apparatus and minor reservoirs numbering three.

On a detached hillock, a few paces to the north stand the fort, which defended the estaboard, The short walls of the parallelogram measured 15 meters 40 centimetres and the long 18 meters 60 centimetres. The gate choked by ruins leads to a small hole 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 Suleimanefendi came from sewers 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, Bill al-Saidani, the well of Saidan. For watering each caravan, the proprietor demanded a camel by way of fee.

At last, a Magribe, 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 give to the section of the great Wadiafal, its actual name Wadi al-Bada of the innovation, so hateful to the conservative savage. Hence Rupils Beiden, 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, systems and tenements,

still marked out by the basis of long, thick walls. The material is mostly gypsum, leprous white, as the skin of gahazi, 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 homesteads and public buildings. Again, the ruins of this section are distributed 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 by two blocks of building considerable in extent, the southern, called by

the Arabs El Malka, is a broken parallelogram. Further downstream, the bank of the bankers, is a vast strew of broken pottery and one place covered with glass fragments was named by our soldiers Al-Kamara 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 tibur or pure gold dust is still washed from the sands and cast probably in rude moulds.

Behind, in that 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 catacums which the Bedouin called Maghre or caves or Biban Doors. The sights are the sides and mouths are four little branch valleys which cut through the hillocks representing the Wadi Bank.

The northernmost is known as Wadi al-Harek because it drains a height of that name. The others bear the generic term Wadi al-Safra, so-called like the Hortville 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 facades show one or more horizontal lines of natural beadwork, 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, caves in upon the principle which is destroying Niagara. At each side of the doorways is a mastobach stone bench, also a rock-hewn and with triple steps. The door-jomes, which have hollowings for hinges and holes for bars, are much worn and often broken. They're 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 hole. They are evidently rude and barbarous forms of the artistic category. and tower tombs that characterize Petra and Palmyra. The Maghé may roughly be divided into four topical groups. These are the northern outliers, the tomb of the kings, so-called by ourselves because they distinguish themselves from all the others, the Butrist caves, two sets, and the southern outliers. The first mentioned begin with a ruin on the right jaw of the Hezek gorge.

It is dug in strata dipping, as usual, from northwest to southeast. It faces eastwards, and the entrance declines to the south. All external appearance of a catacum has disappeared. A rude porch, a frame of sticks and bows, 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 locily in the southern wall, and in the southeastern corner is a pit, also sunk for a sarcophagus. A hillside to the south of this cave shows another dug in their ta'ua, 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 ruing of at least a 14 locily. 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 wadi is a fourth Magara, also broken down, the stucco coating still shows remnants of red paints,

and two characters, possibly Arab Wasam 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 Ruppel, page 220, in the antiquated style of his day, with fanciful foreground and background. His sketch also plays a solid rock with a third and very dilapidated catacum of this group,

disposed at right angles, fronts southwards. Possibly the facades 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 Ripple, it is a kind of geometical design. The frontage has two parallel horizontal lines raised to represent cornices.

Each bears a decoration resembling crinels 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 cemetery 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 Monsieur Lacaaz. 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 mount to the background of a coin-shaped hill by a well-trodden path leading to the remnants of a rude birge or watchtower and to a semicircle of drywall garnished with a few sticks for hanging rags and tatters. The latter denotes the Musilat Shoeb or a praying place of Prophet Jethro and here our Saeed and our Sheikh took the opportunity for 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 Yubu and Shusu islands, was in round numbers 450 feet. From this vantage ground, we could distinctly trace the line of the Wadi Makna, beginning in a round basin at the western foot of the northern Shigured

mountain and its sub-range, while low rolling hills along which we were to travel, separated it from the Wadi Bada or Afal to the south. Two other important sets of catacombs, which I will call the buttressed caves, are pierce in the right flank of the same gorge, but 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 closonne by dikes of hard as stone. Beginning at the south, we find a range of three facing eastward and separated from one other by flying buttresses of natural rock. Number one has a window as well as a door. Next to it is a square with six open loculi range from north to south. Number three shows a peculiarity, two small palasters

of the rudest, queerie Egyptian, Doric. The only sign of ornamental. foundation found inside the tombs, a small brick in the southwestern wall connects it with the northmost loculus of number two. Further north are three bevel holes, noting the beginning of a catacomb, and around 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 waddy. It consists of four sepulchres with a normal buttresses. They somewhat resemble those of the kings, but there are various differences. Number two, 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 footholes by way of a ladder. Outside it the rocky platform is hollowed apparently for graves. The other three facades bear the Crenel ornaments. The two to the north show double lines of seven holes drilled deep into the plane surface above the door as if a cage had been nailed on, while the northernmost yield 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 Jihana Numa of Haji Khahifa.

Rounding the reef to the north, we found three catacims in the worst condition, one of them showed holes drilled in the façade. The southern outliers lie far down the Wadi Afal facing east, and hewn in the left flank of a dwarf gully which falls into the right bank, not far from the site, called by our men of the tavern. the tavern. The group numbers three, all cut in the normal sandstone, with the harder dikes, 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, query ruple, after removing his Arab guides, dug into the tombs, and found nothing but human hair. Several of the horizontal locily contain the bones of men and beasts. I did not disturb them, has all appeared to be modern. The floors sounding hollow give my companions hopes of fines, but I had learned, after many a disappointment, how carefully the Badawi ransack such places. We dug into four sepulchres, including the sunken catacum, 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 caft mariam 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 macrophilum with fat at the root of their spiky tails. I have described at considerable length this ruined Mediama, which is evidently the capital of Madian proper ranking after Petra.

In one point, it is still what it was, a chief station upon the highway, then Nabati, now Muslim, which led to the Gho or Wadi al-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. End of section 4. Chapter 4 of the Land of Midian, revisited by Richard F. Burton. This Libre Vok's recording is in the public domain, read by Paul Wellford. Part 1, Chapter 4. Notices of precious metals in Midian, the papyrai and medieval 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 papyrii and the pages of the medieval Arab geographers. Extracts from the latter were made for me in my absence from England by the well-known Arabist, the Reverend G. Percy Badger. I will begin with the beginning. Dr. Heinrich Bush Bay, whose history of Egypt is the latest and best gift to Egyptologists, kindly drew my attention to an interesting passenger in his work, and was good enough to copy for me the source of his information,

Tile Harris Papyrus, number one, in the British Museum. The first king of the 20th dynasty born about BC,200, and residing at Thebes, was Ramesses III, whose title Ramosupanuta, or Nuti, Ramesses the God, became in the hands of the Greeks, Ramsinot. 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 land 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 their holy land and to open communication with the incense country and with the wealthy shores of the Indian Ocean. Not less important, says our author, page 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 donkeyback and by sea to explore and exploit the rich cupriferous deposits of Arthaca, query in the name of the Ackabar 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 concupisience of the Egyptians since the days of King Sanafaru, BC 3,700.

Loaded with rich presents for the sanctuary of the goddess Hathor, the protectoress of Mafka land, chosen employe were dispatched 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, query, turkison. These lines were published by Dr. Bruchbe, before he had heard of my discovery of metals and of a modern turquoise digging in the land of Midian. He had decided to that Arthaca later the east of sewers, chiefly from the insistence laid upon the shipping. Seagoring craft would certainly not be required

for a sale of three or four hours. Moreover, as I have elsewhere shown, Jebel Atakaaqar, the mountain of deliverance at the mouth of Wadi Musa was referred to the Jews at some time after the Christian era, and probably during the 4th and 5th centuries, when pilgrimages to the apocryphal Mount Sinai became the fashion.

During the summer of 1877, Dr. Bruch-Bé was kind enough to copy and to translate the original document upon which he founded his short account of the Athaka Copper Mines. I offer it to the reader in full. The order of the alphabet is that adopted by Dr. Bruchbe. It relies for the first letter upon the authority of Plutarch, who asserts that the Egyptian Abysidarium numbered the square of 5, 25,

and as it opened with word, which also expresses the god Thoth. This is the case of the symbol, the leaf of some water plant. The sequence of the letters has been suggested by a number of minor considerations. We begin with the vows, and proceed to the libeal, the liquids, and so forth. The sense of the highly interesting inscription in its English shawdo would be, I have sent my commissioners to the land of tharka to the great mines of copper which are in this place, and their ships were loaded carrying them, while others marched on their asses. No, one never had heard since the days of the olden kings that these mines had been found.

The loads carried copper, the loads were by myriad for their ships, which went thence to Egypt. After happily arriving, the Lids were landed, according to Royal Order, under the pavilion, in form of copper bricks. They were numerous as frogs in the marsh, and in quality they were gold of the third degree. I made them admired by all the world as marvellous things. The following lines upon the subject of Midian are from the notes, page 143 of Jacob Gullius in Alphagenham, Amsterdam, 1669, a valuable translation with geographical explanations. Ahmed Ibn Muhammad Ibn Kathir al-Farani derived his Lakhab, or Kodgnaman, from the province of Faghanhokan to the northeast of the Oxis.

He wrote a work upon astronomy, and he flourished about H. 184 or AD 800. Ibidim, Madian, Median, Sivé Median, antiquity, antiqui nominus opidom in maris rubri-litore, sub one of three hundred degrees gradus latitudeen. to aortum brumalimede to fletting at montisinae extremitate, ubi ferre site tolimai modianna, or dubiae yadom cumidian. A geographerorontalium,

who bustam adeguptum refeertur, a prairis, and ominus at Higiazam, who, meditou, and erecte factum, Nulus inum is, who Arabibus not enumerate Marianitas, and, sinam, which Marianne Boriali, montum arabiae, facet, four, Midian, althim, was Abraham, ex Cethura, Phileus, where the tribus Ila and abhac urbs nomin have.

Quam quidimidtribum coalueise, seribus, as puto and affinitate in unom com Ismailitas, in nubere, wiedentur, geneseo's verba. Nam, conspiritantibus in Josephi, exitium frataribus, supervenici Ismailitae, transvice Medianity, of itse, weditus ab Ismelitis, Cetardum, Urumbam, midian arbese proeah haveent, which in Korano vocatur, madineth Cush.

Inim, they is itam isethro, Dicitor, Dicest, who,us, who,us philium Siporam Moses, uxor dukes, whom ex-Agypto profugis in Tere of Midian, where Yethro Prince eras arthur nornomosia illabibus

familialis Ita hanok and nuk Appel Abraham Elcalil Rex Saul Talut

and Cetida Lichit Iorondum propia etiam usupintur Nominah and in

Ipsis sacred libris not one one nomin Hic Yethro Dezinator Locci, Ilius Putium, scripturus, memorand fano-circircum, persuas musim, ibiacus, ibiacus, if ibiacus, if ibnichus,

in Jordiys, vinti, so, asud, upon Eccud, duo, reis describitur. But, primus, Muhammad Dic, regni bery's universe fair, which at rune extabat, Urbs wastata fuit. Al-Fargani is followed by the Imam Abu Abbas Ahmed bin Yahya bin Jabir, surnamed and popularly known as El Balazuri,

who flourished between H. 232 and 247, or AD 846 to 861, and wrote the Foto El Budan, or the conquests of countries. His words are, page 13 to 14, Monsieur Jé de Georges' edition, Lugduni, Batavorum, 1866. It was related to me by Abu Abid al-Kasim bin Salam, who said he was told by

Ishak bin Isa from Malik Ibn Anas and from Rabiat, who heard from a number of the learned that the Apostle of Allah upon whom be peace giving Fyof Iqta'at to Bilal bin al-Haris al-Muzni mines Ma'a-din, i.e of gold, in the district of Varu-Curru. Moreover, it was related to me by Amru al-Nakid and by Ibn Isaham al-Andaris. of Antioch, who both declared to have heard from Al-Hatham bin Jamil Al-Antarqi through Hamad bin al-Salma, that Abu Makin through Abu Ikremia Mora bin al-Haris el-Muzni had averred the apostle of valour upon whom be peace, enfioved the said Bilal with a bit of ground containing a mountain and a gold mine, that the sons of Bilal sold part of the grant to one Umar bin Abed al-Aziz when a gold mine,

or according to the two gold mines were found in, it that they said to the buyer, verily, we sold to the land for cultivation, and we did not sell the gold mining ground, that they brought the letter of the apostle, upon whom be peace, in a bound volume, the Dumar kissed it, and rubbed it upon his eyes, and said, of the truth, let me see what hath come out of it, the mine, and what I have laid out upon it. Then he ducked from them the expenses of working, and returned to them the surplus, and I was told by Musab El Zubairi from Malik Ibn Anas that the Apostle of Allah, upon whom be peace,

gave in fief to Bilal bin Harris mines in the district of Farah. There is no difference of opinion among a learned man on this subject, nor do I know of any of our companions who contradicts the statement that the gold mine paid one-fourth per ten equals two and a half percent royalty to the Bait al-Mal or public treasury. Musab further relates from al-Zahri that the gold mine deferred the Zacateau, poor rate, he also said that the proportion was one-fifth, 2%, like

that which the people of Al-Iraq, Mesopotamia, take to this day, from the gold mines of El-Farah, and from Nejran, and of Zul Mawa, and of Wadi al-Kuru, and others. Moreover, the fifth is also mentioned by Safane, Al-Zawari, and by

Abu Hanifa and Abu Yusuf, as well as by the people of El-Iraq. Follows on my list, the celebrated Murich Al-Tahab or Medes of Gold by Al-Mash. Masudi, who died in AH 346 or AD 957, and whose book extends to AH332, or AD943. When able to find the translation of my friend Springer, I am compelled to quote from Masudi, Les Prairie Doors, text and traduction by Se Barbier, Doménard and Pave de Cotier,

Society Asiatic, Paris, 1864, Volume 3, Pages 301 to 305. Theologians Not theologians Not so The people Appartened Shoaip Shoaip Fis of Naul

Fis of Nahuil, Fis of Mour Fis Danka Fis of Madian Fis of Abraham The Ami of God Quaq he was certain That his language

It is the Arab The Ish Arapos, The Impense, To nations who have Disparue To one of these generations passed in our own we have been told us.

Suivant of other, it's a-sigered here of descendants of El-Matt, Fis of Jandal, Fis of Yassop, Fis of Madion, Fis of Abraham, whose Chauaip

were their by the nascence. To this race sortied a great number of roys who had dispersed in the royome

contiguous the one to other, or separate. Parmiss the royal, it was called Abudget, Hawas,

Houthi, Kalamun, Safface and Kurisha. All, as we we've been to do, Fis Delmat, Fis de Jandal. The letters of the alphabet

are represented precisely by the name of these Roy, where we're the 24 letters on which it rule the Budget.

It has been said many other things about these letters, as we've made in this

book, but he not enter not in our subject to report here all the

systems contradittoir imagined for the explain the signification of letters. Abu Jets was the royal of the Mec and the party of Yedjas who is confined. Awaz and Utti reigns reconjointed in the country of Wedge, El-Widge, who is the territory of Taif and the portion of an Ejit which he is contiguous.

Kalamun exerced the suzerainty on the royalism of Madian. There are even these authors who thinks that its authority s'en des conjointment on all the princes and the countries that we've known. The chattiment of the Jury Koran 26-189 had a lieu The reign of Kalamun Shoaip,

appellant his impis to penitence and the treterter of Monteur So he was menacea The chattiment of the Jury At the suite of

what, a port of the fire of the sky was opened on them. Shoaip's Retira with those

who had Kru in the name DEL Aika which is a foray in the direction of Madyon.

Sopendon, when the incredul sentier the effects of the vengeance celeste, and that, consumed by a chalear terrible, they compere, finally the verity, they summired at the research of Choyip, and of those who had creed in him. He they were abrided under a nuage blan, dothrushed by the esphir, and not resenting in nothing the attains of the dulaur. He they chasered of this asyl, so imaginant that they would have they trovehers, against the flue who they

pursued. But God changed to this nuay in a fire that's a few

must be able to the Maudier, Elmellini, to say, to the people, and to

deplore his sadr in the words, the men, the

men, of Huthi and who lived in the opulence, and those of Hawas who possessed the palet

and the apartment sentue, reigned on the country to Yajas and their beauty

were to the sameble to the rayons of the sun or at the clad of the moon. They abided the emplacement of the maison saint. They aducissee the meurs of their compatriot and governed with illustration and honor. Rien of more curious than the history of these roi, the recies of their war, of their acts, the way which they were from parrere

to these countries and established their domination, after having exterminated the first possessor. The These were the people which we have talked in our previous

in the subject. We're appellant the attention in this book on our first

and we engage the lectors to consult the next in order of seniority

is the well-known Idrisi A.H. 531 or AD 1136. Dr.

Badger's Arabic copy not being p. much extracts from the

French translation by Monsieur P. Amadi Joubert Paris 1836,

having first compared them with the original. Tom 1, page 5. The set mare of the China derives again the Gulf of Kulzum, who comes to Bap el-Mandep, at point where it's termine the mare of the Indes.

He satton to north, in inclinant a little toward the Occidental of Yemen, the Tehama, the Jas, to the country of Madian, Taila,

Elakaba, and of Faran. It's terminated at the the village of Colzoum, don't he Tire his name. Page

142 The districts fortified dependant of the meck are those who are

under the dependance of Medin are Madian. Page 328 For

go to Miser Cairo at Yetrip Sik Pro Yatrip we

pass by the place in the Aila, Aela Madian etc

Page 333 333 On the Bors the river colzum and the village of magian magian more grand than tabooke tabooke and the pui or moise on which he was the salu haubered the troupe on di poohathe is now a sec je liuatila comport the manuscript b and no muazama the son don't by the manuscript and that he elevated on the deus a construction the o nestsis the habitants provin deyne

The name of Madian, Sikh, derives of the of the tribeu, to which I have too appertained. This ville offers very few of resources, and the commerce is miserable. The following notice of Madyan is taken from the Kitabel Budan, or Book of Countries, by Ahmed Ibn Abhii Yakub bin Wahi, surnamed El-Yakubi and Al-Katib,

the writer. According to the Arabic colophon, it was completed on the morning of Saturday, Shawal, the 21st, AH, 607, or AD, 1210. The author gives on page 129 TGJ Junibol Lugduni Batavorum 1861 a description of the route from Miser, Egypt, here Cairo, to Mecca. The first ten stages are one, Jub el-Umerer, 2, El Kirkira, 3, Adjud, the well-known fort of the direct Suez Cairo line, 4, Jissar al-Kuzum where the Gulf was crossed, and lastly 6 desert marches,

hill to Eila. 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, Egypt and the Maghreb or West Africa. It has merchandise in plenty and its people are a mixed race, Aklat Min al-Nas. Here also are sold the fine cloaks called Burdu Habrartin, and also known as the bird of the Apostle of Allah, upon whom be peace. He resumes, and from Ela you march to Sharafel bagel 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. His inhabitants are a mixed race, Achlat Min al-Nas. The traveller making Makka from Eila takes the shore of the salt sea

to a place called Ainna variant, Ullion, plural of Ayn, an eye of water, a fountain. Here are buildings and palm clumps and seeking places, Matalib, sea-lane for the authorities, in which men search for gold. Dr. Badger draws my attention to the last sentence, which seems to have also been noticed by Spranga. Alt Diog, page 32. The following is from the Kitabasa El Bittad, or book of the geographical traditions of countries by the far-famed Zakaria bin Muhammad bin Mahmoud, so-named Al-Kazweeney, who died age 653 or AD 1255. Madyan, page 173, edited F. Worstenfeld, Gottingen, 1848, is a the city of the tribe Kaum of Shweb upon whom be peace.

It was founded by Madyan, son of Ibrahim, the friend of Allah, the grandfather of Shweb. It exports the merchandise of Tabuq between El Medina and El Shamm, or Damascus. In it is the well whence Musa, upon whom be peace, watered the flock of Shweb, and is said that the well is of great depth and that over it is a building visited by pious men. This settlement, Madian, is subject to the district of Taboria, Tiberias, and near it is the well, and at it a rock which Moses uprooted and which remains there to the present day. The Imam Abul Abbas Ahmed Ibn Ali Takir al-Din, better known as El Macrizi, wrote his book Al-Mawai'is, Well Itibar, Phi Zikir al-Kittat, well Isar, the admonition and examples in commemorating habitations and traditions in AH 825 or AD 1421 during the latter part of the

Second Mamluk dynasty, and he brings down the history to the reign of Ganzu Gh whose fort we shall see at El Aqabar. He tells us, edition of Gottingen 1848, Sahifa 48, the loftiest mountain in Madian is called Zubair. It is also related that among the settlements of the Madunite tribe are the villages of Petreya, namely the Curat or Circuit of Altor, and Faran, Faran, and Raya, and Khuzum and Eila al-Aqabar with its surroundings. Madian, with its surroundings, and Aweed and Hora,

Luka Kome, with their surroundings and Bada and Shagab. He speaks of many ruined cities whose inhabitants had disappeared. Forty, however, remained, some with and others without names. Between Al-Hajaz and Egypt, Syria, were 16 cities, 10 of them lying towards Palestine. The most important were Al-Halasa, with its idol temple destroyed by Muhammad and Al-Sanita, whose stones had been removed to build Gaza or Gaza. The others were Al-Modira, El-Menea, El-Menea, El-Las. Al-Awaj, El Chuevrak, El Beryan, El Mane, El Siba, and a Mualak.

The Maracid, El Itila, Al-Aasma, El Amkanat, or Al-Buka, observations of information on the names of places and countries, which contains two dates in the body of the work, Viz A.H. 997, or AD 1589, and A.H. 1168, or AD 1755, which is probably compiled from El Casweeney, says, subvose Madian, after giving the movement of the word, it is a city of the tribe of Shweb, opposite Tabook, and upon the sea of El Khuzum, six stages, Marahill, separating the two. It is larger than Tobuk,

and it is the well whence Moses water the flocks of Shweb. Finally, it repeats that Madian is under the district of Tabria or Tiberias. Volume 3, page 64, edited Tjj Jynbol-Lugdini Batavorum 1854, Eduobas, Cod, MSS. conclude this unpopular chapter with some remarks by Dr. Badger concerning the apparent connection of Jethro and El Medina. It struck me when studying Madian, which is the name of the place as well as of a man, that Yathrib, the ancient term of Al-Medina, might have served the same

double purpose. At all events, it was singular to find a Yathrib somewhere near Madian, and that the word was not far removed from Yithro, the name given in Hebrew to Moses' Medeanite father-in-law. I also note that that Septuagint renders the Hebrew Yethro by Peshito by Yathroon, which the new Arabic version of the Bible, published at Bayruth or Syria, follows making it Yathran. The name in Hebrew, Exodus 418, is also written Yether. My theory is this. Firstly, there is no dependence to be placed on the mazaretic points, especially when affixed the 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 intimate relations with the Israelites,

as friends and as enemies, both nations appear to have understood each other perfectly. May not the language then have been a dialect of the Aramean? If so, the Yithro of the Bible might have been Yathrab, Yathrib, etc. Instants of the apocopated B are common in the Chaldean or Serochaldaic at the present, ijeehah al-ha is pronounced Yahu al-Aha. Yashua, Yaheb becomes Yashua, Yao, etc. The final bath, B, or the Heb being converted into a W, hence why may not Yithro have originally been Yithrab or Yathrib?

Of course, this is only a conjecture of mine. Mr. E. Stanley Poole says that the Arabs dispute whether the name Median be foreign or Arabic and whether Median spoke Arabic. He considers the absurd enumeration of the alphabetical kings El Masudi 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 Mecca, Western-Nedged, Yemen, Median, Egypt, etc. It is extremely improbable that Midian ever penetrated into Yemen,

notwithstanding the hints of Arab authors to the contrary. Yakut El Mawawi, born A.H. 574 or 575, AD 1178-79, and died, AH 626 or AD 1228, in that Mujam El Budan, cited in the journal of the Deutsch-Morgan-Gestl-Staffed, declares that a South Arabic dialect is of Midian and El Masudi, Apud Shilton's pages 158 to 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, other towns were all,

with two exceptions, numbers 2 and 18, visited or explored by the second chrivial expedition. The mageal, ateliers or subsidiary workshops were in cases learned only by hearsay. 1. Old Akaba Eela, Masraal, up Valley El Yitim. 2. El Hagel of Ptole. It was seen from the sea and nuts were taken of its ruins and furnaces. 3. Nachil Taib ism in mountain of the same name. Its ruined dam and buildings were surveyed by Lieutenant Amir. 4. Machina, twice visited. 5. Machet Shueb. 2 hoteliers inspected and 1 heard of on the Jebel Al-Lauze.

Total 3. 6. Eynuna in Jebel Zanz. ruins and furnaces. 7. Shama. An atelier on the Jebel Faz and another on the Jebel Haab, both high up total two. 8. Tyrium, an atelier on the Wadi Anub. 9. Abu Hawawait near El Muella. Skoria found about the fort of El Muella and near Shamhara.

10. Zibiabib in Wadi Sur Atelier, Sel um Laban in Wadi Sazhar. 11. Chalasa. Salsabh. Salsah. Wadi Chasabria and the Upper Wadi Sur also ruins in the Sayl Abou's Sharr, southwest and seawoods of the Shah Block. 12.

Ma El Bada, al-Bada, al-A, al-Nasara in the Upper Wadi Damar. 13. Juaq of Ptolemy. Atelier in Jebel Al-Sini. 14. Shagab. Another large city mentioned by El Mekrizi. 15.

Ruins of Al-Kandaki, broken courts and mid-road at El Khotaiifa. Two other atelier and Wadi Ruiz to the west. total 3 16 Um Amil Near it An attelier Still called

El Dyer Or the convent 17 Ziba Old Town Um Jirma to the north 18

Magirma One day's March south of Ziba Large ruins supposed to have been the classical Ronathos Thus besides

The total of 18 ruins More or less extensive 20 atteliers were seen or heard of making up a total of 38 Not far removed

from the 40 traditional settlements of the medieval Arab geographers In the plateau of new red sandstone called El Hizma

ruins and inscriptions are said to be found at the Jebel Rawiyan, whose wadi is mentioned by Wallin, page 308, at Rwafah, between the two hills Al-Rachamateen and at sundry other places which we were unable to visit. Beyond the Hizma, I also collected notice of Al-Karaya, large ruins first alluded to by Wallin, page 316. During our explanation of the region below El Muella, my southern midian, and our cruise to Al-Hora, the following sites were either seen or reported. 1. Ruins in the Wadi Dukhan south of the Wadi El Azlam north of Elwidge.

2. El Nabaha in the Wadi El Mara, north of Elwidge. 3. Ruins, furnaces and quartz, strews in the Farah Lebeyes. 4. Elwidge, the port of Strabuze Agra. 5. Inland Fort of Elwidge, with an old metal working ground. 6. The great mines and ruins, Umal Karayat, everywhere surrounded by Atel Lélias. 7. El Khubar. A small isolated ruin to the east of No. 6. 8. El Chor, a working place to the west of number 6.

9. The large works called Um El Harab, with two ruined ateliers near them. 10. Abal Ghazaz, a working place in the water course of the same name, an upper branch of the Wadi Salbaugh. 11. The fine plain of Bada, with the Mashal El Arifat, heard of to the north. 12. Marwatt. Ruins on a ridge near Bada and signs of a settlement in the valley in the Wadi Lela remains also spoken of. 13. Abal Maru, probably the Zulmawa of Bilazuri, 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 Wadi Hams,

dividing southern Midian from Al-Hazaz in the Turkish dominions. 15, large remains in two divisions at Al-Hora. Concerning the Ateliers, details will be found in the following pages. Many of them suggest a compromise between the camps and settlements of the Stone Age, where, e.gis at Presigny and Grimes' graves, the only remnant of a man is a vast strew of worked selectors and the wandering fraternity of freemasons who hooted themselves near the work in hand, and I would heal a special stress upon my suspicion that the ancestors of the despised Houtaim may have been the gypsy cast that

worked the metals in Midian. For the date of the many ruins which stood the country, I will assume empirically that their destruction is coeval with that of the Christian churches in Negeb or the South Country that adjoins Midian proper on the north-west. It may date from either the invasion of Hustrao and of Shirwan, the conquering Sasanian king Khos Rowez, AD 531 to 579, or from the expedition sent by the Caliphah Omar and his successors beginning in AD 651,

but as will appear in the course of these pages, there was a second destruction, and that evidently dates from the early 16th century when Sultan Saleem laid out his maritime road for the Hajq caravan. Before that time, the Egyptian caravans, as will be seen, marched inland and often passed from Midian to Al-Hijur. End of Chapter 4. Section 6 of the land of Midian

Revisited by Richard F. Burton. This Libre Vox recording is in the public domain, read by Paul Wellford. Part 1, Chapter 5, Workout and Excursions from Marais Shuebe. By the blessing of Nebis Shoeb, and a glance from his eyrie, I at once suspected that the western Shigid was the mountain on a mountain alluded to by Hadjuw Ali, 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 wadis draining into the sea.

One, wadi-machna, trending north-west, and the other wadi-afal, southwest. The word is Ishma, affixed to the northern part of the route, is evidently the Hizma plateau, and not, as I had supposed it to be, the Jebel Taibazim. No, had away any difficulty in discovering Hajiwali's tree, a solitary mimosa to the right of the caravan track, springing from, from the sands of the Shigdawain gorge. The latter is formed by the sister blocks before alluded to.

The western Shigod, on the right of the Wadi Afal, is composed of carbonate of lime and sandstones dyed with manganese, the whole resting upon a core of gray 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 Shugud indeed is sufficiently peculiar.

It is the southern apex of a short range numbering some four heads. The eastern flank discharges the Wadi Qizars which feeds the afal and the western the wadi-machna. The summit of the broken and spiny cone is a huge perpendicular block, apparently inaccessible as a tower and composed of the dull yellow-phorginous conglomerate

called el-safra. The tint contrasts strongly with a line of bright white rheim or gypsum bisecting the head of wadi-machna. Below the apex is a thick stratum of manganese stained rock. The upper line, with a dip of 15 degrees towards the main valley, looks much like a row of bulwarks which had slipped from the horizontal while still bluffed between the north-east and east.

Indeed, the shape is so regular that Major de Caz at first sight asked if it was a construction. As soon as the washing trough was brought up from Sharma, we opened operations by digging a trench at least 12 feet deep in the re-entering angle of the bed close to the mimosa tree. The sand, pink above and claritic 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 till of the northern shig, the manganese-stained ta'ua, 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 ilmanite black sand of magnetic iron took the place of gold dust. And this unlooked-for end, and this unlooked-for end, again made us suspicious of my old friends proceedings. The first occasion was that of his notable malingering. Had he bought a pinch of tibir pure gold from the Bedouin and mixed it with a handful of surface stuff? Had the assayer at Alexandria played him a trick? Or has an exceptionally heavy torrent really washed down auriferous tailings? I willingly believed 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 paralogical process in the sandy clays brought from the mouth of Wadey Knaar. Meanwhile, despite our magnificent office, the Arabs managed to keep in violent their secret, if they had one. An old man, now rich merchant and householder at Suez, had repeatedly declared to Mr. A. G. K. Levick that in his young days, the Bedouin 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 abbot El Hamid al-Shamee interviewed after our return by Mr. Clark declared more than once and still declares that many years ago he obtained from the Wadi Zibar

behind the settlement a certain quantity of reddish sand which appeared to our riferous. He roasted and watched the contents of three small baskets called coffers by Europeans and this yielded a pinch of what looked like pure gold. In camp our men spoke freely of Tiber stored in quills, carried behind the ear and sold at Suez, not at Cairo for fear of consequences. Yet neither promises no bribes would persuade the poorest to break 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 contended themselves with telling us frequent tales of gold ornaments picked up after the rain. They showed us a ring made from a bit

found on the Tobuk Road and the invariably assure us that we shall find wondrous things about the next station. At Marais Schwab, we wasted a whole fortnight, January 11th to 24th, 1878, in vain works, and I afterwards bitterly repented that the time had not been given

to South Midian, yet the delay was plent enough after a month which is required to acquire or to recover the habit of tent life. The halting day was mostly spent as follows. At 6 a.m. and somewhat later on cold mornings, the Burjee said his revere,

come, y'habibi, sach al-nom, Rice 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 Massal Abu Duna 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 supplies with sweet milk, butter we have brought, and nothing is wanting for complete comfort but bread.

We then separate to our work after telling off the quarrymen to their several tasks. In veteran idlers and near-de-wells, their only object in life is not to labour. A dozen of them will pass a day in breaking £10 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 quieter life. They will do nothing without superintendence. While the officer is absent, they sit in chat, smoke or lie down to rest, and they are never to be entrusted with a water-skin or bottle of spirits.

The fellows will station one of their number on the nearest hill while 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 except a liberal, bachish, when the journey is done, with the usual Asiatic feeling, they know that they deserve nothing, but my dignity obliges me to Lajès. On this occasion, it did not.

Those told off to dig prefer to make a deep pit Because fewer can work together at it Rather than scrape off and sift the two feet of surface Which yield antichas They rob what they can Every scrap of metal stylus, manila or ring Is carefully tested, scraped And broken or filed

In order to see whether it be gold Punishment is plentifully administered But in vain We cannot even cure their unclean habits Of washing in and polluting the fountain source Three Europeans would easily do the work Of these 30 poor devils Mr Clark is our camp manager in general

He's also a Yeager He shoots the wild poultry duck and partridge Sandgrouse and Bob White the quail For half our dinners And the Arabs call him the angel of death Belonging to the birds He failed to secure a noble eagle In the Wadiafal whose nest was built

Upon an inaccessible cliff He described the bird as standing as high as our table And with a width of 6 to 7 feet from wing to wing He also brought tidings of a large horned owl possibly the same species of the fine bird noted at Sinai. The Arabs call it classically Bumar and vulgely um Kouake, mother of squeaking. The fellahin believes that it sucks out children's eyes and hence their name Massasa. Here, as in the Sinaitic pinciler, the owl and the hyena are used as charms,

and the burnt feathers of the former and the boiled flesh of the latter, superior filth, are considered as infallible specimens for numerous disorders. In other parts of Arabia, the hooting of the owl portends death, and the cry, fat, fat, is interpreted, he is gone, gone. The two staff officers make plans and sketches of the new places, or they protract their field books, working very hard and very slowly. I have but little confidence in their route surveys, sight are taken from muleback, and distances are judged by the eye.

True, the protections come out well, but this is all the worse, suggesting the process commonly called doctoring. For the style of thing, however, dead reckoning did well enough. Monsieur Lacasse is the most ardent, accompanied by his favourite orderly Salamat al-Nahas, an intelligent negro from Darfur. He sets out after breakfast with a bread of bread, a flagon of water, a tent umbrella and his tools, which eluses with remarkable punctuality to spend the whole day sketching, painting and photographing. Monsieur Philippine is our useful man.

He super-intends the washing cradle. He wanders far and wide, gun in hand, bringing us specimens of everything that strikes the eye, and he is great at his forge. The Bedouin sit for hours gazing attentively as he converts a file into a knife and illustrating the reverence with which, in early days, men regarded Vulcan and Whelan Smith. At 11 a.m., the bugle sounds

Tidjuri to Akul, run and feed, a signal for de june a frichette. It is a soup, a stew, and a pilaf of rice and meat, sheep or goat, the only provisions that poor Midian can afford, accompanied by onions and garlic, which are eaten like apples, washed down with Bon Ordinaire, followed by cheese when we have it, and ending with Tio coffee.

George the cook proved himself an excellent man when deprived of oil and undemoralised by contact with his fellow Greeks. After feeding the idlers who have slumbered or rather have remained in bed between 8pm and 6 to 7 a.m., generally manage a couple of hours siesta, loudly declaring that they have been wide awake. One of the parties seems to live by the blessing of him who invented sleep, and he is always good for half of the 24 hours, how they must envy him whose unhappy brains can be stupefied

only by poisonous chloral. At 2pm, after drinking tea or coffee once more, we proceed for another four hours spell of work. A sunset and the cold hours draw near, all assemble about the fire, generally two or three huge palm trunks whose blaze gladdens the soul of the lonely night sentinel, and assembling the sheikhs of the Arabs,

we gather from them information, geographical, historical and ethnological. The amount of invention or pure fancy of arid lying is truly sensational, while at the same time they conceal from us everything they can, and more especially, everything we most wish to know. Firstly, they did not want us to spy out the secrets of the land, and secondly, they count upon fleecing us through another season. During the whole day, but notably at this hour,

we have the normal distractions of the Arabian journey. One man brings an expert's back shish for a bit of, broken metal or some ridiculous stone, another grumbles for meat, and a third wants tobacco, medicine, or something to be had for the asking. I am careful to pay liberally, as by so doing, the country is well scoured. Dinner at 7pm is a copy of what was served before noon. It is followed by another sitting around the fire, which is built inside the mess tent when cold compels. At times, the conversation lasts till midnight, and when cognac or whiskey is plentiful, I have heard it abut upon the Battle of Waterloo and the immortality of the

soul. Piquet and Ecate are reserved for life on board ship. Our only reading consists of newspapers which come by camel post every three weeks and a few Tochnitz, often old volumes. I marvel as much as Hamlet ever did to see the passionate influence of the storyteller upon those full-grown children, bearded men, to find them in the midst of this wild new nature so utterly absorbed by the fictitious wheel and woe of some poor creature of the author's brain that they neglect even what they call their meals, allow their teas to cool, and strain their eyesight pouring over page after page in the dim light of a rusty lantern. Thus also the Egyptian, after sitting in his cafe with all his ears and eyes opened their widest while a storyteller runs out the old tale of Abu Zaid,

with disputes till midnight and walk home disputing about what under such and such circumstances they themselves would have done. To me, the main use of Tochnitz was to make Arabia appear the happier by viewing from the calm vantage ground of the desert, the meanness and the littleness of civilised life in novels. The marching day is only the halting day in movement. By 7 a.m. in winter and 4 a.m. in spring, we have breakfasted and are ready to mount mule oedromedery. More generally, however, we set out, accompanied by the Saeed and the sheikhs for a morning walk. The tent, and most important of all, the tent table, are left to follow under the charge of the Egyptian officers who allow no dawdling. With us are the cook and the two body servants,

riding, of course. They carry meat, drink and tobacco in my big tin cylinder intended to collect plants, and they prefer to give us cold whilst we fight for hot breakfasts. After resting between 10 a.m. and noon in some shady spot, generally under a thorn, we ride onto the camping ground, which we reach between 2 and 3pm. This is the worst part of the day for man and beast, especially for the mules, hence the necessity of early rising. The average work rarely exceeds six hours, equals 18 to 20 miles. Even this, if kept up day after day, it's hard labour for our montures, venerable animals whose chests, gold by the breast straps, show that they have not been broken to the saddle. A custom through life to ply in a state of semi-somnolence between Cairo and the

citadel. They begin by proving how unintelligent want of education can make one of the most intelligent of beasts. They trip over every pebble and are almost useless on rough and broken ground. They start and swerve at a man, a tree, a rock, a distant view, or a glimpse of the sea. They will not leave one another, and they indulge their pet dislikes. This shies as a camel that kicks at a dog. Presently, Tamadun, as the Arabs say urbanity, or more literally being citified, asserts itself, as in the human cockney, and at last they become cleverer and more knowing than any country-bred. They climb up the ladders of stone with marvellous caution and slip down the slopes of sand on their haunches.

They round every rat hole, which would admit a hoof, and they know better than we do where water is. They are not always well treated. The galloping griff is a monster who enjoys lambing and bucketing, even a half-donkey. Of course, the more sensible animal of the two is knocked up, whilst the rider assumes the airs of one versed in the haught e-col. The only difficulty, by no fault of the mules, was the matter of irons.

Shoeless, they could travel only in sand, and, as has been said, the farrier was forgotten. Amongst our recreant sheikhs, I must not include Fréj bin Raffir El-Hawaiti, a man of whom any tribe might be proud, and a living proof that the Badawi may still be a true gentleman. A short figure, meager of course, as becomes the denizen of the desert, but hard as nails, he has straight, comely features, a clean dark skin and a comparatively full beard, already like his hair waxing white, although he cannot be 45. A bullet in the back, and both hands distorted by sabrecuts, attempts at assassination due to his

own kin do not prevent his using sword, gun and pistol. He is the Agid of the tribe, the African captain of war, as opposed to civil authority, the sheikh and to the judicial, the Khazi. At first, it is somewhat startling to him prescribe a slit wizened as a cure for lying, yet he seems to be known, loved and respected by all around him, including his hereditary foes, the Maazza. He is the only Badawi in camp who prays. Naturally, he is a genealogist, rich in local law. He counteracts all the intrigues. He counteracts all the intrigues. by which that rat-faced little rascal, Sheikh Hassan al-Ukby,

tries to breed mischief between friends. He is a walking map. It would be easy to draw up a rude plan of the country from his information. He does not know hours and miles, but he can tell to a nicety the comparative length of a march, and when ignorant, he has the courage to say, Ma'adri, don't know.

He never asked me for anything, not told a lie, nor even hid a waterhole. Willing and ready to undertake the longest march, the hardest work, his word is, Hazir, I'm here, and he will even walk to mount a tired man. Seated upon his loud-voiced little Hidjan, remarkable because he is of noble Bishari strain

bred between the Nile and the Red Sea, he is ever the guiding chief. At last it ends with Nadi Sheikh Farage, call Sheikh Farage, when anything is to be done, to be explained, to be discovered. I would willingly have recommended him for the chieftainship of his tribe,

but he is not wealthy. He wisely prefers to see the dignity in the hands of his cousin, Alleyan, who, by their why, is helpless without him. He remained with us to the end. He seemed to take a pride in accompanying the expedition by sea to El Hora, and by land to the waddy hams, far beyond the limits of his tribe. When derided from mounting a pair of government blutches tied over bare feet with bits of glaring tassel string from his camel saddle, he quoted the proverb. Whose liveth with a people

40 days becomes of them? We parted off the most friendly adieu, or rather, au revoir, and he was delighted with some small gifts of useful weapons. I wonder whether Sheikh for age will prove milk, to use Sir Walter Scott's phrase, which can stand more than one skimming. In such wild travel, the traveller's comfort depends mainly upon weather. Usually, the air of Mrein Shrebe was keen, pure and invigorating, with a distinct alternation of land breeze by night and of sea breeze by day. Nothing could be more charming than the flushing of the mountain at sunrise and sunset, and the magnificence of the windy, wintery noon. The rocky spires, pinnacles and domes, gluing with gorgeous golden light, and the lower range is shaded with hazy blue, umber red, and the luminous purple fell into picture

and formed prospects indescribably pure and pellucid. But the average of the aneroid 29.19 gave an altitude of 800 feet, and even in this sub-maritime region, the minimum temperature was 42 degrees Fahrenheit, ranging to a maximum of 85 degrees Fahrenheit in the shade. These are extremes, which the soft Egyptian body reared in the house or the hut could hardly support. Darwesh Fendi followed suit after Yusufufendi. It was a study to see him swathed to the nose, bundled in the thickest clothes, with an umbrella opened against the sun,

and with a soldier leading his staid old mule. Bouchet Ahma and several of the soldiers were laid up. Ahmed Kaptan was incapacitated for work by an old and inveterate hernia, the effect, he said, of riding his violent little beast and a sound ague and fever, which continued three days, obliterated in my own coast the last evils of Carl's Bard. We had one night of rain in January the 15th, beginning generally at 2.30am,

an ending in heavy downfall. Unfortunately, a pluvometer was one of the forgotten articles. Before the shower, Earth was dry as a bone. Shortly after it, sprouts of the greenest grass began to appear in the low places, and under the shadow of perennial shrubs. The cold damp seemed to make even the snakes torpid. For the first time in my life, I trod upon one.

A clairvoyant, having already warned me again serpents and scorpions. There were also bursts of heat ending in the normal three grey days of raw piercing norther and followed by still warmer spell. Upon the gulf of Al-Aqabar, a violent gale was blowing. On the whole the winter climate of inland Midian is trying and a speedy return to the seaboard air is at times advisable, while South Midian feels like Thebes after Cairo. The coast climate is simply perfect, save and except when El-eili the storm went from Akabata-eila is abroad. My meteorological journal was carefully kept, and despite the imperfection of the instruments, Mr. Clark registered the observations during my illness. Mr. Deguid, anissier-Captan, made simultaneous

observations on board the ships, and Dr. Maclean kindly corrected the instrumental errors after our return to Cairo. I had proposed to march upon the Hizmar or Sandy Plateau to the east, which can be made from Maire Shoebe, without the mortification of a knakab or a ladder of stone. Thereupon are Tagayat, Hauetat sheikhs and the camelman began to express great fear of the Imran Huitat refusing to enter their lands without express leave and the presence of a Ghafir or surety. Our caravan leader, the gallant Saeed, at once set off in search of Brahim bin Makbul, second chief of the Imran and recognised by the Egyptian government as the avocat, spokesman and diplomatist, the liar and intriguer of his tribe.

This man was found near El Hagel, too long marches ahead. He came in readily enough, holding in hand my kerchief as a pledge of protection and accompanied by three petty chiefs, Musalam, Saad and Mohesin, all within an eye to Bakhishish. In fact, every naked-footed cousin, a little above the average clansman, would call himself a sheikh, and claim his mushajira, or monthly pay. Not a Cataran came nearer's, but affected to hold himself dishonoured, if not provided at once with a regular salary. Braym was wholly beardless, and our Egyptians quoted their proverb, Sabah el-Kurud, and la Sabaan el-Ajud.

better see ill-alement monkeys in the morning than the beardless man. As the corruption of the best turns the worst, so the Badawi, a noble race in its own wiles, becomes thoroughly degraded by contact with civilisation. I remember a certain chief of the Wilde Ali tribe near Damascus, who was made a freemason at Beirut, and the result was that Brother Muhammad became a model villain. By way of payment for escort and convinced to the Hizma,

Brahim expected a recognition of his claim upon the soil of Mechrebe, which belonged to that wretched Masaid. He held the true Ishmaelitic tenet that as Saidna, our lord Adam, had died intestate, so all men Arab have a right to all things, provided the right can be established by might. Hence the saying of the falar, shun the Arab and the age. Thus incurred by the sheikhs, the dodgers of the clansmen, became as manifold as they were palpable. They wanted us to pay for camping ground. They complained aloud when we cut a palm front for palms,

or used a rotten fallen trunk for fuel. They made their sheep appear fat by drenching them with water. The people of the Fort El Muella determined not to der Rojeet sent to us for sale, the eggs laid by our own fowls, and so forth. Presently, Brahim brought in his elder brother

Khzir bin Mahboul, about as ill-conditioned a cuss as himself. Very dark, with a left eye, clean gone, this worthy appeared pretentiously dressed in the pink of desert fashion, a scarlet cloak, sheepskin-lined, and bearing a huge patch, of blue cloth between the shoulders, a crimson kafftan and red Morocco boots with irons resembling

ice cramps at the heels. Like Brahim, he used his Bakur or crooked stick to trace lines and dots upon the ground. Similarly, the Yankee whittles to hide that trick that lurks in his eyes. Khazir tents in the Izmar and his manners are wild and rough as his dwelling place, possibly manly, brusque, certainly, like the desert drusers of the Jebel Horan. He paid his first visit when our sheikhs were being operated upon by the photographer. I fancied that such a novelty would have attracted his attention for the moment, but no, his first question was, Esh Ujahati, what is the hire for my camels? Finally, these men threw so many difficulties in our way that I was compelled to defer our exploration of the eastern region to a later day. After a week of washing for metals at Mairechweb,

it was time to move further afield. On January 17th, the Egyptian staff officers rode up to the Wadiafal and beyond the two pyramidal rocks of white stone which have fallen from the tower Shigd. They found on its right bank the ruins of a small atelier. It lies nearly opposite the mouth of Wadi Tafriq, which is bounded north by a hill of the same name and south by the lesser Shigd. Beyond it comes the Wadi Nemeer, the broad drain of the Jibble el Nemeer, hills of the leopard fitting the Ufal. The upper valley is said to have water and palms. After a leg to the northeast, 45 degrees magnetic, they found the afal running from due north and one hour or three miles led them to the other ruins on the eastern side of their low hills that prolonged to the north

the greater shegd. The names of both sites were unknown even to Sheikh Farage. The foundation of uncut boulders showed a semicircle of buildings measuring 229 paces across the horseshoe. They counted 11 tenements, probably occupied by the slave owners and superintendents, squares and oblongs, separated by intervals of from 45 to 97 or 100 paces. On the north-northeast lay the chief furnace, a parallelogram of some 23 paces built of stone and surrounded by scatters of broken white quartz and scoria. These two workshops seem to argue that the country was formerly much better watered than it is now.

Moreover, it convinced me that the only rock regularly treated by the ancients in this region was the metallic maru or quartz. I had heard, by mere chance, of a white mountain at no great distance in the mass of hills bounding to the north of the secondary formations of Mare Choueb. On January 21st, Monsieur Marie and Lieutenant Amiens, were detached to inspect it.

They were guided by the active forage and a Badawi lad, Hamdan of the Amriat, who on receiving a stone dollar, i.e. silver, could not understand its use. Traveling in a general northern direction, the little party reached their destination in about three hours for nine miles. They found some difficulty in threading a mile and a quarter

a very ugly road, a knackab passing through rocks clittering with mica, a ladder of stony steps and overfalls with angles and zigzags where camels can carry only half-loads. The European dismounted. The Egyptian, who was firm in the saddle, rode his mule the whole way. We afterwards, however, explored a comparatively good road via Wadi Moach to the seaboard, which will spare the future metal spelter, much trouble and expense. The quartz mountain is, like almost all the others, the expanded mushroom-like head of a huge filon of vein,

and minor fillets thread all the neighbouring heights. The latter are foothills of the great Jebel Zanar, a towering dark and dome-shaped mass clearly visible from Marechewebe. This remarkable block appeared to me the tallest we had hitherto seen It is probably the Tayyibatism 6,000 of the hydrographic chart The travellers ascended the Jebel Al-Maru

trembling the while with cold And from its summit some 1500 feet above sea level They had a grand view of the seaboard and the sea They brought home specimens of the rock And fondly fancied that they had struck gold It was again the abominable crow gold Or pyrites Which had played the unwary traveller

So many a foul practical joke During our stay at Mahas Shouyeb, the camp had been much excited by Badaward reports of many marvels in the lands to the north and northeast. The Arabs soon learned to think that everything was worth showing. They led Monsieur Lacasse for long miles to a rock where bees were hiving. A half-naked Umeri shepherd won Suaid bin Saeed had told us of a Hajar Masdud closed stone about the size of a tent, with another of darker colour set in it. The Arabs had been able to break it open, but they succeeded with a similar rock in the Hizma, finding inside only ten. or tribunated chore and charcoal. Another had seen a Kidder-Dahab golden pot in the

Alighan section of the Wadiahagal, where it leaves the Hizmaa and a matchlock man had brought down with his bullet a bit of precious metal from the upper part. This report prevails in many places. It may have come all the way from the Pharaoh's treasury at Petra or from the Sinaitic Wadi Lijar. At the mouth of the latter is the Hajar al-Kidir or Potrock, which every passing Arab either stones or strikes with his staff, hoping that the mysterious Yotensil will burst and shed its golden shower. Moreover, a half-witted maazi, my name Masai, had tantalized us with a glorious account of the House of Antar in the Hizma

and the Cistern where that negro hero and poet used to water his horses. Near its massive walls rises a hazbah, or steep and silitary hillock, with dims or layers of ashlar atop. He had actually broken off a bit of greenstone, sticking in the masonry, and sold it to a man from Tor, possibly Chawaj, Constantine, from a large sum two Napoleons, a new shirt and a quantity of coffee. A similar story is found in the Badiat al-Tih, the desert north of the Sinaitic Peninsula,

and the ruined cairns of Harabat-Lusan, the ancient Lisa, an Arab saw a glimmer of light proceeding from a bit of curiously cut stone. This he carried away with him and sold to a Christian at Jerusalem for three pounds. Sheikh Brahim had also heard of this marvel, but he called it the Harab Antar or the ruin of Antar, and he placed it in the wady Al-Hagel, about an hour's ride south of the Wadi Afal. Finally, a tablet in their Wadi, Hawaii,

adorned with a dragon and other animals, was reported to me, and the memory of inscriptions mentored in the Jihan Numa were still importunate. Evidently all these were mere fancies, or at best gross distortions of facts. The Bedouin repeat them in the forlorn hope of Baksish and never expect action to be taken.

Next morning they will probably declare the whole to be an invention, yet it is never safe to neglect the cry of wolf, our most remarkable discovery, the temple at the Wadi Hams was made when report promised least. Accordingly, on January 24th, I dispatched with Shech's Chisur and Brahim as guides Mr. Clark and the two staff-lieftainants towards El Rijum, the next station of the Pilgrim Caravan. Riding up the Wadi at Fal, they reached after an hour and three quarters, the ruins known as Igar Moas, a name of truly barbarous sound.

The settlement had occupied both banks, but the principal mass was on the left. Here, two blocks separated by a hillock later the northeast, and southwest of each other. Apparently dwelling places they were composed of a masonry system and of 14 buildings, detached squares and oblongs irregular both in orientation in size, the largest measuring 8 by 50 metres and the smallest 5 by 4. The material was of water-rolled boulders, huge pebbles without mortar or cement. There was no signs of a furnace nor were the usual fragments of glass and pottery strewed about. To the north and running out the north-northeastern slope towards a line of wall two meters broad and 300 long.

It ended at the southwestern extremity in five round towers raised to their foundations. It was suggested that this formed part of a street laid out on the plan of the Jebelor Safra, the Hoareville of Mgheb. On the right bank of the wadi appeared a heap of stones suggesting a burge. Fine, hard, compact and purple-blue slate was collected in the ruins and the red conglomerates on either side of the watercourse suggested that Cascalho had been worked. After riding the drummeries some three hours, Holtz not included,

the travellers were asked why they had not brought their tents. Because we expect to return to camp this evening. Then it leaked out that they had not reached halfway to the closed stone while the dragon tablet would take a whole day. Unprepared for a wintry night in the open some 1,200 feet above sea level, they rode back at full speed greatly to the disgust of the Arabs, who, at this hungry season, rarely pushed their lean beasts beyond three and a half to four miles an hour.

Lieutenant Tamir, who is invaluable in the field, would have pressed forward, not so the European. I did not see Shech's Khazir Obrahim for many a day, nor did we attempt any more reconnaissancees to the north of Mughe Sheweb. Not the least pleasant part of our evening's work was collecting information concerning the origin of the tribes inhabiting modern Midian, and, as on such occasions, a mixed multitude was always present, angry passions were often let rise. As my previous volume showed, the tribes in this Egyptian corner of North Western Arabia number 3, the Huetat, the Makinawi and the Benyuk-Bah, who former of late date and all more or less connected with the Nile Valley. Amongst them, I do not include the Houtem or the Hittame, a tribe of Parayas, who, like the Ahtdam Serviles of Mascat and Yemen, live scattered amongst, although

never intermarrying with their neighbours. As a rule, the numbers of all these tribes are grossly exaggerated, the object being to impose upon the pilgrim caravans and to draw blackmail from the government of Egypt. The Huitat, for instance, modestly, declare that they can put 5,000 matchlocks into the field. I do not believe that they have 500. The Maaza speak of 2,000, which may be reduced in the same proportion, whilst the Bali have introduced their 37,000 into European books of geography, when 370 would be nearer the mark.

I anticipate no difficulty in persuading these Egypto-Arabs to do a fair day's work for a fair and moderate wage. The Bedouin flocked to the Suez Canal, took an active part in the digins, and left a good name there. they will be as useful to the minds and thus shall Midians get the modification of the red flannel shirted Jove while enjoying his gold shower.

I first took the opportunity of rectifying my notes on the origin of the Huatat tribe. According to their own oral genealogists, the first forefather was a lad called Alayan who, travelling in company with certain Shorafar descendants of the Apostle and ergo held by his descendants to have also been a Sharif fell sick on the way.

At Al-Aqabar he was taken in charge by Atiyah, Sheikh of the then powerful Maazza tribe who own the land upon which the fort stands. A clerk, able to read and to write, he served his adopted father by superintending the accounts of stores and provisions supplied to the haj. The Arabs, who, before that time embezzled at discretion, called him El Hueti, the man of the little wall,

because his learning was offence against their frauds. He was sent for by his Egyptian friends. These, however, were satisfied by a false report of his death. He married his benefactor's daughter, He became Shech after the demise of his father-in-law. He drove the Maaza from Elakhaba and he left four sons, the progenitors and eponemi of the Midianite Huitat. Their names are Alwan, Imran, Soai'id and Sa'id,

and the list of 19 tribes which I gave in the gold mines of Midian is confined to the descendants of the third brother. The Huatat tribe is not only an intruder, it is also the aggressive element in the Midianite family of Bedouin, and of late years it has made great additions to its territory. If it advances the present rate it will, after a few generations either eat up, as Africans say, all the other races, or by a more peaceful process, assimilate them to its own body. We also consulted Sheikh Hassan and his cousin Ahmed, alias Abu Khatum, concerning the origin of his tribe, the Benny Okbah.

According to our friend Frej, the name means son of the heel, Akab, because in the early wars and conquests of al-Islam, they fought during the days by the Muslim side, and at night when going over to the Nazarenes they lost the spore by wearing their sandals heel foremost and by shewing the horses the wrong way. All this they indignantly deny and they are born out by the written genealogies who derive them from Uqbar,

the son of Mahrahab, son of Herm of the Khartiani Jokataite Arabs, some of the noblest of Badawi blood. They preserve the memory of their ancestor Uqab and declare that they come from the south, that is, they are of Hajazi descent, consequently far more ancient than the Huitat. At first called El Musa Alimah, there were lords of all the broad lands extending southwards between Shama,

and the Wadi Damar, below the port of Ziba, and this fine valley retains, under its Huiti occupants, the title of Okbiyah, Uqbao land. Thus, they still claim as milk or uneliable property, the Wadi's Rha, Shama, Enuna, and others, whilst their right to the ground upon which Fort El Muella is built has never been questioned. The first notable event in the history of the Benny Okbar was a quite, that rose between them and their brother tribe, the Beni Amr. The Ainal Tabacha, the fine water of Wadi Magan, now called Wadi Makna, was discovered by Ahatemi shepherd of the Benny Ali clan while tending his flocks.

Others say that the lucky man was a hunter following a gazelle. However that may be, the find was reported the sheikh of Musalima, Benny Okba, who had married Ayyifa, the sister of Ali bin Nejee, the Beni Amar chief, whilst the latter had also taken his brother-in-law's sister to wife. The discoverer was promised a genu or Sabata date bunch from each palm tree and the rivals waxed hot upon the subject. The Musalima declared that they would never yield their rights, a certain ancestor, Asela, having first pitch tent upon the Rehamat Makna or White Horse of Makna.

A furious quarrel ensued, and, as usual in Arabia, as in Hibernia, both claimants prepared to fight it out. To repeat the words of our oral genealogist Farage, now when the wife of the sheikh of the Musalima had heard and understood what Satan was tempting her husband to do against her tribe, she rose up and sent a secret message to her brother of the Benny Amr, warning him that a certain person, Fulan, was about to lay violent hands on the beautiful valley of Al-Madjan. Hearing this, the Benny Amr mustered their young men and mounted their horses and drummerries and rode forth with jingling arms, and at midnight they found their opponents asleep in El Khabd. The beasts being tied up by the side, of their lords. So they cut the cords of the camel, they gagged the hunter who guided the attack, they threatened him with death if he refused to obey, and they carried him away with them towards Makna. When the Musalima awoke, they discovered the deceit, they secured their beasts and hastened after the enemy following his track like Azrael. Both met at Machnaar when a battle took place,

and Allah inclined the balance towards the Beny Amr. The Musalima, therefore, became exiles and took refuge in Egypt, and in the flow of days it so happened that the sheikh of the Beny Amr woke suddenly at midnight and heard his wife as she sat grinding at the quern, sing this quatrain. If the hand-mill of fate grind down our tribe, we will bear it, O thou Allah, that aidest to bear. But if the mill grind the foreman tribe, we will pound and pound them as thin as flour. Whereupon the sheikh in his wrath Caesarstone and cast it at his wife, had knocked out one of her front teeth, She said nothing, but she took the tooth and wrapped it in a rag and sent it with a message to her brother, the Sheikh of Masalima. Now this chief was unable to revenge his sister single-handed, so he travelled to Syria and threw himself at the feet of the great Sheikh of the Wahidi tribe, who was also a Sharif.

The Wahidi dispatched his host, together with the warriors of the Musalima, and both went forth to do battle with the Benny Amr. The latter being camped in a valley near Enuna, tethered their dogs and, some say, left behind their old people and lit huge huge, bonfires, whence the name of the places Udi Um Niran, the mother of fires to this day. Before early dawn they had reached in flight the Wadi Arawah of the Jibble El Tehama. In the morning of the Musalima and the Wahadi, finding that a trick had been practised upon them, followed the foe and beat him in the Wadi Arawah killing the Sheikh. And the chief of the Masalima gave his widowed sister as wife to the Wahidi and settled with his people in their old home. The Benny Amur fled to the Hizma and exiled themselves to the Kavā'ar

in Syria where they still dwell, owning the plane called the Ganan Shabib. There is now peace between the Beni Akbar and their kinsman, the Beni Amr. The second event in the history of the tribe, the tale of Abu Rish, shall also be told in the words of Phuraj. After the course of time, the Beni Akbar, aided by the Maaza, made war against Sharafar, who were great lords in those days and plundered them and drove them from their lands. The victors were headed by one Salama, Hauheti, who dwelt at Al-A. al-Aqabar and who had become their guest. In those ages the daughters of the tribe were wont to ride before the host in their wahadig or camel litters singing the war song

to make the warriors brave. As Salama was the chief Mubare's champion in single combat the girls begged him to wear when fighting a white ostrich feather in his chain helmet that they might note his deeds and chant his name. Hence his title Abu Rish the father of a feather. The shrives being beaten made peace, taking the lands between Wadi Damar and El-Hijaz, whilst the Benny Uqbah occupied Midian-Proper, North Midian, between Damar and Shama and Sharia. Abu Rish, who was a friend to both the victor and vanquished, settled among the sheriffs in the Sier country, south of Wadi Dama. He had received to wife as a reward for his bravery, the daughter of the sheikh of the Benny Uqbar, and she bear him a son, Id, whose tomb is the Wadi Gharal, between Ziba and El Muella. On the Yom al-Sibu, or seventh day after birth, the mother of Eid followed the custom of the Arabs,

and after the usual banquet presented the babe to the guests, including her father, who made over Wadi Enuna in a free gift to his grandson. Now, Eid used to lead the caravans to Cairo for the purpose of buying provisions, and he was often plundered by the Maaza, who had occupied by force the Wadi's Shama, Tyrium, and Sur of El Muella. This Eid Ibn Salama left by Heweti woman, a son Alean, surnamed, Amu Tokika father of a scar from a sabercut in the forehead.

He was the founder of the Togagat Hwaitat clan and his descendants still swear by his name. Once upon a time when leading his caravan he reached the Wadi Afal and he learned that his enemies the Maazza and the black slaves who garrisoned and Malewa were lurking in the Wadi Mare. So he placed his load

under a strong guard and he hastened with his kinsmen of the Huatat to the Hizma where the Maazza had left their camels undefended. These he drove off and rejoined his caravan rejoicing. The Maaza, hearing of the disaster, hurried inland to find out the extent of the loss, abandoning the black slaves, who nevertheless were still determined to plunder the kaffila. Alean was apprised of their project, and, reaching the wedding Um Ghehehele, he left his caravan under a guard

and secretly posted 50 matchlocked men in El Sowera, east of the hills of El Mawela. He then, behold his cunning, tethered between the two hosts at a place called Zila, east of the tomb of Sheikh Abdullah ten camel cults without their dams. Roused by the bleating, the negro slaves followed the sound and fell into the ambush and were all slain. Alain returned to the Seer country when his tribe the Waitat said to him, Heya! Up! To battle with his Ba'aza and Benny Akbar, either they uproot us or we uproot them. So he gathered the clan and marched to a place called El Bezah, where he found the foe in front. On the next day the battle began and it was fought out from Friday to Friday. A truce was then made

and it was covenanted to last between evening and morning, but at midnight the enemy arose. He left his tents pitched and fled to the Hizma. Alain followed the fugitives, came up with them in the Wadi Sadr and broke them to pieces. Upon this, they took refuge in Egypt and Syria.

After a time, the Benny Okpach returned and obtained pardon from Alain the Huiti, who imposed upon them six conditions. Firstly, having lost all right to the land, they thus became brothers, i.e. Servar. Secondly, they agreed to give up the privilege of escorting the Hajj caravan. Thirdly, if a Huwaiti were proved to have plundered pilgrim, his tribe should make good the loss,

but if the thief escaped detection, the Benny Uqbah should pay the value of the stolen property in coin or in kind. Fourthly, they were bound not to receive as guests any tribe, enumerating a score or so at enmity with the Huatat. Fifthly, if a Sheikh of Huatat fancied a dromedary belonging to another Benny Uqbar, the latter must sell it under cost price, and sixthly, the Beni Uchba were not allowed to wear the Abar or Arab cloak. The Beni Okba were again attacked and worsted in the days of Sultan Salim by the hereditary foe, the Maaza. They complained at Cairo and the Mamluk Bays sent down an army which beat the enemy in the Wadi's Sur. They had many quarrels with the southern neighbours, the Bally. At last, peace was made and the land was divided, the Beni Okbaa taking the tract between the Wadi's Damar and El Muzerib.

Since that time the tribe has been much encroached upon by the Huatat. It still claims, however, as has been said, all the lands between El Mouela and Makna, where they have settlements, and the Jebel Harb, where they feed their camels. They number some 25 to 30 tenths, boasting that they have hundreds, and, as will appear, their Sheikh Hassan El Mokubi, amuses himself by occasionally attacking and plundering the wretched McNawis or people of Macknaar, a tribe weaker than his own. End of Section 6. Chapter 6 of the land of Midian, revisited by Richard F. Burton.

This Libre Vox recording is in the public domain, read by Paul Wellford. Chapter 6. To Mackna and our work there, the Magani or McNawis. After a silly fortnight at all Madiamer, I resolved to march upon its seaport, Mackna, the McNar of Ptolemy, which the people also call Madian. We set out at 7 a.m. on January the 25th, and after a walk of 45 minutes, we were shown by Fréj, a redir or shallow basin of clay shining and bald as an old scalp from the chronic sinking of water

in the middle stood two low heaps of fine white cement mixed with brick and gravel while to the west we could trace the framework of a mortared fiscilla or cistern measuring five metres each way the ruin lies a little south of west 241 degrees magnetic from the greater shigd and is directly

under the catacumbed hill which bears the preying place of jethro a tank in these regions always presupposes a water pit and there are lingering traditions that this is the well of Moses, so generally noticed by medieval Arab geographers. It's the only one in the Wadi Makna, not to mention a modern pit about an hour and a half further down the valley, sunk by the Bedouin some 20 feet deep. The walls of the latter are apparently falling in, and it is now bone dry. But the veritable Moses well seems to have been upon the coast,

and if such be the case, it is clean forgotten. True, Masaid, the mad old Maazi, attempted to trace a well inside our camp by the seashore, but the Beny-Ukker, Bar, to whom the land belongs, had never heard of it. After marching about six miles, we entered a gorge called Um El Bibar, the mother of gates, formed by the stony spurs of the Wadi Bank. The number of birds and trees, especially in the Cyanitic valleys, showed that water could not be far off. At 10 past 10 a.m., a halt was called at the halfway place, a bay or hollow in the left

cliff El Homera, the little red, an overhanging wall of riddy grit, some 80 feet high, with strata varying in depths from a few lines to as many fathoms, all differing in and all honeycombed, fretted and sculptured by wind and rain. Above the red grit, weathered into a thousand queer shapes, stood strata of cloretic sand, a pale yellow-green, and capping it rose the usual dull-brown carbonate of lime. Large fossil oysters lay in numbers about the base, suggesting a prehistoric feast of the Titans. Amongst them is the monstrous Tridacna or Gigantia, which sometimes attends a growth of a yard and a half. One of these is used as a binitier at the Church of St. Sulpice, Paris. Amongst the layers,

were wavy bands of water-ruled crystals, jasper's, bloodstones, iron-revited pebbles, and almonds, which, in the Brazil, accompany and betray the diamond. We had no time to make a serious search, but when the metals shall be worked, it will, perhaps, be advisable to import a skilled prospector from the Brazil or the Cape of Good Hope. At noon, we met the heaven-sentence-scent, life-sustaining sea-breeze, and now the broad and well-marked Wadi-McNar, with its rosy-pink sands, narrowed to a gut, flanked and choked on both sides, north and sound. by rocks of the strangest trickler, green-black, yellow-white, and rusty red. The gloomy peak, which had long appeared capping the heights ahead,

proved to be the culmination of a huge upthrust of porphyritic trap. Bottle green, when seen under certain angles and dull, dead sable at others, it was varied gated by cliffs and slopes polished like dark mirrors and by sooty sand shents disposed at the natural slope. Crumbling outside, the lower strata passed from the cellar to the compact and are often metalliferous when in contact with the quartz. At these salbanes the richest mineral deposits are always found. Set in and on the black flanks and looking from afar like gouts of a bloodstone

are horizontal beds, perpendicular spines and detached blocks of falsitic porphyry and of rusty red cyanite altered, broken and burnt by platonic heat. In places where the trap has cut through the more modern formations it has been degraded by time from a dike to a ditch, The latter walled by the ruddy rocks and sharply cut as a castle moat. And already we could see, on the right of the wadi, these cones and crests of ghastly, glaring white gypsum, which we had called the hats.

These gloomy cliffs approaching their maritime plain sweep away to the south and melt into the red hills visited on our first excursion. They are known as the Jebel al-Abdain of the two slaves. This perhaps is the Doric pronunciation of the Bedouin for Abdin slaves. Presently, we cited the familiar features of the seabor described in my first volume, especially the Rikhamat El Margaz to the north, and westward the Gulf of Aqabar, looking cool and blue in the Arabian glare.

After five hours and 30 minutes, for 17 miles and a half, in the saddle, we reached Mackin. I had thought of encamping the praying place of Moses, a fine, breezy sight which storms would have made untenable. As at Charmah, camels must turn off to the right over the banks when approaching the mouth of the Wadi Magian, whose bed is made impassable by rocks and palm-thicket. We then proposed to pitch the tents upon the valley sands within the gate, but this was overruled by the Saeed, who told grisly tales of fever and ague. Finally, we returned to our former ground near the old conglomerates and the mass of new shells which led to the shore of the little harbour.

Approaching it, we were delighted to see the gunboat, Mochbigh, steaming up despite the contrary wind from Sham Yaha. She was towing the sambouk, which brought from Enuna Bay our heavy gear, rations and tools. This was a stroke of good luck. Already we were on half-rations and provent for men and mules threatened to run short. Our weekend McNar, January 25th to February 2nd, justified the pleasant impression left by the first visit

and enabled us to correct the inaccuracies of a flying survey. This valley of waters, with its pink and yellow cleritic sands, is bounded on the right near the sea by a sandbank about 100 feet high, a loose sheet thinly covering the dikes of Sinite and the porphyritic trap, which in places peep out. Possibly it contains, like the left, flank veins of quartz lowered by corrosion and concealed by the sand drift spread by the prevalent western winds the high level abounds in detached springs probably the drainage of ragharmat

macnaar the huge horse or buttress of gypsum bearing northeast from the harbour the principal veins number three the uppermost and sweetest is the ayn al tabachar in the middle height is el tiyuri or umal teyro with the dwarf cataract and its tinkling song whilst the brackish ain al fara'i occupies the valley soul. Besides these, a streak of palms perpendicular to the run of the waddy shows a rain basin, dry during the droughts, and higher up, the outlying dates springing from the arid sands are fed by thin veins which damp the rocky base. Hence, probably Dr. Beek identified the place with the Elim of the Exodus. His artist's sketch from the sea, page 340 is, however, absolutely unrecognizable. The high-level spring and the middle water

rise in sandy basins, course down, deeply furrowed beds of grit, and, after passing through a tangler vegetation, a dense forest of palms, alive and dead, and open patch as sewn with grain, willfully waste their treasures in the upper slope of the right bank. This abundance of water has developed a certain amount of industry. Although the Bedouin tear to pieces the young male dates, whose tender green growth, at the base of the front supplies them with a chore, a number of artificial runners has been trained to water dwarf barley plots, whose fences of date fronts defend them from sheep and goats,

and further down the bank are the fruit trees which first attracted our attention. The low-level water consists of two springs. The upper is the Ain El Ereana, springing from the sands under the date trees which line the right and left sides. Apparently it is the drainage of a gypsum hat called El Kuleb, the little dog.

In their Doric, the Peruvian pronounced the word Galeeb. Further down the bed, and divided by a tract of dry sand, is the Ain El Farai, which also rises from both banks, forms a single stream, sleeps in deep polluted pools like ferry baths among the huge boulders of grey granite and finally sinks before reaching the shore.

When these waters shall again be regulated, as of old, they will prove amply sufficient for the vegetable and the mineral. Anton the Greek, who everywhere saw the shop, were so charmed with the spot that he at once laid out his establishment. Here shall be the hotel, there the billiard and gambling room, and there the garden, the kiosk, the bouvet. in fact he projected a miners' paradise. On the crest of this right bank above the vegetation lies the traditional Mussolette Musa or Moses' oratory, of which the foundations, or rather the base stones, are in situ.

The large Ancian measures without including two walls projecting from the northeast and northwest angles, an oblong of 37 by 25 feet, and as usual, with Midianite ruins, it has been built up of all manner of material. The inner sanctum opens to the west, the northern and southern basement lines only remaining. The former is composed of eight blocks of gypsum resembling alabaster,

five being larger than the others, and the sudden of three. Upon these, the Bedouin still deposit their simple ex-votos, oyster and other shells, potsherds and coloured pebbles. The left or opposite bank which wants water is formed by the tall, conglomerate capped cliffs which support the Mozart or Outsville, and by the warty block called Jebel El Fahisat. In the Gold Mines of Midian, Chapter 12, it is called El Muzendi, an error of my informants for El Mazeudi.

The latter is the name of the small red hill north of our camp. I again visited the high town, which is about 100 feet above the valley. Presently it will disappear bodily as its base is being corroded, like the Jebel El Safra of Makhuebe. The wall still standing form a long room running north-south, and two adjoining closets set off to the northeast and southeast. This sadly shrunken upper settlement covers the remnant of the rocky plateau to the east, There are also traces of buildings on the southern slopes.

Ruined heaps of the usual materium, gypsum, dot and line the short broad valley to the north, which rejoices in the neat and handy name Waji Majera Sale Jebel El Maru. Here, however, they are hardly to be distinguished from the cloretic spines and natural sandbanks that stud the bed. The only antiquities found in the Mutali were a stone cut into parallel bands and the fragment of a basalt door with its pivot acting as hinge in the upper part. He reminded me of the Greek or Roman townlets in the hall. or ran where the credulous discovered giant cities and similar ineptitudes. Our search for Middineine money was in vain.

Mr. Clark, however, picked up near the sea a silver tamur, the Moghal, with a curiously twisted Cufic inscription from AH 734. The Ushash or front huts of the McNawi and the Beniochbah were still mostly empty. At this season, all along the seaboard of northwestern Arabia, the Bedouin are grazing their animals in the uplands, and they will not return coastwards till July and August. supply the date harvests. The village shows the in consequence of doors and wooden keys to defend an interior made of Cajan or dry date fronds which bound in bundles make a good hedge, but at all times

a bad wall. One of its peculiar features is what looks like a truncated and roofless oven. In this swish cylinder they pound without soaking the date kernels that feed their camels, sheeps and goats. A few youths, however, who remained in this apology for a deserted village, assisted as in night fishing with a lantern, and they brought from the adjoining roofs the most delicate of shell and scalefish. The best were the longus, palinarius vulgaris, the clueless lobsters called crawfish or crayfish in the United States, and the augusta or avagosta of the Adriatic. It was confounded by the Egyptian officers with Abu Galambo, the crab or cancer pelagicus. Yeshanidae of various species, large spined and small spined, the latter white as well as dull red,

were preserved in spirits. Amongst the excellent fish, the Marjan, The Sultan al-Bahar, the palameter or scomber, the makli, red mullets, muggle, cephalas, and the boori were monstrous animals with big eyes and long beaks like woodcocks. Some of these were garnished with rows of ridiculously big teeth. I failed to procure life specimens of small turtles, and yet the holes were full of carapaces, all broken and eight-ribbed. One species, the sacchar, supplies tortoise shells sold at sewers for 150 piastras per rattle or pound. The Bissar, another large kind, without carapace, is.

used only for eating. Both are caught off the reefs and islets. An eel-like water snake Marina showed fight when attacked. The Arabs do not eat it, yet they will not refuse the shagha or large black land snake. The enforced delay at McNar gave us the opportunity of making careful reconnaissancees in its neighbourhood. During the last spring I had heard of a Jebel El-Kibid, Sulphra Hill, on the road to Ainuna, but no guide was then procurable. Shortly after our return, a Badawi named Jaze, brought in fine specimens of brimstone pure crystals adhering to the secondary calcerre, and possibly formed by decomposition of the sulphate of lime. If this be the case, we may hope to find the mineral generally diffused

throughout these immense formations. Of course, in some places the yield will be richer, and in others poorer. Further investigation introduced us, as will be seen, to two southern deposits, without including one heard of in northern Sinai. All lie within a short distance of the sea, and all are virgin. The Bedouin import their sulphur from the Bar El Ajum, the popular name for Egypt, properly meaning Persia or any non-Arab land. Thus, in one important article, Midian rivals, if not excels, the riches of the opposite African shore, where for a single mine, 30 millions of francs have been demanded by way of indemnity. But times on January 26th, a caravan of four camels from the two quarrymen and the guide set off southwards, carrying sacks, tools,

and other necessaries. They did not return to the morning of the third day. Jaze had lost the road, and the Bedouin rather repented of having been so ready to disclose their treasures. Of course, our men could not ascertain the extent of the deposits, but they brought back rich specimens which determined me to have the place surveyed. Unfortunately, I had forgotten a sulphur-still, and the engineer vainly attempt to extract the ore by looting together two iron mortars and by heating them to a red heat. The only result was the diffusion of the sulphur crystals in the surrounding gypsum.

This discovery gave me abundant trouble. The second search party was a failure, and it was not until February 18th that I could obtain a satisfactory plan of the northern Jebel El Karuit. At Mackna, I was much puzzled by the presence of the porous basalt, which had yielded on the first expedition a vein of electron, gold and silver, mixed by the hand of nature. The platonic rock, absent from Wadee Makna, appears in scatters along the shore to the north. Our friend for age knew nothing nearer than El Harar, the volcanic tract bounding the Hizma on the east and distant some five days march. This was going too far. Quirons of the same material found in all the ruins suggested a neighbouring outcrop.

Moreover, during the last spring I had heard of a mining site called Nakhil Tayyib Isam, the palm orchard of the good name, in the so-called range to the north of Mackna. Lieutenant Amir was dispatched January 27th to seek for basalt, with a small drometry caravan under the lead of Sheikh Forage. After winding for about two hours along the shore, which is cut by the broad mouths of many Awadi and whose corollines, grits and limestones are weathered into the strangest shapes, he left to the right or east the light-coloured Jebel-Suk

On the southern side of the Wadi-sook which drains it to the sea a hill of the porous stone which the Arabs call Hajar al-Hara appeared The specimens brought home Sivera sunt expositor if they really be taken from an outcrop prove that volcanic centres

detached, sporadic and unexpected like those found further north occur even along the shore as will appear afterwards another little harach was remarked by Burkhart Syria page 522 about one hour and a quarter north of Sinaitic Sherman.

He says here, for the first and only time, I saw volcanic rocks, and he considers that their extension towards Raz Abu Muhammad may have given rise to the name. Wellstead, who apparently had not read Burkhard, makes the same remark. The many eruptive centres in the limestones of Syria and Palestine were discovered chiefly by my late friend, loved and lamented Charles F. Tiroit Drake, who would be interesting to ascertain the relation which they bear to tile great, lines of volcanism in the far interior, the Horan and the Harar, subtending the coast mountains,

and Dr. Beak, another friend now know more, would have been delighted to know that his true Mount Sinai was not unconnected with a volcanic outbreak. Beyond the Wadi Suk, a bad rough path leads along the base of the Taizim mountain, then the cliffs fall sheer into the sea, explaining why caravans never travel that way. Yet there was a maritime road, for we know that Abou Sufjan on his way from Syria to fight the battle, of Badr, AH2, passed by a roundabout path for safety along the shore of Midian. Thus compelled the track bends inland and enters a Nacob, a gash conspicuous from the Gulf, an immense cannon or coulua that looks as if ready to receive a dike or vein.

Curious to say, a precisely similar formation prolonged to the southwest cuts the cliffs south of Masad Dhab in the Sinaitic Peninsula. The southern entrance to the gorge bears signs of human habitation, a parallelogram of stones 120 paces by 91 has been partially buried by a landslip, and there are remnants of a dam measuring about 100 metres in length. About 300 yards higher up, water appears in abundance, and palm clumps grow on both sides of it. Here, however, all trace of man is wanting. The winter torrents must be dangerous, and there is no grass for sheep. The crevasse now becomes very wild. The pass narrows from 50 to 10 paces, and in one section, a loaded camel can hardly squeeze through, whilst the cliff walls of red and grey

granite tower some 2,000 feet above the thread of the path. Water, which as usual, sinks in the sand, is abundant enough in three other places to supply a large caravan and two date clumps were passed. Hence, if all here told to be true, the Nakhil or Palm Plantation Taib Isam reported to the first expedition. After covering 16 miles in five hours, the caravan has not made more than half the distance to the Beir al-Marshi where a small masar or anchorage ground called El Soehil, the little shore nestles in the long sand slope between the mountain Taib ism and its huge northern neighbour the Masha block. From this well of the walker a pass leads to the Wadi Mahshah where according to certain Bedouin I found extensive ruins and the Biban or Doors or Catecumes. The whole is

however an invention our side had ridden down the valley during his journey to Al-Hagel. On the next day another reconnaissance was made. I had been shown fine specimens of quartz from the Eastern Highlands. Moreover, a bottle of bitter or sulphur water from the Wadi Mabug, the oblique or Crooked Valley, mentioned in the gold mines of Midian, had been brought to us with much ceremony. Those who tasted it indeed were divided as to whether it smacked more of brimstone or of ammonia. Accordingly, Mr. Clark and Lieutenant Yusuf walked up the Wadi Makna and ascended the Mabug where the mineral spring proved to be a shallow pool of rainwater, much frequented by animals, camels included. Search for the Maru was more successful.

They found a network of veins in the sandstone grits of the Jebel Umla Saf, and they thus established the fact that the white stone abounds to the east, as well as to the south of Mackna. Meanwhile, we were working hard at the Jebel El Farisat, the great discovery of the northern journey. I had been struck by the name of the watercourse to the north of the Otville, Wadi Marja's sail Jebel Almaru, the niller of the divide of the turret that pours from the mountain of quartz.

Moreover, a McNawi lad, Id ibn Morsin, had brought in fine specimens of the negro or iridescent variety offering to show the place. Lastly, other Badawi had contributed fine specimens of Maru with the grey copper standing out in its veins. On the evening of January 27th, we walked up the picturesque mouth of the Macknaw Valley. After passing the conglomerate gate

and the dwarf plantations on both side above it, we reached in 45 minutes the spot where the lower water Ein El Farai tumbles over the rock of grit and granite. On the left bank, denoted by luxuriant growth, of rushes is an influence called Shab el-Kazi or the judges pass. Ascending it for a few paces, we struck up the broad and open Fumara, which I shall call for shortness, Wadi Maghra. The main drink of many branches, it is a smooth incline perfectly practicable to camels, with banks and buttresses of green yellow cleritic sand and longitudinal spines outcropping

from the under surface. It carries off the surplus water from the northwestern slopes of that strange wave-like formation, the Jebel al-Fahisat, which bounds the right southern bank of the Wadi Makina. Presently, we cited the Jebel al-Maru, the strangest spectacle. The apex of the gloomy, the gloomy, porphyritic trap is a long spine of the tenderest azure white, filmy as the finials of a Milan cathedral, and apparently melting into thin air. Its crest seems abnormally tall and distant, and below it a huge grey vein, horizontal and wavy, cuts and pierces the peaklet of red rock, and is cut and pierced in its turn by two perpendicular dikes

of porphyritic trap, one flanking in the right and left shoulders of the low cone. When standing upon the old veal during my first visit, I had remarked this white lady of a vein without, however, attaching to it any importance. After a quarter of an hour's walk up the Madiwajar, we came

to a sandy base of the rocky Fahisat and climbed up a torrent ladder with drops and stiff gradients which were presently levelled for the convenience of our quarrymen. A few minutes swarming, Placed as upon the narrow knife-like ridge of snowy courts so weathered that it breaks under the hand. This is the aerial head from which below appears so far. The summit, distant from our camp about one direct mile and a quarter,

gives 355 degrees to the gypsum hill, Rez-Al-Tarach on the shore, 358 degrees to the palm clump nearest the sea, and due north, 360 degrees, all magnetic to the tents, which are well in sight. The altitude is about 600 feet. The view from this summit of the Faizat is charming as it is extensive. Westward and broad, stretching to the northwest, lies the fair blue gulf that shows on its far side the broken mountains of the Sinaitic Peninsula. Northwards at our feet stretch the palm groves of Makna,

a torrent of verdure pouring towards the shore. A little to the left, sheltered from the boreal wind by the white gypsious ridge, Razaltara, the head that surrounds, and flanked at both ends by its triangular reefs, the sham Maknaar, the past and future ports of the mountains, mines supports the miniature gunboat no larger than a cock and the sambouk dwarfed to a boy. Beyond the purpling harbour along the glaring yellow shore cut by broad waddy mouths and dotted here and there with a date clump, the corallines grits and sandstones are weathered to the quaintest

forms, giant pins and mushrooms, columns and ruined castles. These maritime lowlands are bounded on the north by heights in three distinct plains. The nearest is the Jebel Suke, low and white. farther rises Taib Isam A chocolate-coloured mass studded with small peaks While the horizon is closed by the grand blue wall The Jebel al-Mazhafa In places their precipices drop bluff to the sea But the huge valley mouth separating the two greater ridges

Have vomited a quantity of sand Forming the tapering tongue and tip known as the little shore Turning to the east and the south-east We have for horizon the Wadi al-Haraj backed by its immense right bank of yellow gypsum which dwarfs even the Raghamat Magnaar, and over it we catch sight of the dark and gloomy Kalbel Nakhla,

a ridge which, running parallel with and inland of the Hafahisat, will be worked when the latter is exhausted. We at once recognised the value of this discovery when, reaching the tents, we examined the quartz and found it seemed and pitted with veins and geodes containing Colorado, earthy and crumbling metallic dust, chloro, aiodure and brumure of silver with various colours, red, ochre yellow and dark chocolate brown.

It stained the fingers and was suspiciously light, non-porte. I must regret that here, as indeed throughout their exploration, all our specimens were taken from the surface, we had not time to dig even a couple of feet deep. The lad I'd almost fainted with joy and surprise when the silver dollars were dropped into his hand one by one with the reiteration of,

here's another for you, and here's another. This lavishness served to stipulate cupidity, and every day the Bedouins brought in specimens from half a dozen different places. But the satisfaction was at its height when the crucible produced, after cupulation, a button of silver,

weighing some 20 grams from the 100 grams of what the grumbling Californian miners had called in their wrath dashed black dust, and when a second experiment yielded 28 grams, each 15 grains and a half, and 10 centigrams from 111 grams, or about a quarter of a pound avois de Poix.

In the latter experiment, also, the coulot came away without the letharge, which almost always contain traces of silver and antimony. Hence, we concluded that the proportions were 30 to 110, a magnificent result, considering that 12.5 to 100 is held to be rich ore in the silver mines of the Pacific States. The engineer was radial with pride and joy. The yellow tints of their buttons promised gold, query 2%, query 3%. The immense wealth lay before us a ton of silver is worth 250,000 francs.

Meanwhile, and now I take blame to myself, no one thought of testing the find, even by blow with the hammer. Alas, the splendid buttons proved to be iron, containing only two and a half grams of silver to 100 kilograms. I can afford to make merry on the absurd mistake, which at the time filled the camp with happiness. The Jebel al-Fahisat played as an ugly trick, yet it is, not the less, a glorious, metalliferous block, and I am sure of its future. The rest of our time at McNar was given to the study of this discovery. The great quartz wall, or vein, runs nearly due north and south, with a dip of five degrees west. It has pierced the cyanite, forming a sheet down one peak, spanning a second, and finally appearing in an isolated knob that bore from the apex 215 degrees magnetic.

The upper part, like that of the Jebel Al-Abiaz, is apparently sterile. At a lower horizon it becomes panache, and at last almost all is iridescent. In fact, it is the Fionne Hossein, still richer in vins and geodes. The fie and fibres of dust are exposed to sites in the flanks, and near the base of the great quartz vein, we should never have been able to remove the barren upper capping. Every day's work brought with it some novelty. The Jebel el-Mara, the centre or focus of the formation,

was found to push out veins to the north, extending within a few yards of the Wadi-Makana's mouth. Here, however, the quartz embedded in a grey granite appears cupriphorous, producing fine grey copper, and the same is the case to the east of the Farhisart block. Other green-tinged veins were found bearing 205 degrees magnetic from our camp. There is also a quartz hill whose valley drain, about a mile and a third long, leads down to the sea, about two minutes walk south of the southern clump of tabernacles

occupied by the McAnawis. The dust is richest as usual at the walls where the vein is in immediate contact with the heat-altered granites, whose red variety containing very little mica becomes quasi-sionitic. Certain of the exhibition thought that the faissart showed signs of having been worked by the ancients, my eyes could see nothing of the kind, and here, as in other parts of our strange country, there is a medley, a confusion of different formations. On February 2nd, the day before we left McNar, the arrows brought in heavy masses of purple, black, metalliferous rock scattered over the gorges and valleys south of the Jebelofahisat, while others

declared that they could point out a vein in situ. Our engineer declared it to be Argentiferous galena, but it proved to be magnetic iron. His assays were of the rudest. He broke at least one crucible per day, lamenting the while that he had been supplied with English articles instead of Crusade de Bogogne. And no wonder, he treated them by a strong blast and a furious coal fire without previous warming. His muffle was a wreck, and such by degrees became the condition of all his apparatus. However, as we sought, so we found, hardly a Badawi lad in camp, but unpouched some form of metallic specimens. The sheikhs declared that the wealth of Karun must have been dug here, and I vainly told them that the place of punishment of

Korar, Dathan and Ebrahim is still shown by Christians in the convent of Mount Sinai. On January 28, after a ruddy and cloudy sunset, El Ely, the Akaba wind beginning at 11pm, gave us a taste of his quality. These northers are the tyrants of the Gulf, which comparatively unbroken by capes and headlands allows them all their own way, carrying a strong swell, and at times huge waves to meet tide inflowing from the Red Sea. The storm began with a rush and a roar as if it came from above. The gravel, striking the canvas sounded like hail or heavy raindrops. It then kicked down at one blow the two large tents. They had been carefully pitched above the reach of the water

when wind only was to be guarded against. Fortunately, most of our goods were packed in expectations of embarking on the morrow, but the fall broke all the breakables that were not undercover and carried newspaper and pamphlets, including, again alas, the Rosso Pentegonal of Elie de Beaumont over the plain southwards till arrested by the heights of Jebel el Farisat. This bora, as it would be called on the Adriatic, makes the air exceptionally cold and raw before dawn. It appears to obey it between noon and sunset, and it is most violent at night. It either sensibly increases or lessens in turbulence with moonrise, and it usually lasts from three to seven days. We rigged up one of the native huts with the awning of a tent

till it looked very like a gypsy dwelling and in patience we possessed our souls grumbling horribly like Britons. Poor Captain Muhammad of the Mochbibir, who had already escaped one shipwreck, was in mortal terror. He had once got steam up and kept his weary vigil all night. He was perfectly safe as the northern reef under which the Sambu Musahil rode easily

as if in smooth water, and the headland, Razal Tarah, formed a complete defence against the Aili, while the natural pier to the south would have protected him from its complement the Asiabor south-easter. But it would have been very different had the storm veered to the west

and the terrible rabbi set in. The port of Mackinau, which had been described in the gold mines of Midian, can hardly be called safe. On the other hand, its floor has not been surveyed and a single brised lame seawards would convert it into a dock. I should propose a gal giante

a floating breakwater, tree trunks in bundles, strongly bound together with iron cramps and bands, connected by stout rings and staples, and made fast by anchors to the bottom, and at any rate, on the Sinaitic shore opposite, at the distance of 13 knots, there is, as will appear, an admirable harbour of refuge. Next day, the cloud vale lifted, and the mountains of Sinai and Midian, which before had been hidden as if by a November fog in London, again stood out in sharp and steely blue.

I proposed to board the gunboat. A float, we should have been much more comfortable than a shore in the raw, high and dusty-laden wind. The Egyptian officers, however, quoted the unnotical Fala's favourite sores, El Baro BIR Le Ahtlihi. Earth is a blessing to those upon her. Zetatat el-Gimal, the roar of the camels

and not the prayer of the fish, and the sailors saying, Calbel Bar, wala sabah al-Bacher, better be a dog ashore than a lion afloat. The public voice was decidedly against embarking, so two more days of gale were spent in adding to our collection of mineralogy.

On the other hand, the Saeed and the three sheikhs were anxious for a speedy return to El Mawela where the Hajj caravan was expected on Safar 10th equals February 11th and where their presence would be officially required. On the last day of January, I voted off to the Mokbibir several tons of the specimens collected during the northern March, including the iron, the sulphur and the fine white gypsum, crystalline and amorphousis which forms the Raghamat Makna. Lieutenant Yusuf and Monsieur Philippine were directed to remain in camp until they should have collected and placed upon the seashore

ready for embarkation on our return, one ton of white quartz, three tons or one cubic metre of the iridescent variety, and four boxes half full of the silver, brackets, iron, dust, whose veins and pockets seem the negro. They were also to wash in the cradle two tons of the pounded cascalho conglomerate gravel, one ton of the green yellow, claritic or serpentine sand

forming the undersurface of the Wadi Makna which used to four gerbours or water sacks and five tonnes of the dark metal not Argentiferous Galena after that they were to visit the northern Sulphra Hill estimate its contents trace if possible its connection with adjoining formations map the country and prospect for wood

water and harbour lastly they were ordered to march with the whole camp including our meals upon El Muela and there to await my return the three normal days of El Eli had come and gone still the Fortuna did not fall The water paved with dark slate

And domed with an awning of milky white clouds Patched here and there with rags and shreds Of black wintry mist that poured westwards from the Suez Gulf Showed us how ugly the Bucrat Ackabar can look As in Iceland also the higher rose the barometer The higher rose the norther The latter being a cold dry wind Is consequently a heavy wind

And when the sky was comparatively clear and blue The display of Siri was noticeable In some places they formed filmy crosses and thready lozenges. In others, the rack fell into the shape of the letter Z, and from the western horizon the cold clouds shot up thin rays with a common centre hid behind the mountains of Sinai, affecting all the airs of the sun. Before leaving McNar, I must give an account of its peculiar tribe,

concerning which the gold mines of Midian contained sundry inaccuracies. These men are not the pauper descendants of the wealthy Midianites. They cannot boast of ancient race or of noble blood, and their speech differs in nothing from that of the Arabs around them. They can be no greater mistake than to suppose that they represent in any way the ancient Nabathians. In features, complexion and dress, they resemble the half-settled Bedouin around them, and like these, they show a kind of connection with the Sinaitic tribes.

The Magani, to whom only the southern clump of huts at McNar belongs, call themselves Fawaida, Zubeda and Ramazani, after families of the Johani stock, and the Fawahida have, by descent, some title to the name. They are however considered to be Khadamin serviles like the Houtem race by their neighbours who give tile following account of their origin. An Egyptian silk cellar who accompanied the haj caravans happened to fall asleep at Khuzibah between the stations of Enuna and Makhueb. His companions went their ways and he, like a beet eater as he was, fearing to follow them alone, made from Maknaar, having married and settled there and seeing in the fertility of the soil.

A prospective speck he sent to his native. country for Falahin cultivators and peasants who were collected from every part of the fairer land in its neighbourhood. The newcomers were compelled to pay one half of their harvest by way of El Achawa the brother tax in token of subjugation to the Benny Okbar, the owners of the soil. They have gradually acquired milk or legal title to the ground. According to some, they first settled at Mackinah in the days of the Benny Amr, who they subsequently accompanied to the Hizma when flying from the victorious Masalima. After peace was patched up, they were compelled to make over one-fourth of the date harvest as Al-Ajahua to the Imran Huetat and to the Maaza, whilst the Tagigat-Huitat claimed a

Burrish or Matt of Fine Reeds as a pull-tax from every head of man. Under these hard conditions, they are left unmolested and everything taken from them is restored by the sheikhs who receive tribute. They have no chief, although one Salim Ibn Jouyevili claims the title. Before 1866, the Magani numbered about 100 tenths. The Wadi Maknau was then, they say, a garden, and its cultivators were remarkable for their goodness and hospitality to strangers. But in that year, a feud with the Benny Okbaugh was excited, as often happens by their belly tetarima causa.

The women quarrelled with one another, saying, Thy husband is a slave to my husband, and so forth. The little tribe hoisting two flags of red and white calico with green palm fronts for staves, dared the foe to attack it. After a loss of four killed and sundry wounded All ran away manfully, leaving their goods at the mercy of the conqueror Shech Hassan al-Kukbi was assisted by the Maaza in looting the Magani huts and in carrying off the camels

While Sheikh for age vainly attempted conciliation Shortly afterwards the McNawis went in a body to beg aid from Hamad al-Sofi Shech of the Turabin tribe which extends from Gaza or Gaza Westward to Egypt Marching with a host of armed followers He took possession of the palm huts belonging to the the Beni-Ukbar, when the owners fled in turn, leaving behind their women and children. Farage hastened from Enuna to settle the quarrel, and at last the Sophie said to him,

Whilst I protect the Magani, do thou protect the Benny-Ukbar? Whereupon the latter returned from their mountain refuge to Elmuela. The Magani at the present time are mostly camped about Enuna, and only some 15-head, old men, women and boys who did not take part in the fight, and who lived by fishing, remain at Macknaar under the protection of the Benny Okba. hence the waters are waste and the fields are mostly unhowed. Such as the normal condition of Arabia and the Arabs. What one does, the other undoes.

What this creates, that destroys. Professor Palmer tells us another misconception is that all Arabs are habitual thieves and murderers. Fear of the terrible vendetta, the blood feud and the blood gild amounting to about $800 prevents the Bedouin here as elsewhere slaying any but strangers. The traveller experience, however, was chiefly of the Tuara or Sinaitic Bedouin, a race which, as bad could be in the early quarter of the present century, has been thoroughly tamed and cowed by the fear of Allah and the consul,

and the curse pronounced by the Jews against their brother Ishmael, his hand shall be against every man, etc, must, as was known even in the days of Gibbon, be taken with many a grain of salt. Yet the Bedouin of Midian have till late years been a turbulent, mixed multitude and are ready to become troublesome again. It is only by building forts and by holding the land military, that the civilised can hope to tame this vermin. I repeat, however, my conviction that the charming McNar Valley is fated to see happy years

and that the wild man, who, when ruled by an iron hand, is ever ready to do a fair day's work for a fair wage, especially victuals, will presently sit under the shadow of his own secular vines and fig trees. About midnight on February 2nd, the tempestuous northerly gale, which had now lasted four days and five nights, ceased almost suddenly. The signs of the approaching calm were the falling of the mercury, the increased warmth of the atmosphere, and the shifting of the wind towards the east. All

hailed the change with joy. The travellers looked forward to ending their perigranations, while the voyagers, myself included, hoped safely to steam around the Gulf El Aqabar and to trace as correctly as possible to extend, the trend, and the puissance of the quartz formations. At Cairo,

Mr. Consul Rogers told me he had found them in large quantities, feigning the red grits of Petra, and I thought it possible that the white stone may extend under the waters of Aqabar into the peninsula of Sinai. End of Chapter 6 Chapter 7 of the land of Midian revisited by Richard F. Burton. This Libre Vox recording is in the public domain, read by Paul Wellford. Chapter 7. Cruise from McNar to Al-Aqabar

This Red Sea in the land of Edom won Kings 926 is still, as Wellstead entitles it, a vast and solitary gulf. It bears a quaint resemblance to the eastern folk of the northern Adriatic, the Querno, whose name expresses its terrible storms, while the sewers branch shows the longest stretch of the triesteine bifurcation. Yamilath, or Eloth, as the Hebrew is called Alacabar, has, by the obheaval of the land, lost more of its fair proportions than its western sister. It was at one time the embouchure of the Jordan,

extending up the Wadi al-Arabah to the asphaltite lake or dead sea, before the former became, so to speak, a hill and the latter a hole. This view dates from olden times. If you suppose, says Cornelius a lapide, that is a suavemente, while an abasemento formable the mammotho, and that Jodano sejitazne the gulfo elanitico, yam elath.

I know the Maroso, prima del destortio di Sodoma. For the latter date, we have only to read, when a movement of depression sank the lower Jordan Valley and its present reservoirs, the Tiberius Lake and the Dead Sea to their actual level. There is nothing marvellous nor unique in the feature, as it appears to those suffering from that strange malady wholly land on the brain.

The oxus and the Caspian show an identical formation, only the sinking has been on a smaller scale. Well said was unfortunate both in his weather and in his craft, to encounter a sea of breakers and northerly gales with a high and dangerous, swell in a Richard Bougala, i. Sambuque, and in that perfect tub, the palinurus, was somewhat like tempting providence, if such operation be possible. No wonder that in this gulf, in a course of only 90 miles, the nautical mishaps were numerous and varied. The surveyor, however, neglected a matter of their highest interest and importance,

namely to ascertain whether there be any difference of level between the heads of the sewers and the Aqabar waters. The vicinity of continuous maritime chains, varying from six to nearly 9,000 feet suggests an amount of attraction theoretically sufficient to cause a sensible difference of plane. It would be well worth while to run two lines of survey, one from Al-Aqabar to Suez and the other down the eastern flank of the Sinaitic Peninsula.

The Mugabeer, like the Paliniras, promised a certain amount of excitement. Her boiler, I have said, was honeycombed. It was easy to thrust one's fist through it. Mr. David de Guide, the engineer, who on occasion worked 36, hours at a stretch had applied for 60 new tubes and he wanted 150. We began with 240. We lost when in the Gulf from 3 to 9 per DM, a total of 75 and the work of the engine room and the ship's

carpenters consisted in plugging fractures with stays, plates and wedges. Presently the steam gauge or manometer gave way making it impossible to register pressure. The combustion shiver showed a rent of 18 inches long by one wide. The result of too rapid cooling, and lastly, the donkey engine struck work. Under these happy circumstances, bursting was not to be expected. Breaking down was a regular collapse, which would have left us like a log upon the stormy waves. A new boiler might have cost perhaps £900, and the want of one daily endangered a good ship which could not be replaced for £9,000.

I therefore determined upon a safer chorea, that is, steaming by day and anchoring at night in some snug bay. It was also agreed, Nemcon to till the Sambukel al-Masahil in order that, should accidents happen, it might in turn act tug to the steamer, or even at a pinch, service as a lifeboat. Nothing becomes Makenar better than the view on leaving it. A varied, an attractive picture of this, with the turquoise blue of the deep water, the purple and leek green tints of the sholy and sandy little port, and the tony shore dotted by six distinct palm tufts.

There are outliers on the mainline, yon flood of verdure, climbing up and streaming down from the high, dry and barren banks of aranecious drift, heaped up and filmed over by the wind, and lastly surging through its narrow gate, with the clifflets of conglomerate forming the old coast. At the bluff headland of the Razaltara to the north of the harbour, and behind it the Rajamat Makhna, the greenish-yellow flat-backed horse of Madion, which, shimmering in the sunset, with a pearly luster, forms the best of landmarks. Finish to the south of the waddy with a quaint chopping outlines

of the Jebel El Fahisat, resembling from afar a huge alligator lying on the water, with a similar but lower forms to the north of the valley, both reflected in the Gibral al-Hamara, the red hills, whose curtains of green black trap

are broken by sheets of dull, dead white plaster. Cap the hole with the mighty double coin of gypsias Jebel Al-Haraj, buttressing the eastern flank of its valley, and with the low, dark metal-ravited hills of the Kalbal Nakhla,

a copy of the Phahisat Throw in the background, slowly rising as you see from the shore, a curtain of platonic peaks and buttresses, cones, coins, Coppola's, parrot beaks, with every trick of shape from the lumpy zahd to the buttressed and pinnickled urnub, with every shade of mountain tint between lapis lazuli and plum purple. Dumb the whole with that marvellous transparent sky, the ocean of the air that spreads loveliness over the rugged cheek of the desert, and you have a picture which, though distinctly Arabian,

you can hardly expect to see in Arabia. From the offing also, we note how the later formations, granite and cyanide, seemed with a network and often topped by cones of porphyritic trap, have upthrust, pierced and isolated the older secondaries. We traced this huge deposit of sulphates and carbonates of lime from the sudden wady hams through the islets at the mouth of Burkat, Aqabah, all along the shore of North Midian. Here it crosses diagonally the northern third of the Aqabar Gulf,

and forms the northeastern base of the Sinaitic Peninsula, whilst eastward it stretches inland as far as Maire Shoeb. The general disposition suggests that before the upheaval of the Ghats, the Gibble-Elthahama, this vast gypsious sheet, was a plain and plateau covering the whole country until a movement of depression caused by the upheaval of the igneous mountains sank in it the Gulf of Aqabar. At present, the surface is here flat,

there hilly like huge billows breaking mostly to the north and reaching an altitude of twelve hundred feet above the surface. Hence the lines stretching north-south, the Fahisat, the Red Hills and the Calab el Nakhla looked like so many volcanic island reefs floating in a sea of greenish-yellow secondaries. Like the old Irish post-horse, the difficulty in danger of our kettle consisted in starting it. Two tubes at once burst and a new hole yawned in the boiler. Moreover, our anchor had been thrown out in a depth of 73 feet. At 9 a.m. February 3rd, we stood straight for the Sinaitic shore, distant 13 miles, direct geographical,

and in three hours we made the charm, Marse or Minat al-Dahab, the Golden Anchorage Cove or Port. Another hour was spent steaming southwards to the dock harbour, wrongly so-called in the charts, the pilots and the many sambuques that take refuge in it, know the place only as Minat Jainai. The northern bailet, preferred when suddenly winds blow, is simply the ombouchure of the Wadi Dhab, Fiumara of gold. The name is properly applied to the sub-maritime section of the valley, draining the eastern flanks of the so-called Mount Sinai.

This great water course breaks through the ghats, which, always fringing similar peninsulas, peak to the south. It reaches the gulf at a shallow sag marked by a line of palms. The centre of the three, they are fed by the several nillas and are watered with the brackish produce of sundry wells. The Stasio

Malafida is defended to the north by a short sanspit and a submerged and southwards by a projection of sandstone conglomerate. The latter, running from northeast to southwest, subtends this part of the coast and serves to build up the land. After a few years, the debris swept down by the watercourse will warp up the shallows, dividing shore from outlier. Such, in fact, seems to be the general origin of these sandpits,

beginning as Coraline reefs. They have been covered with conglomerates and converted into terra firmer by the rubbish shot out by the wady mouths. The southern port, Jinnai, is formed by a bend in the reef which sweeps round from east to south-west like a scorpion's tail. The natural seawall, at once dangerous and safety-giving, protects to the south and southeast diabolitus of black rock visible only at high tide. Inshore, the sickle-shaped brickwater runs by east to southwest, becoming a sandy hook and enclosing a basin whose depth ranges from seven to twelve fathoms. Its approach from the south is clean and the western opening is protected. by the tall screen of coast cliffs, the Jebel al-Ginai,

whose deep black, porphyritic gorge seemingly prolongs that of Medianite Tayib ism. This is a section of the Gibel al-Samgri, the coast range which extends as far north as the Wadiwateur. The dock port, so useful when the terrible norther blows, has an admirable landmark, visible even from Sinafair Island, and conspicuous at the entrance of the Gulf. Where the sandy slopes of southeastern Sinai land end appears a large white blot, apparently supporting a block, built like a bastion upon a tall hill of porphyritic trap.

We call this remnant of material harder than the rest, Burjal Dhab, the Tower Hill of Dhab. I have been minute in describing the Golden Harbour. Scant justice has been done to it by the hydrographic chart, and it will prove valuable when the Macknau mines are opened. Ahmed Kaptan vainly attempted soundings. He was too ill to work. Wellstead's identification of the site with Ezzion Gaberer 2-9, and the reef with a rock ledge which wrecked Jehoshaphat's fleet has one great objection. No ruins are known to exist near it. The formation of this part of Sinai, as far as we can see from the shore, reflects in wilder forms and more abrupt lines the opposite coast of Midian. There is, however, the important difference

that the secondaries and the quartz veins they're so important are here wanting. The skeletons of mountain and hill appear as if prolonged underwater. The really Sinait is diked and veined by the familiar network of green-black porphyritic trap. The fields are disposed in parallel striking north-south with a little easting. The dip is westerly about 35 degrees magnetic and the thickness extends to hundreds of feet, often forming a foundation for the upper cliff. The sub-aerial parts are the same warty and pimply growth which appears on the other side. Nothing could be more wearisome to the alpine climber than such a country. He would scale the peaks and ridges for 50 feet to descend 30 on the other side and the frequent waddy's

ankle-deep in loose sand generally end in st. deep stony cul-wars. The watercourses, whose broad mouths are scattered with thin green, contain pebbles and rolled quartzes, including fine specimens of the crystallized variety. We landed, after an hour's row in the gig, at the central or main line of palms, and on the banks of Wadi de Harb, here a full mile wide,

we found the works of man, like those of nature, a copy of McNar. The date trees and clumps are hedge-closed. Two scatters of ushash, or tabernacles, show round towers of rough stone, broken and patched with palm front, and further north of the Golden Valley, a few old Arab graves have been weathered into mere heaps of large stones. These are the Kabir al-Nasara, Nazarenes' graves of Brecht, a name apparently forgotten by the present generation. We vainly sought and asked after ruins. Of old, however, the Zahab might have served to disembark cargo, which, by taking the land route northwards, as the Christian pilgrims still do,

from El Nuebe would avoid the dangerous headwaters of El Aqabar, nor could we believe with Pococ that the place derived its name from the mica shining like gold. His theory is stultified by the fact that mica is by no means a prominent feature, even had the ancients been so ignorant as to be deceived by it. The people were by no means communicative. An elderly man with a red turban and sword by his side hurried away from us when we addressed him, leaving his middle-aged wife to follow with a babe on shoulder and a boy in hand.

she also refused to speak, waving her hand by way of reply to every question. At last, a semi-civilised being, acquainted with the convent of St. Catherine, Salim bin Hussein of the Mozena tribe, satisfied a curiosity in view of tobacco, and offered a rudely stuffed Ibex head for a shilling. In the evening, our fishermen visited the reef which supplied admirable rock cord, query a bream called Sultan al-Bahar and Marjan, Asiana, but they neglected the fine syringer or sponges, which here grew two feet long, The night was dark and painfully still, showing naught but the youngest of moons and the gloomiest silhouettes of spectral mountains.

We set out at 7am on the next day when an ASEAB or southeasterly wind was promised by the damp air, the slaty sea and the gloomy nimbie on the hilltops. A small party landed after two hours steaming in search of quartz, which proved to be cloretic sandstones and limestones. In the broad valley they found a few mazainy families with their camels, sheep and goats. These unfortunate had no tents, sleeping under the trees, they were desperate beggars, and although half-starved, they asked an impoleon for a kid, declaring that such was its price at the quarantine station of Tor. Here, the errors of the hydrographic chart, which had been copied literally by the latest and best popular books such as Professor Palmer's Desert of the Exodus, began to excite

our astonishment. For instance, Raz Couser, the short one, became Raz Arsa. What a name for a headland. A good survey will presently be able to be. become Asine Quannon. Unfortunately, Ahmed Kaptan was suffering so much that I could not ask him to make solar observations, while the rest of us had other matters in hand. It was a great disappointment where so much useful work remains to be done. Hereabouts, the sterile horrors of the hideous Sinaitic shore seem to reach their climax. The mountains become rubbish-heaps, without even

colour to clothe their indecently nude forms, and each strives with its neighbour for the prize of repulsiveness. The valleys are mere dust shunts that shoot out their rubber, stones, gravel and sand in a solid flow like discharges of lava. And as Jebel Mazhafa on the opposite coast is the apex of the visible eastern rats, so beyond this point the cyanitic sea chain of mountains begins to decline into mere hills, while longer sunpoints project seawards. Such is the near, the real aspect of what, viewed from Mahnaar appears as seen in fairyland, decked and dight in heavenly hues of blue and purple and rosy light. Where the bold, blear, skull of the desert with golden mountains is crowned. The first sign of a change of formation appeared near the

lower southern Newaby, the little spring, which the charts call Wassid. Here the shore shows lots of dead white and more of red, in which our engineer at once detected quartz. Seeing it prolonged in straight horizontal lines and the red overlying the white, I suspected Kaelin and the normal tower coloured clays. My conjecture was confirmed on the next day. Hereabouts, Wellstead, 2-151 also remarked the colourings of the hills, which resemble those of shirum, some of a deep blue tinge and others streaked with a brilliant red and violet. We then doubled a long sandspit running out to sea eastward and forming on the north a deep bay well protected from the souther,

whilst several lines of reef and shallow to the north defend it from the angry boorah. This anchorage is known to the pilots as Oasi and it occupies the southern half of the bay, the northern half and its palm groves being called the Upper Noebi. About was it, the date palms are scattered and the largest sandrifts ever threatened to bury them alive. Behind it yawns the great gash Wadiwater, which shows its grandlines even from the opposite side of the Gulf. This is the route by which the Christian pilgrims from Syria

make the Sinai Monastery, rounding on camels the northern end of Al-Aqabar. The main valley receives from the north, the Wadi El-Ain, which can be reached in half a day. From the south, distant one whole march, comes the Wadi El Hazra. This is doubtless the Hazareth of the Exodus, meaning the fenced enclosures of a pastoral people, and a modern traveller figures and described it as

the most beautiful and romantic landscape in the desert. At least, so said, the lately shipped guide, Maruk ibn Saliam El Muzani. After a run of six hours and 30 minutes, 30 miles, we cast anchor off Wasset. There was nothing to see ashore save some wretched Mosena, two males and three females, help mates meet for them living like savages on fish and shell mollusks,

drinking brackish water and sleeping in their bush rather than taking the trouble to repair the huts. They have no sheep, but a few camels, and by way of boats, they use catamaranes composed of two palm trunks. Their homemade hook resembles the schoolboy's crooked pin. Yet these starvelings would not fetch specimens of the white stuff distant, perhaps two direct miles of cross-cut, seen near Newebe and still visible. They also refused without preliminary bachish to show or

even to tell where certain ruins concerning which they spoke or romanced are found in their hills, and yet there are theologians who would raise poverty, the most demoralising of all conditions, to the rank of an ecclesiastical virtue. At 6.30 a.m. on the next day, the Mokbiyah stood eachwood to avoid the northern reef. Presently we passed the Upper Newebi, a quicklet to the northwest of Wazit, with a straggling line of palms fed by the huge Wadi Mazerij. From this point to the Akabar head all the coast is clean of man. The Gible El Saungi now becomes the Sinaitic

Jebel El Shafar Lip Mountains, the latter stretching northward to the hard road and forming the western wall of the Araba Valley whose name they assume Gible Ararba. The scene abruptly shifts.

A mottal of clouds sheds moving shadows over the hill crests and relieves them from the appalling monotony of yesterday. Brilliant rainbow hues, red, green, mauve, purple, yellow and white clays gleam in their lowlands and formed dwarf bluffs,

while inland, peering above the granites, and the porphyries of the coast, pale coins and naked cones, again show the familiar secondary formation of Medianitish Mackinard. We were not surprised to hear that sulphur had been found in the gypsums of these Eastern Ghats of Sinai when a Jebel el-Kibit,

approached by the Wadi Soir, was pointed out to us. The natural deduction is that the brimstone formation is, like the turquoise, the copper and the manganese, a continuation of the beds that gave a name to Makfaland. while the metalliferous strata round, in horseshoe form, the head of Al-Aqabar, and run down the Arabian shore till they become parallel with those subtending the seaboard of Africa. The view of the eastern or Midianite coast was even more varied and suggestive, far inland and tinged light blue by distance,

whereas the sharp, jagged and saw-like crests of El Sharaf, under which the Haj Karavan wends its weary way, thus escaping the mountains which dip perpendicularly into the sea, then come the broad and sandy slopes, here and there streaked with dark, rages spanned by the sultani or sultan's high road and stretching from the gulf to the inner heights. The latter are no longer a double parallel chain. They bend from south-southeast to north-northwest and become the jibble el-shara, anciently Mount Sear.

In fact, the eastern returning wall of the great Wadi Arabah. Evidently they are primary, but a white and purple patch, visible from afar, suggested a secondary remnant. Several of the peaks, especially the blue block El Yitam, appeared to be of great height. remarked its towering stature and triffid headpiece, apparently upwards of five thousand feet high, before we had heard the tail attached to it. Abrest of us, and on the shore lie the large inlet, and the little islet El Hameza. The surveyors have abominantly corrupted it to Omeder. North of it, a palm grove lining the mouth of a broad waddy which snakes high up among

the sands and stones, denotes the hard station, El Hagel, backed by tall Aranesius buttresses. After six hours at 22 and a half knots We anchored in the deep channel About three quarters of a kilometre Wide that separates the Sinaitic mainland From the northern one of the only two islands known in Akaba Gulf A scrap of rock crowned with picturesque grey ruins

The Jeserat Farahun of the maps The Isle of Pharaoh Concerning whom traditions are still current It is known to the Achaabites Only as Jebel El Calah or Fort Hill Hence El Gra in Laborde Andeserat El Karia in Arcanadi Burkhart also mentions that the ruins are known as Eldere, the convent.

This human layer is encircled by barrier reefs of Coralane, broad to the southwest and large in scattered places. Eastwards, they form a shallow wall-like ledge, beyond which blue water at once begins. The island formation is that of the opposite coasts, Midian and Sinai, grey granite dight with decaying porphyritic trap and everywhere veined with white and various coloured quartzes. The shape is a long oval of about 320 by 150,

a saddleback with two stony heads, the higher to the north, rising 100 feet or so above sea level. Pommel and Cantle are connected by a low seat, a few yards of Isthmus, and the three divisions all strongly marked bare buildings. The profile from eastern west shows four groups. To the extreme north, a tower backed by the castle Bonjourn on the knob of granite here and there scarped, the works upon the thread of the isthmuth and the walls and bastions crowning the southern knob, which, being lower, is even more elaborately cut to a number. perpendicular. We landed upon the eastern side of the islet rock where the trunk of a broken mole

is covered in rear by a ruined work. Here, being most liable to attack, the fortifications are strongest, whereas on the west side, only a single wall, now strewn on the ground with square bridge at intervals defends the little boat harbour. The latter appears at present in the shape of a fishpond, measuring 60 by 40 metres, sunk below sea level, fed by percolation, and exceedingly salt. To the east of this water Black cineracious earth shows where the smith has been at work We applied the coromand to sift it

Without other results But bits of glass, copper And iron nails The pier leads to a covered way Enabling the garrison safely To circulate around the base of the islet Behind it, a path much broken encumbered by debris of the walls

winds up the southern face of the northern hill Which supports the body of the place It meets another track from the west And a small work defends their junction Below it, outside the walls, we found a well sunk about eight feet in the granite and cemented with fine lime, the red plaster in places remaining. Above this pit, a Mehraab or Pranesh, fronting Mecca woods, more exactly 175 degrees magnetic, shows the now ruinous mosque. The Badawi declared that it was built by a pasha.

Higher again, upon a terraplane, our lines of tanks, laid out with all that lavishness of labour which distinguishes similar works in Syria. It is, however, difficult to assign any dates to these constructions. The systems were explored by Mr. Clark and Lieutenant Amir, who dug into and planned them. They descended by ropes, although there are two flights of steps to the west and the southwest. The tanks are built up from the base with blocks 1 foot 9 inches long, 7 inches deep of rubbish, were cleared away before reaching the floor, composed of black stones, bedded in layers of cement above and below, and resting upon the ground rock. The diggings yielded only big pieces of the floor.

salt fallen from the walls and a broken handmill of basalt. The sides are supported by pilasters of cut stone and the crown by four pillars in a double row. The dividing archers according to the plan are not symmetrical. Hard by measuring 12 meters by 12 is the quarry whence the stone was taken and near it stands the normal Egyptian pigeon tower with its nest niches. The donjon or body is defended by an enant, opening northwards upon a large yard where doubtless the garrison mustered and whence a flight of step leads to the wicked. The inside of the works shows the roofless party walls still standing and the ground is scattered over with the remains of many different races. There are drums of

columns and fragments of marble pillars, but no sign of an inscription. Even in the upper ramparts, two epochs are distinctly traceable, the medieval and the modern. The lower ashlar, mostly yellow grid, is cut and carefully cemented. The upper part is generally of rough dry stone, the platonic formations of the islet heaped up with scanty care. The embrasures are framed with decaying palm trunks. The loopholes belong partly to the age of archery, and nothing can be ruder than the battlements placed close together, as if to be manned by Bowman, while in not a few places there are the remains of matting between the courses. At the highest part, we found another carefully cemented Sakhrege or underground cistern, with two sharp-topped arches divided by a tall

column, Saracenic certainly, and not Doric. Above it, a circular aperture arched round with the finest bricks serves to lighten the superstructure. It communicates to the north, with Hamam, whose plan is easily traced by the double flus northernware tubes well made and mortared together. Here we found inscribed on the plaster Arona Linant 22 March 1846. The southern nub of the islets support similar but inferior constructions, still more ruinous with all. Its quarry is on the lower slopes and its granitic base has also been scarped seawards. Two stout walls 12 feet thick below and six above, crossing the length of the rock from north to south here meet in a burge, which shows signs of fine tiles on an upper floor,

whilst a third wall forms a southern spine, bisecting the tail of the Jeserat. The castle is much more dilapidated than when sketched by Ruppel, the first Frank who visited Alacabar in 1826. His illustration, page 2 on 4, of Ruinen of the Insel Emrague shows a single compact building in good preservation. The tower has been round when all are square, and it is garnished with the impossible foreground and background of this epoch. the former enlivened with a Noah's Ark camel being placed quite close when it is distant some 10 miles. In the German naturalist's time, the now-desolat island was occupied by Di Emradi,

a tribe which he suspected to be Jewish and of which he told the queerest tales. I presume they are Imran Huetat of El Hagel and the Hesma. Wellstead's short description, 2.9, is still correct as in 1838. The castle is evidently European, built during the days of the Roman Crusaders. held at al-Aqabar, but it probably rests upon Roman ruins, and the latter, perhaps upon Egyptian, remains a far older date. It protected one section of the oldest overland route when the islet formed the key of the gulfhead. It subsequently became an iry, whence its robber knights and barons, including possibly John the Christian ruler of A.D. 630, and long after him, Madcap Renaud de Chateon,

AD 1182, could live comfortably and sally out to plunder merchants and pilgrims. The Saracenic buildings may date, as the popular superstition has it from the reign of Salar El-Din, Saladin, who in AD 1167 cleared this country of the infidel invader by carrying ships on camelback from Cairo. Later generations of thieves, pirates and fishermen naturally made their refuge and abode. I hardly anticipate for it great things in the immediate future, although it has been proposed for a coal depot. After a day given to tube tinkering with Tompion stays, plugs, plates and wedges to the distraction of the ship's carpenter and blacksmith, steam was coaxed up, and at 9.15 a.m. February 7th, we ran northwards through the deep narrow channel, rounding the upper end of the ferronic

islet. Here the encircling wall is defended by two square birch to the northeast and the northwest, flanking what is probably the main entrance. On the Sinaitic mainlander port, the broad mouth of the Wadi al-Masri leads to the Nakhab, the rocky pass, which, so much dreaded, till repaired by Abbas Pasha, is popularly said to be described in Alacabar, the steep. The Bedouin, however, declared that the local is so-called because the gulf here heals Yakabal-Bahar, that is, comes to an end. At the head of the sea, the confused mass of the Sinaitic mountains range themselves in line to the west, fronting its sister wall, the Grand Block El-Sharahar, or sier, while in the middle lies the southern section of the Grogh, the noble and memorials Wadi al-Aqabar supposed to have given a name to Arabia.

The surface water still rolls down it after rains, and the mirage veiling the valley-soil prolongs the gulf water, far to the north, their bed in the old geologic ages. The view was charming to us, for the first time since leaving sewers, we saw the contrast of perpendicular and horizontal of height and flat. Nothing could be more refreshing, more gladdening to the eye after Niente Shementania, as the poor Italian described the Moria, than the soft sweeps and the level lines of the hollow plain. It was enjoyable as a heavy shower after an Egyptian summer.

On the next day also the play of light and shade and the hide-and-seek of sunray and water cloud gave the viewer cachet of its own. I'm sorry to see that the scientific geologist, Mr. John Milne FGS, proposing to cut through the two to 500 feet of elevation which separate the Gulf from the Dead Sea some 1,300 feet below water level. Does he reflect that he simply proposes to obliterate the whole Lower Jordan to bury Tiberius and its lake about 800 feet under the waves? In fact, to overwhelm half the Holy Land in a brand-new 19th-century delirond

the deluge of Milne. All were delighted at having reached our northernmost point without another visit from El Lili. After one hour and 35 minutes, seven miles, the Makhbir anchored in 12 fathoms of water, a couple of hundred yards off the fort and its dependent group of brown-grey mud buildings half-concealed by the luxurious palms.

The roads are safe enough. Here the north wind has not yet gained impetus. The southeaster is bluffed off by a long point and in only the strongest Ghabi or Wester's ships must run for refuge under the cliffs of Sinai. This is not the place to enter the history of Elath, Elat, Elah, Elana, Akabar or Akabat Elah, Robinson 1-250 to 254, and a host of others give ample and reliable details. Suffice it to say that the site is mentioned in the Wanderings, Deuteronomy 2,8, which must not be confounded with the Exodus.

It is subsequently connected with the Gold Fleet, 1 Kings 9. 26, etc. and conquered by Rizene King of Syria, BC 740. It was permanently lost to the Jews, two kings, 16, 6. Under the Romans, this great station upon the overland between the southernmost Nabathian port, Luccah, Corme, and Petra, the western capital was a prosidium held by the 10th Legion, and a highway connected it with Khazza, measuring 120 direct miles, when the Ismuth of Suez numbers only In Christian times it had a prince and a bishop and under Muhammad and early Muslims it preserved in importance which lasted till the day of the Crusaders. Al-Makrizi describes its ruins and here places the northern frontier of the Hajaz. In his day Madian was less a section

of the Teharmat al-Hajas, the maritime regions of the Muslim's holy land. A group of camels had gathered on the shore and inland lay a mob of pilgrims, the Hajel Maghriba, numbering some 3,000 northwest Africans, an equally large division had already preceded them to sewers. Letters from Egypt assured us that cholera had broken out at Mecca and Jeddah, killing in both places 98 per diem. Here, the pilgrims swore by their allah that all were and ever had been in perfect health. It is every man's business to ignore the truth, to hide the sick, and to bury the dead out of sight. Hard swearing, however, did not prevent the hodge undergoing a long quarantine before entering sewers. The English journals had reported another

disaster. Now that Sultan's power is collapsing, the most powerful Bedouin tribes are rising because their subsidies are withheld. For weeks, the great pilgrim traffic of autumn, Query and the other three seasons, was arrested by them, and even between Medina and Mecca, the road is unsafe. Of this, I could hear nothing. We awaited on board the departure of the pauper and infected Maghrebins. When the place was clear, we fired a gun and after an answer of three, I received the visits of the fort officials. They were civility itself. They immensely admired our two splendid buttons of poor iron, and they privily remarked, with much penetration, that the colour was that of brass. They were, in truth, far wiser than we had been.

With them came Mohammed Ibn Jad, not Ijat-Elawi, of the Eliwilin Huitat, who styles himself Sheikh Avel Akaba. He is remarkable for frank countenance, pleasant manners, and exceeding greed. He was gorgeously arrayed in overall a buyer of red silk and gold thread, gassab, covering a similar cloak of black wool. Besides which, a long-sleeved Egyptian khaftan, striped stuff of silken wool, invested his cotton, camis and libars or bag breeches. To his arkel or fillet of white fleecy wool hung a talisman, his huff riding boots were of red Morocco, and his sword scabbard was covered with the same material. The Arab ever loves scarlet, and all varieties of the sanguine hue are as dear to him as to the British

soldier. We held sundry long confabs with Sheikh Mohammed, who seemed to know the neighbourhood unusually well. He declared that there were ruins, but no trees at Einel Gadiang, distant one day's march up the Wadi al-Arabah, and lying near the Western Wall. This is the place first identified by Robinson, who says nothing about the remains with Ezzion Gheber, while Dean Stanley, Sinai, etc. page 85, opines that we have no means of fixing the position of the giant's shoulder blade. Josephus' Antiquities 8664 places it near Elana and the present distance from the sea like that of Harupolis Quiri Sheikh Al-Ajud from sewers

may show the rise of the Wadi al-Arabah within historic times The Sheikh assured us that Maru was to be found everywhere among the hills east of El Aqabaah and Mr. Milne, Beak page 405, brought from the very summit of the true Mount Sinai, Jebel El Yitam, a fine piece of quartz, the same kind of stone of the Brazilian pebbles of which make the best spectacles. We carried off a specimen of native copper

from the Sinaitic Jebel and Wadi some six hours to the northwest of the fort. It is found strewed upon the ground but not in veins. The stone looked so new that we concluded it to be work of later generations and the traces of smelting furnaces at Old Elath confirmed the idea. Sheikh Mohammed, who boasted that his tribe

could mount 500 horses, by which, understand five, offered his safeguard to the Hizma three easy marches, without pass or climax up the wider Yitum to the east and beyond the range El Shara. He made the region begin northwards at one day south of El Mahan, the fort lying to the east-southeast of Petra,

and he confirmed the accounts of Mabruk, the guide who was never tied of expatiating upon its merits. The fountains flow in winter, in summer the wells are never dry. The people, especially if they wait at, a kind and hospitable, sheep are cheap as dirt. At Jebel Saur, a macrabi magician raised a kidder-dahab golden pot,

but his incense filling at the critical moment it sank before yielding its treasures. Pointing north-eastwards to the majestic pile in the charar or Sierra Mountains, the Jebel El Yitam, a corruption of Yatim, the sheikh, told us a tale, that greatly interested us. It appears, I have said, a remarkable formation from whose group of terminal domes and pinnacles, the tomb of Aron on Mount Horace, they say visible, and it is certainly the highest visible peak of the Grenwall that forms the right bank of the wider Yitum. Thus it is but one of a long range. and the Bedouin visit it to make sacrifice, according to universal custom,

at the tomb of a certain Sheikh Bakir. Here, some years ago, came an old man and a young man in esteemer, Erin, belonging to His Highness the Khadiv. The former told the Arabs that in his book the height was called the Jebel Al-Nuer, a mountain of light, a title which apparently had first applied to the Jebel Al-Auz, and the latter climbed to the mountaintop. After that, they went their way. I quite agree with my lamented friend, Dr. Beek,

that it is enormous splendour to transfer Midian, the east country to the west of Al-Arabah, and to place it south of the south country, El Nigeb, Genesis 21. I own that it is ridiculous to make the lawgiver lead his fugitives into a veritable cul-de-sac, then a centre of Egyptian conquest. Evidently, we have still to find the true Mount Saunei, if at least it not be a myth, pure and simple. The profound Egyptologist Dr Heinrich Bruch-Buschbe observed that the vulgar official height lies to the south of, and far from the taken by the Benazrael and that the papyra is shown no route leading to it, whilst many have remarked at the Sinai of the Exodus is described as a single isolated mountain or hill,

not as one projection from a range of heights. I would also suggest that the best proof of how empirical is the actual identification will be found in the fact that Jews, except only the Reverend Joseph Wolfe 1821, have never visited nor made pilgrimages to what ought to be one of their holiest of holy places. This crucial point has been utterly neglected. by the offices of the Ordnance Survey of Sinai. It is evident that Jebel Serbal dates only from the early days of Coptic Christianity, that Jebel Muzer, its Greek rival, rose after the visions of Helena in the full century, whilst the building of the convent by Justinian belongs to AD 527.

Ras Sussefahar, its rival to the north, is an affair of yesterday and may be called the invention of Robinson and Jebel Caterina to the south is the property of Ruppel. Thus, the oft-quoted legends of the Sinaitic Arabs are mere monkish traditional. adopted by Ishmaelitic ignorance. The great lawgiver probably led his horde of fugitive slaves over the plains of El Negeb and Al-Tih, north of the so-called Sinaitic mountain blocks, marching in small divisions like those of a modern Badawi tribe,

and we know from the latest surveys that the land, now alternately a fiery or frozen wilderness, was once supplied with wood and water. The true Mount Sinai is probably some unimportant elevation in the desert, named by moderns after the wanderings. Dr. Beek, I am persuaded, is right in denying that Mount Sinai. occupies the site at present assigned to it, but I cannot believe that he has found it in the Jebel Elyitum Nalakabar.

His Mount Bargir is evidently a corruption of the wali on the summit, Sheikh Bargir, a common Arab name. His mountain of light is a term wholly unknown to the Arabs, except so far as they would assign the term to any saintly place.

The sounds heard in the mountains like the firing of a cannon is a legend applied to two other neighboring places. All the Bedouins still sacrificed at the tombs of their santons at the little white building which covers the reputed tomb of Aron sheep

are slaughtered and boiled in a huge black cauldron. The pile of large rounded boulders bearing cut cyanitic inscriptions, page 423, are clearly we assume. These tribal marks, which the highly imaginative Monsieur de Salci calls planetary signs, are found throughout Midian. The name of the wadi is,

I have said, not Elitham, but El Yitum, a very different word. Lastly, the mountain Aratoa, or Otoa, page 404, is probably a corruption of Altura El Hizma, the inaccessible wall of the plateau, which Dr. Beek calls Jebel Hizma. My old friend, with his usual candor and straightforwardness, honestly admitted that he had been egregiously mistaken with respect to the volcanic character of the true Mount Sinai.

But without the eruption, the fire and smoke theory, what becomes of this whole argument? Save for the death of my friend, I should have greatly enjoyed the comical side of this subject, the horror and discussed with which he, one of the greatest of geographical innovator, regards a younger rival theory, the exodus innovation of Dr. Heinrich Bruchbé. The latter is the first who has rescued the march of the children of Israel from a condition of mere guesswork described by the Reverend Mr. Holland. Under the guidance of our new acquaintances, we rode to the site of Elath, which evidently extended all around the Gulfhead from northeast to northwest.

Linnant and Laborde, Voyage de Larraibis, Petre, et cetera, Paris, 1830, confine it to the western shore near the mouth of Wadi Elas. and make Ezzion Gébert to face it, as suggested by the writings of the Hebrews. Disembarking at the northern palm clump, we inspected El Dar, the old halting place of the pilgrim caravan, before New Aqabar was founded. The only ruins are large blocks under the clearest water and off a beach of the softest sand, which would make the fortune of a bathing place in Europe. Further eastward lies an enclosed date orchard called El Hamam. The two pits in it are said to be wells, but I suspect the treasure-seeker. Inland and to the north rise the mounds and tumuli,

the sole remains of ancient Ilaath, once the pores of Petra, which is distant only two dromedary marches. During rain floods, the site is an island, to the west flows the surface water of the Wadi al-Aarabar, and eastward, the drainage of the Wadi Yitum has dug a well-defined bed. A line of larger heaps to the north shows where, according to the people, ran the city wall, Finding it thickly strewed with Skoria, old and new, I decided that this was the Siagah or Smith's quarter. Between it and the sea, the surface is scattered with glass, shards and slag. I inquired in vain for written stones and for the petroleum reported to exist in the neighbourhood. Sheikh Mohammed declared that of old a chain stretched from the Fronika Island castle to the Jebel El Burage or Kassar al-Badawi on the Midianite shore.

This chain is at Lyok-Khaman of Eastern Legends. The Badawi's castle is mentioned by Robinson and Burkhart, Syria, page 510, as lying one hour south of Al-Aqabar. Moreover, the Wadi Yitam, whose upper bed shows two ruins was closed at the narrow above the mouth by a fortified wall of stone and lime, thus cutting off all indecourse with interior. The Bedouin declare it to be the worker for King Hadid, or iron, who thus kept out the Benihilal of El Nijid. We were shown large earth dams thrown across the embassured of the torrent to prevent the floods injuring the palm groves of new Aqabar. These may date from ancient days when the old city here extended its south-eastern suburb. As usual, they have become a cemetery, modern and Muslim,

and on the summits of the largest, the holy Sheikh al-Jermi still names his ruined tomb. Walking round the eastern bay, where the ubiquitous black sand striped the yellow shore, we observed that the tide here rises only one foot, whereas at sewers it may reach a metre and a half to seven feet. According to the chart, the springs attain four feet at Omida or El-Hameza, some 19 direct knots to the south, and in the sham Yaha, we found them about one metre. Presently we entered by wooden doors with locks and keys, the carefully kept palm groves, walled with pisei and dry stone. Wells were being sunk, and a depth of 9 to 10 feet gave tolerably

sweet water. Striking the broad northern trail, which leads to the Wadi Yitum and to the upper Elaraba, still a favourite camping ground of the tribes, we reached the modern settlement, which has something of the aspect of a townlet, not composed like Almeuela, of a sest, single house. The women fled at our approach as we threaded the alleys formed by the mud tenements. The fort is usually supposed to have been built by Sultan Suleim I.D. 1517, or three years before his death, after he had subdued the military aristocracy of the Mamluks, who had ruled Egypt for three centuries. Much smaller than that of El Mueweila, it is a normal affair, and on sand, one striped red and white, curtains flanked by four birge, all circular, except the new polygon to the

northwest and a huge, gloomy main gateway fronting north and flanked by two bastions. On the proper right side is a circle of stone bearing without date, the name of Sultan Salim Khan al-Fati, who first laid out the pilgrim route along the Red Sea shore. Inside the dark, cool porch, a large inscription bears the name El Ashraf Kansur El Gori, the last but one of the Circassian Mamluk kings of Egypt, who was defeated and slain by the Turkish conqueror near Aleppo in AD 1501. Above it stand two stone shields dated AH992 or AD 1583 to 1584. In the southern wall of the courtyard is the mosque, fronted by a large deep well, dug, they say, during the building of the fort.

It still supplies the whole Hajkaravan with warmish sweet water. On the ground lies a good brass gun with Arabic inscription and numerals, and the towers commanding the little kitchen gardens outside the fort wall are armed with old iron carronades. The garrison consisting of a half-dozen gunners and a few basque zooks looks pale, bloodless and unwholesome. The heats of summer are almost unsupportable and the Akaba has the name of a little hell. Moreover, they eat, drink, smoke, sleep, chat, quarrel

and never take exercise. The officers complained sadly that I had made them walk perhaps a mile around the bayhead, and yet they have, within two days of sharp ride, that finest of sanitaria, the Hismar which extends as far north and south as they pleased to go. I at once made arrangements for a dromedary post to Suez, and wrote officially to Prince Hussein Pachar,

requesting that His Highness would exchange the Mokibir for a steamer less likely to drown herself. Moreover, the delay at Morais Chouetab had exhausted our resources and the expedition required a month's additional rations for men and mules. The application was, it will appear, granted in the most gracious manner, with as little delay as possible, and my wife, who had reached Cairo, saw that the execution of the order was not put off to the end of March.

Messrs. Voltaire brothers were also requested to forward another instalment of necessaries and comforts, and they were as punctual and satisfactory as before. For this postal service, and by way of propituary present, Sheikh Mohammed received $10, of which probably two were dispersed. We therefore parted fast friends. He gave me an especial invitation to his home in the Hizma, and I accepting it with firm intention of visiting him as soon as to my. possible. Meanwhile, Mr. Clark and Ali Marie were busy with buying up such stores as Alacabar contains,

and the officers of the fort who stayed with us to the last were profuse in kind expression and in little gifts which, as usual, cost us double their worth. In these lands, one must expect to be done as surely as in Italy. What the process will be, no one knows till it discloses itself, but all experts feel that it is in preparation. Note on the supplies to be bought at Alacabar. The following is a list of the stores with their prices. It must be borne in mind that the Hajgarh caravan was passing at the time we visited Alacabar. A large sheep cost half a Napoleon. The same was the price of a small sheep with a kid.

Fowls, 71 bought, 13 pence each. Pigeons, six pence ahead. Eggs, 60, two for threepence. Tobacco, eight pounds. Coarse and uncut, but welcome to the Bedouin, one shilling per pound. Sam, or liquefied butter for the kitchen. also one shilling per pound. This article is always dear in Arabia,

but much cheaper than in Egypt. Pomegranates, 50, 4 shillings 100. Onions, one cantara 100 weight, one sovereign. Thin-skinned Syrian raisins, 5 pence per pound. Dried frigs, tuppence haepney per pound. Matches, 16 boxes, 3.5 pence per box. A small quantity of grain may be bought. Lentils, Revelenta, Arabica, are to be.

be had in any quantity and they make an admirable travelling soup. Unfortunately, is it supposed to be food for falas and the cooks shirk it? The same is the case with junk, salt pork and peas pudding on board an English cruiser. Sour limes are not yet in season. They will be plentiful in April. A little garden stuff may be had for salads. The list of deficiencies is great, including bread and beef, potatoes, rakey and all forms of diffusible stimulants. Here, as at Cairo, the piaster is of two kinds, metallic, de-based silver and non-metallic. Government pays in the former, which is called saar or coin, and the same is the term throughout Egypt. The value fluctuates, but 97 and a half may be assumed to equal one sovereign English, and 100 to the Egyptian lira. The second kind,

used for small purchases, is not quite half the value of the former, 205 to 100. In northwestern Arabia, it is called the Abias or white, and Tarifa, tariff. The latter, turn. The latter turn, in Cairo, always signifying the sag or metallic. The dodgers of the Shrofs or money changers make housekeeping throughout Egypt a study of arithmetic. They cannot change the value of gold, but they rush the silver as they please, and thus the dollar Cinco, i.e. the five-franc piece, formerly fetching 19.1, has been reduced to 18.3. The Khada or copper piastra was once worth a piastra. Now this coin of the realm has been so debased that it is gradually declined through 195 to 500 and even 650 for the sovereign.

Moreover, not being legal tender, it is almost useless in the market. As regards to the money to be carried by such expeditions, anything current in Egypt will do. The Bedouin prefers sovereigns when offered frifranc pieces and vice versa. The Egyptian sovereigns of 100 piastres, metallic or 250 current, must not be confounded with the Turkish 87.3 current 175.2 to 180. The Napoleon averages 77.6, current 160. The dollar varies according to its kind. The shilling is 3.35, current 10,

and the franc 3.35 current 8. It is necessary to lay in a large quantity of small change by way of bachish, such as 10 and 20 parallel bits. 40 equals one piastra. End of chapter 7. Chapter 8, the land of Midian, revisited by Richard F. Burton. This Librevox recording is in the public domain,

Read by Paul Wellford. Chapter 8. Cruise from El Akevar to El Mawela. The shipwreck escaped. Resumé of the Northern Journey. I resolved the one hastening back with all speed to El Mawela, finishing, by the way, our work of quartz prospecting on the Akevah Gulf. Thus far, it had been a success. We heard of Mauru in all directions, but all had not gone equally well. We had already on two occasions been prevented by circumstances

from visiting the mysterious Hizmah, and we now determined to devour to devote all their energies to its exploration. Two heavy showers, having fallen during the dark hours on February 8th, Aurora looked as if she had passed a very bad night indeed. The mist rack trailed along the rock slopes and rested upon the waddy sands. The mountains veiled their heads in clouds and above them lightnings to and fro ran coursing evermore till, like a red, bewildered map, the skies were scribbled o'er.

Meanwhile, in the northwest and southwest, we saw wreathing in a rave thing in a ravement. IRIS holding two perfect bows at the same time, not to speak of wind dogs. Cephyrus, the Wester here a noted bad character, rose from his rocky couch strong and rough, beating down the mercury to 56 degrees Fahrenheit. After an hour, he made way for Euras, and the latter was presently grunted by Boreas in one of his most boisterous and blustering moods. We steamed off with only a single stoppage for half an hour to cool the engine barrens at 7.30 a.m. and after one mile we passed on the Arabian side a ruin called Casar al-Bind, the girls' palace. Beyond it lies the Casar el-Badawi, al-Barege of the Little Tower or Bastion,

the traditional holding pier of the great chain. When Wellstood to 146 says here, i.e. at the Casar al-Badawi, I am told there is a chain extending from the shore to a pier built in the sea. He evidently misunderstood the Arabs. The eastern coast of Alacabar begins with an abrupt mountain wall, like that which subtends the whole of the Sinai shore till it trends south of the Minat Il Dhab. After three miles, the heights fall into a stony, sandy plain,

which rises regularly as a rake or stage slope to the Shara-Seer range, which closes the horizon. After two hours and 45 minutes, we passed into the fine, open, treacherous Bay of Hackel, distant 13 knots from Alacabar Fort, to which it is the nearest caravan station. On the northeast and stretching eastward are the high horse or dorsum

and the big butters of the long, broad wadi which comes winding from the southeast. They appear to be a body of sand, but, as usual on this coast, the superficial sheet, the skin, hardly covers the cyanite and porphyritic trap that form the Chau-Pont. Between west and south,

a long spit high inland and falling low till where its sandstone bluffet meets the sea proves to be the base of a large and formidable reef which extends in verdigri patches over the blue waters of the bay. It is not mentioned by Welster to 149. who describes Hagul on the Arabian shore as a small boat harbour, much exposed to the northerly winds.

The ombashore of the wadi nourishes four distinct clumps of date trees, well walled round, a few charred and burnt, the most of them green and luxuriant. These lines are broken by the channels which drain the surface water, and between the two western sections appear the ragged front huts. Not a soul was seen on shore. The wind blew great guns outside the bay, and the inside proved anything but calm, as the water was 58 fathoms deep near the coast our captain found no moorings for his ship except to the dangerous reef and we kept drifting about in a way which would have distracted

sensitive nerves I had been told of ruins and tumuli at El Hagel which denoted according to most authorities the Messagian town and Kaleh Ptolemy 6-727 places this opidum metorinium between McNar or Meena Madien and Madiama

Maire Shueb, the old capital unwilling however to risk the safety of the gunboat where nothing was to be expected beyond what we had seen at Al-Aqabar, I resolved after waiting half an hour not to land. Asambuque received a cargo of quarrymen and sacks in order to ship at McNar, the Argentiferous Galena and other rocks left by Lieutenant Yusuf and Monsieur Philippine upon the shore, and, that done, she was directed to rejoin us at Tiran Island. As long as the north accursed high, she beat us hollow.

In the afternoon, however, when the gale, as usual, abated, she fell off, perhaps purposely not winging to pass a night in the open. By sunset her white sail had clean disappeared, having slipped into some snug cove. The Arabian shore here is of simpler construction than that of Sinai. Consequently, the chart has had a better chance. The Mochabir resumed her way southwards in glorious weather, a fresh breath blowing from the north and fleecy clouds barigating the sky, which was almost as blue as the waves. After six miles and a half from El Hagel, and nearly 20 from Al-Aqabar, she ran to the west of Al-Homaza Island, the Omasier of Wellstead 2-149,

between which and the mainland is a well-sheltered berth. It is a great contrast with the hill of the fort, the phronic rock, this lump, some 80 feet high, built of secondary gypsum and yellow serpentine like the coast behind it. Gleaming deadly white, pale as a corpse in the gorgeous sunshine, and utterly bare except for a single shrub, it is based upon a broad, dark-coloured barrier reef. Local tradition here places the cassarele butter,

Wea, Palace of the Badaou woman, or girl, but we saw now the sign of building, no trace of population in the second island, which the Gulf al-Aqabar owns. We then passed sundry, uninteresting features, and night fell upon us of Jebel Taibism, where familiar scenes began to present themselves.

The captain had already reduced speed from four and a half to three knots, his object being to reach the Bouchaz, or Gulfmouth, after dawn, but as midnight drew near, it became necessary to ride out the furious gale with the gunboat's head turned northwards. Monsieur Lacasse, a stout-hearted little man, worked half the night at the engine, assisting Mr. Dugard.

About 4 a.m. February 8th, a little in the storm allowed her to resume her southerly course, but two hours afterwards, an attempt to make the McNar shore, placing her broadside onto the wind, created much confusion in the crockery and commotion among the men. Always a lively craft, she now showed of volks-like agility, for, as is ever the case, she had no ballast, and who would take the trouble to ship a few tons of sand. At such moments, the engine was our sole. stand by. Had it played one of its usual tricks, the Makhbiyah, humanly speaking, was lost, that is, she would have been swamped and waterlogged. As for setting sail, it was not to allow

narrow escape that I could get the canvas out of stowage in the hold. As the morning wore on, the gulf became even rougher with its deep and hollow waves. They seemed to come from below, as if bent upon hoisting us in the air. The surface water shivered, and the upper spray was swept off by the north wind, which waxed colder and more biting as we steered sunwards. The Cynetic side now showed its long slopes and at 9.45 a.m. we passed the palms of the Nabiki anchorage some six miles from the gate. On the shore of Midian, south of the dark Fahisat mountains, four several buttresses of gypsum

decreasing in size as they followed one another eastwards, trended diagonally away from the sea. This part of the Arabian coast ends in a thin point. The maps call it Razfartak and the pilots, Sheikh Hami, from a holy man's tomb to which pious visitation is made. The other land tongue adjoining to the south is known as Umbruz or Mother of Heads. I cannot find out whence Ruppel borrowed his Omal Hassani. As we approached the ugly gabe of the formidable Gulf, the waves increased in size and coursed to all directions,

as if distorted by the sunken reefs. The eastern germ is formed by Tiran Island, the western by the sandy Raz Nasrani, whose glaring tony slope is dotted with dark basaltic cones, detached and disposed like great nine pins. Beyond this cape, the Sinaitic coast as far as Raz Muhammad, the apex of the triangle, is fretted with little indentations, hence its name El Shurum, the creeks. Near one of these baylets, well stead chanced upon volcanic rocks which are not found in any

the other part of the peninsula. This sporadic outbreak gives credibility to the little Harar reported to be found upon the bank of the Midianitish Wadi-Suk. A hideous, horrid reef, dirty brown and muddy green, with white horses madly charging the black diabolitus whose ugly heads form Chavo de Free, a stony tongue based upon Turan Island and apparently connected from the eastern coast behind, extends its tip to mid-channel. The clear way of the dreaded Boraz is easily found in the daytime. At night, it would be almost impossible, and when Midian shall be rehabilitated, this reef will require a ferros.

Adieu, small spitfire of a gulf. The change from the inside to the outside of the Burkat-Illacabar was magical, We at once glided into summer seas, a mosaic of turquoise and amethyst, fanned by the softest of breezes, the thermometer showing on deck 63 degrees Fahrenheit. Perhaps the natural joy at our lucky escape from making a hole in the water caused the beauties of the weather and the glories of the scenery to appear doubly charming. Our captain might have saved 15 miles by taking the shortcut north of Tehran Island under whose shelter were required a day for boiler tinkering. His pilot, however, would not risk it, and we were compelled. and little knowing what we did to round for a second time the western and southern shores. The hill of birds, which some have identified with the classical island of ISIS,

shows a triune profile, what the Brazilians call a Muella or Gizzard. Of its three peaks, the lowest is the eastern, and the central is the highest reaching 700, not a thousand feet. Viewed from within the gulf, it is a slope of sand, which has been blown in sheets up the backing hills. The ground plan, as seen from a balloon, would represent a round head to the north, a thin neck and a body rudely triangular, the whole measuring a maximum of five miles in length. The sandy northern circlet, connected by the narrowest of isthmuses, sweeping eastwards,

forms the noted port. The material is the normal secondary formation, sulphates and carbonates of lime, supporting modern corollines and conglomerates of shell. Horizontal lines of Harderstone are disposed in huge steps or roads, put number three to six on the flank of the western peak. The manganese-coloured strata, which appeared at Marguer Chouet, and in the rent bowels of the Rhearmat-Machna are conspicuous from the south. The hall has been upheaved by cyanite, which again has been cut by dikes of platonic stone, trap and porphyry.

At 2pm we anchored in a roadstead to the south-east of the island, open to every wind except the norther. I had sent Lieutenant Amir and sundry quarrymen ashore to inspect what looked like a vein of sulphur. They delayed two hours instead of a few minutes. The boiler was grumbling for rest, and not wishing to leave them adrift in an open boat, I am prudently consented to await them in a roadstead where the coast was dangerous,

instead of proceeding as had been intended to the fine landlocked port, nature hollowed in the eastern side of the island. The old captain, pitifully represented to me that his crew could not row, and I found this to be generally the case. Ten miles with the ore would be considered a terrible corvé by the Egyptian manor warsmen. After blowing off steam, we at once went fishing. The only remarkable result was the discovery that this corner of the Red Sea is a breeding ground for sharks. We had not seen one in the Gulf of Al-Aqabar, where last April they swarmed.

Here, however, the school contained all sizes and every age, and they regarded us curiously with their cat's eyes, large, dark and yellow stripe down the middle. A small specimen that had just cut its teeth was handed over to the cook, despite his loudly expressed disgust. The meat was somewhat mealy and short-fibered, but we pronounced in committee the sea dog to be thoroughly eatable when corrected by pepper, garlic and Worcester sauce. The corollines near the shore were finally developed, each bunch like a tropical tree formed a small zoological museum, and they supplied a variety of animalcule, including a tiny shrimp.

The evening saw a well-defined halo, encircling the moon at a considerable distance, and Mr. Dugud quoted the Scotch saw, A far away brux, and nearer blast. The blast was nearer than we expected, and during the rest of the journey, the bruch rarely, rarely if ever deceived us, yet the night was not much disturbed by the furious northerly gusts, showing that the storm which we had escaped was raging in the still vexed Akabar.

Next morning, we landed to the southwest of Tehran's easternmost peak, with a view of prospecting and adding to our collections. On the shore, about 300 feet from the sea, is a bank of dead shells, which are not found on a northern or sandy end of the island near the water. Most of them are tenanted by Poguri or hermets. We caught a number of crabs and small fish, and we carried off a single rock oyster, as yet we had not found that the Ostrida, the vulgar form of the Hellenic and classical Estudia abounds in these seas. After 30 minutes walk up the southern plain of the prism, composed of gypsias and coralline rocks, veins of white petrocylex resembling broken collumels, streets of magnetic black sand and scatters of grit and harder stones, we reached the

summit of the little ridge. It afforded a fine bird's-eye view of the splendid middleport of the false harbour, of the real shoal to its southeast and of the basin which seems to form Sinafair Island. We now bent to the south-west, here at the surfaces much cut and broken by sandy wetties dotted with a few straggling plants. To our right was a gauze or inclined aranescious bank where the south wind had sifted the sand from the gravel, disposing the former in the hollows and the latter on the crest of the ripples. Presently we reached a strange formation which, seen from the east, appears a huge vein, red and rusty, beginning close to the sea and crossing the body of the island from south to north,

while a black cone is so disposed that its southern front simulates a crater. An arrow gorge opens up a semicircular hollow lined with ocracious or ferregenous matter, in fact part of the filon which sends off fibrales in all directions. The confusion of formations was startling. The floor was here of white petrocylex there of grey granite, variegated with squares and lozenges, drops and pineapples, red, green, neutral tinted

and disposed by oxides of iron and copper in natural designs that looked artificial. Scattered over the bed of the upper ravine beyond the hollows were carbonates of lime, reddy brown and chocolate-hued. Here are pudding stone, they're porous like basalt. The calcerra sulphate were both amorphous and crystalline, the latter affected by contact with platonic matter.

The walls of the gash showed a medley of clay-brachshed, years disposed in every imaginable way and divided by horizontal veins of heat-altered quartz. A few paces further led to the head of the ravine where a tumble of huge rocks choking the bed showed that the rain torrents must at times be violent. Meanwhile, Mr. Clark and Lieutenant Amir had walked to the large central harbour hoping there to hit upon sweet water and some stray houtame fishermen who would show us what we wanted. They did not find even the vestige of a hut. The two exploring parties saw only three birds in the Isle of Birds

and not one of the venomous snakes mentioned at Tachran by Wellstead 2-9 and described as measuring about 30 inches of a slender form with black and white spots. We also utterly failed to discover the sulphur which was once abundant and an a naphtha which, according to the Zem Authority, was produced here in considerable quantities and was used by the Arab mariners to pay their boats. The evening was exceptionally fine and calm and we expected on the morrow February 11th a quiet return to Elmuela

yet a manner of presentiment induced me to summon the engineer and his native assistants and to promise the latter a liberal bachish if by hard work at the boiler all night and by rigging up the ship's pump instead of a donkey engine they could steam off at dawn unexpectedly about 4 a.m a violent sandy and misty Wester began to blow

and all fancied that we had set sail to the south. Quite the contrary. The engine was still under repair. The Makhbir was being tossed and ruled by the inshaw set, and the sequel is quickest told by an extract from my penny. Written in sight of death, wind roaring furiously for victims, waves worse, no chain can stand the sledgehammer shocks, chain parts and best sheet anchor with it. Bower and kedge anchors thrown out and drag. Fast Stranding, broadside-on, sharp Coraline Reef to Lleward, distant 150 yards. Sharks! Packed up necessaries. Sambuk has bolted and quite right too. Engine starts some ten minutes before the bump. Engineer, admirably cool, never left his post

for a moment, even to look at the sea. Chouji, Cook, skinning a sheep. He has been wrecked four times and don't care. Deck pump, acting poorly. Off, in very nick of time 9.15 a.m. General Joy, damped by broadside, turned to huge billows, lashed down boxers of specimens on deck and wore round safely. Made for Sinafir, followed by waves threatening to poopers. Howling wind, tears mist to shreds. Second danger worse than first. Run into green waters, fangs of naked rocks on both sides within biscuit throw. Stumps show when the waves yawn. Nice position for a bandbox

of old iron. With much difficulty slipped into blue water, rounded south end of spit and turned north into glorious Sinalfier Bay, safe anchorage in eight fathoms anchor down at 10.15 a.m. After one hour of cold sweat. Distance seven miles on chart,

nine by course. Mokbier never went so fast, blown like chaff before wind. Faces cleared up. all round shaking of hands. Alhamdulillah, followed by a drink. Some wept for joy. The engine, or rather the engineer, had saved us, as the saying is, it was touch and go, the nearest thing I ever did see. Had the rotten old boiler struck work for five minutes when we were clearing out of Tehran or steaming along the Sinaf ashore, nothing could have

kept the ship afloat. Those who behaved best, a fireman, a boy who crept into the combustion chamber to clear it, and the helmsman who, having been at Liverpool, spoke a little English, were duly Bakshisht. The same reward was given by mistake to the boiler-maker, Mohamed Saeed Haddad, who had mal-lingered instead of working through the night. At Suez, he had the impudence to ask me for a shahada or testimony to his good character. On the whole, the conduct of the crew was worthy of all praise. In a decently equipped English dima, we should have laughed at this storm and whistled for more wind, but the condition of the Mochbibir quite changed the case. The masts might have rolled out, or she might have sprung a leak at any moment,

and supposing that we had escaped the crash upon the reef, the huge waves, and the schools of sharks, our situation would have been anything but pleasant. The island of Tehran, as has been shown, is a grisly scrap of desert. It has no sweet water, and its three birds would not long have satisfied 30 hungry men. It is far from the mainland. the storm which lasted through two days was too violent for raft or boat to live and at so earlier season

native craft are never seen on these seas briefly a week might have elapsed before our friends at Almoela who were startled by the wildness of the wind could have learned our plight or could have taken measures to relieve the castaways Sinaffir Island which we have to thank for giving us hospitality on two occasions consists mainly of a bay

viewed by the Noma Verticalis it is shaped like an ugly ducklin with an oval, Wellstead-Saysa circular, body of high ground disposed north-east to south-west, and with head and neck drooping westwards so as to form a mighty pier or brickwater. The watery plain within is out of all proportion to the amount of terraforma. The body profile shows straight-backed heaps of gypsum some 200 feet high, which become coin-shaped about the middle of the aisle. These hillocks are connected by low strips of sand growing the usual vegetation,

especially the pink status prurinoza. Currently, A-Sambuq, which had also lost chain and anchor before she could run out of the storm, appeared to the northwest of the bay, and a pilgrim craft bound for sewers was our companion in good fortune. A party landed to examine Sinafir, which still shows signs of a junction with Tehran. In days when the secondary formation was an unbroken street, the whole segment of a circle, extending from Sharm Yahar to northern Sinai must have been dry land. These roofs and islands are now the only remnants. The islet itself seems lately to have been two, the neck and head out one and the body is another. An evident seacliff marks the junction and what appears like

a wadi below it is the Upper East Seabed of Coraline. To the northwest and outside this strip lies the little port defended by a network of reefs in which our Sambuq had first taken refuge. The Bayshore bears traces of more than one wreck and in the graveyard used by the native sailor, an open awning of flotsam and jetsam looks from afar like a tumble-down log hut. The number of reefs and shills shown by stripes of vivid green water promised excellent fishing and failed to keep its promise. At length, after a third wasted day, we managed, despite a new hole in the old boiler, to steam out of hospitable Sinafir at 6.30am on the auspicious Wednesday, February 13th. The appearance of the Mochbvre must have been original enough. Her canvas had been fished

out of the hold, but in the place of a mainsail, she had hoisted a topsail. We passed as close as possible to the islet line of secondary formation, beginning with Shu Shu, the wedge bluff-faced to south. The palinurus anchored here in a small bite on the northeast side between two reefs and narrowly escape being wrecked by northerly gale. At 10.45 a.m., we were alongside of Barak Khan, a double feature, lumpy and cliffy, connected by low sandy Ismuth. The eastern flank gives good shelter to native crafts. Lastly, game U. Bar, the compound coin, the loftiest of the group upwards of 350 feet high with its low-lying neighbour Wiley.

These islets have classical names, as I have mentioned before, and appear once to have been inhabited, even at Yubu, the least likely of all, we heard from several authorities of a deep rock-cut well, covered with a stone which the Arabs could not raise. And now we were able to cast an intelligent glance in review of the scenes made familiar by our first or northern March. The surpassing purity of the transparent atmosphere,

especially at this season, cause of the land tilacres near as 20 at 10 miles, and thus both distances, showing the horizon with the utmost distinctness, appear equally close to the ship. Beginning towards Al-Aqabar, the Jebel El-Zana behind Mare-Schueb, and its mighty neighbour, the Jebel Al-Lauze, form the horizon of mountains, which are not the least among the giants. Southwards appear the Gibal al-Tihama, the noble forms of the seaboard, the parallel chains noting the eastern boundaries of Madian proper,

while behind them the Jabal al-Shafar reduced to blue heads and fragments of purple wall are evidently disposed on a far more distant plane. As regards the Jabal al-Tahama, I have registered ad nauseum the names of the eight several blocks into which between El Sahad north and El Shah south, the curtain rising from a sea horizon seems to divide itself. Everyone consulted gave me a new or a different term, and apparently seamen and landsmen have their separate nomenclature. Thus, the pilots call the Fass, Harb and Debach blocks

Gibal al-Moseba, Tyllium and Dharma, after the wadis in the main valleys that drain them. The Bedouin again will name the whole block after the part most interesting to them. Thus, the tower-like formation characterising Jebel de Bach was often called Jebel El-Jim, and even this, as will appear afterwards, was not quite exact. We fired a gun off El Muella

where our camp ranged in a long line, looked clean and natty. At 5pm we were once more at home in our old quarters, the Sham Yahar. The day's work had numbered 50 direct geographical miles between Sinafir and El Muela, with five more to our dock. Resumé. Our journey through Madien proper, North Midian, had lasted 54 days, December 19, 1877 to February 13, 1878. During nearly two months, the expedition had covered only 105 to 107 miles of ground. This, however, does not include the very very.

various buy trips made by the members, which would more than double the total, nor the cruise of 200 miles around the Gulf of Acapabar ending at El Mouela. The total of camels employed varied from 106 to 61, and their hire, including Bachshish and all minor charges, amounted, according to Mr. Clark, to £316, 14 shillens and threpanes. This section of North Midian may be described as essentially a mining country, which, strange to say of a province so near Egypt, has been little worked by the ancients. The first Chenevial expedition brought back specimens of free gold found in basalt,

apparently eruptive and in corondopholite, which the engineer called greenstone porphyry. Silver appeared in the red sands and in the claretic quartz and in the titaniferous iron of the Jebel El Abbez, the value being 265 to 300 francs per ton with traces in the scoria. The second expedition failed to find gold,

but brought back Argentiferous galena in copper-stained quartz and possibly in the eocrocious red veins seaming the secondary gypsum with silicates and carbonates of copper, select specimens of the latter, yielding the enormous proportion of 40%. In this northern region, the great focus of metallic deposit appears to lie between northern latitude 28 degrees 40 minutes

and 27 degrees 50 minutes, that is, from Jebel Taib ism north of Mackinar to the southern basin which contains the Jebel El Abiyaz or White Mountain. Its characteristics are the Argentiferous and Coup whereas in South Midian, gold and silver were worked, and the parallelogram whose limits are assigned above might be converted into a northern grant. Concerning the immense abundance of gypsum and the sulphur, which is suspected to be diffused throughout the secondary formation,

ample details have been given in the preceding pages. The principal ruins of ancient settlements and the ateliers, all of them showing vestiges of metalworking numbered eight. These are, beginning from the south. Tyrium, Shamah, Anuna, the Gis Jebel al-Abiaz, Makhenei, Makhna, Taibizem, and Al-Aqabar. Marais Choueb, the Mediama of Ptolemy, is evidently the ancient capital of the district. It was the only place which supplied Medianitish Nabathian coins. Moreover, it yielded graffiti from the catacombs, fragments of bronze, which it will be interesting to compare by Assay with the metal of the European prehistoric age,

and finally, stone implements worked as well as rude. I will end with a few words concerning the future industry of North Midian. For the success of these mines, the greatest economy will be necessary. The poorest ore can be treated on the spot by crushing and washing, where no expenditure of fuel is required. The richest stone that once roasting and smelting would be shipped, when worth the while, from North Midian to sewers. There, coal is abundant, and the deserted premises of DeSaud Bay, belonging to the Egyptian government, would form an excellent site for a great Yusine Centeraal.

Finally, the richest specimens, especially those containing, as many do, a medley of metals, would be treated with the least expenditure and the greatest advantage at Swansea or in other parts of England, where there are large establishments which make such work their specialty. The following analyses of the specimens brought home by the first Grisville expedition were made at the Citadel Cairo by the well-known chemist Gastinelle B in conjunction with Monsieur Georges-Marie, the engineer attached to the expedition. analyses Monsieur Gastonelbert and George Maria of Cairo of rocks brought home by the first Grijivilla expedition

all by Voiseche Gold Ace on 100 grams Number one in basalt Query lava Number two in serpentine brackets non in white quartz Silver

1 in Phelon-Ossain 1-1,000 equals 265 to 300 francs per ton brackets very good. Number two, in red sands, one tenth thousandth equals 20 francs per ton. Number three, in Skoria, traces, brackets non in white quartz or in the black sands. Copper. Number one, in Enuna quartz, four and a half per hundred.

Number two, in Philon-Hosin, two and a half, three point four percent. Philon-Hosin equals Titanferosion 86.5, silica, 10.1, copper, 3.4. Number three, in Claritics date, 1.4%. Claretx date of McNar equals silica, 90.5, carbonate of lime, 5.6, oxide of iron, 2.3, copper, 1.4. Sulfur. Jebel el-Kibrit of Elmuella, 4% above, 9 ditto below. Lead everywhere.

Calamine zinc, very rich. End of chapter 8. 9 of the land of Midian, revisited by Richard F. Burton. This Libre of Ours recording is in the public domain, read by Paul Wellford. Part 2. The March Through Central and Eastern Midian. Chapter 9. Work in and around El Muella. We arrived at El Mawela too late to meet the Haj Karavan, which, home returning, had passed hurriedly through the station on February 9th. This institution has sadly fallen off from its higher

state of a quarter of a century ago. Then, Commander by an Amir al-Haj, Lord of the Pilgrimage in the shape of two parishes or generals, it is now under the direction of a single bay or colonel. The true believers, once numbering thousands, were reduced in 187778 to some 800 souls, of whom only 80 appeared at El Mawila, and the peculiar modification of modern days is that the Mahmal is escorted only by paupers. Yet the actual number of the hajis who stand upon Jebel Arafat, instead of diminishing, has greatly increased. The majority prefer voyaging to travelling. The rich, higher state cabins

on board well-appointed, infidel steamers, and the poor content themselves with faithful sambukes. Indeed, it would seem that all the present measures, quarantines of 60 days and detentions at Richard Tor, comfortless enough to make the healthiest loose health, are intended to discourage and deter parmets from proceeding by land. If this course be continued, a very few years will see the venerable institution represented by only the Mahmal and its guard. The late Saeed Pasha of Egypt once consigned the memorial litter per steamfrogate to Jeddah. The innervation saved Grafah or blackmail to the Bedouin, but it was not approved by the Muslim world. The Hajis were so poor that they had nothing for bar to offer sale.

Happily, however, there was a farrier amongst them, and Lieutenant Yusuf took care that our meals were properly shored. Monsieur Philippine had been a marechal faron, but a kick or two had left him no stomach for the craft. Our two fellow travellers with the whole camp had set out from Mackinac on February 6th and marched up the great Wadiel Haraj. Along the eastern flank of the Jabal-Farizat at the Iron Mountain, they found many outcrops of quartz, a rock which appears sporadically all the way to the northern suffraer. In two places it was green-stained showing copper, while in another hydrated oxide and chromate of iron hematite abounded. After a stage of four hours and 20 minutes They left the caravan, struck off to the west

Accompanied by Shech Forage and reached their destination Here however they met with accidents The mules bolted, followed by the Sheikh's dromedry And they were obliged to hurry off for fear of losing the caravan Now well ahead of them Thus, when I had ordered Lieutenant Yusuf to make a detail plan of the formation He had spent exactly ten minutes on the spot And he appeared not a little proud of his work

This young officer was not a pleasant companion He had doubtless received his orders, but he carried them out in a peculiarly disagreeable way, taking note of all our proceedings under our eyes. Together with Lieutenant Amir, he began to make a collection of geology, both being utterly innocent of all knowledge, imitated us in picking up specimens, mixed them together without notes or labels, and on return to Cairo, duly presented them at the Citadel. This was all that was required.

The papers were written to, and reported as follows. Closer examination has shown that the turquoises, brought to Cairo are merely Malekite, and that the existence of any such quantity of gold, as would pay for the working is, to say the least of it, very doubtful. The whole camp, indeed, was seized with a mania for collecting. Old Hadjouelli again gathered bits of quartz, which he once more presented as goldstone to his friends and acquaintances at Zagazig

and Anton the Drago Man triumphantly bore away fragments pristling with Micah Slate, whose glitter he fondly conceived to be silver. Lieutenant Yusuf was presently dispatched with three. Three soldiers, three quarrymen, Jaze the Arab guide of a former visit and eight camels to bring back specimens of the copper silicate to the south of Aenana, and to make a regular survey of the northern Solfatar.

He set out early on February 18th and after 21 hours of caravan marching reached the Jebel al-Farah. Here the outcrop is bounded north by the Wadi al-Farah and south by the Wadi's El Marha and Um Niran, the latter forming the general recipient of these Nilars. This jebel is about a hundred and 20 feet high, of oval form stretching 1,750 meters from north-northwest to south-southeast.

The rich silicate, not carbonate of copper, which distains a streak and affects the file, is found as usual with this ore, only in one part of the valley to the southwest, some 35 feet above the sole. It is a pocket, a circumscribed deposit, as opposed to a true vein, or a vane fisher. The adjoining rocks containing carbonates of iron and copper, and the ore mass, is apparently carbonate of lime. This second visit generally confirmed the report of Ahmad Kaptan, except that there were no signs of working as he had supposed. The travellers passed the whole of February 20th at the diggings,

made a plan, and sent back two camel luds, four sacks, of the gang in charge of a soldier, to the Fort El Mawela. On the next day, the little party made for the wadi Enuna, and striking to the left of the straight line, cross the maritime country, here are massive wadis, including our friend the Afal. This highway to the northern Hizma falls, I have said into the Minat el Aenad and portlet useful to sambuques. Its sickle-shaped natural

breakwater curving from west of south resembles that of Sinaitic Marse el-Gunai and those which are so common in Western Iceland. On February 22nd a very devious path narrow and rocky lasting for one hour led them about noon to the northern Jebel el-Kabrit. The distance from El Mawela is about 66 miles and the country west of a line drawn from Ainuna to McNar was before this march utterly unknown to us, consequently to all the civilised world. Lieutenant Yusuf's two journals checking each other, his plan and his specimens, enable me to describe the northern deposit with more or less accuracy. The Sulphah Hill is a long oval of 400 metres east-west by a maximum of 180 north-south,

but it extends branches in all directions. The mineral was also found in a round piton, a knob on the Wadi Mooseer attached to the north-eastern side. The flattened dome is from 50 to 60 feet high, and the pit on 140. The metal underlying a dark crust, some 12 to 15 centimetres thick, appears in regular crystals and amorphous fragments of pure brimstone

pitting the chalky sulphate of lime. Blasting was not required, the soft material yielded readily to the pick. This gypsies or secondary formation was found to extend, not only over the adjacent hills, but everywhere along the road to McNar. The important point which now remains to be determined

is, I repeat, whether sulphur vents can be found diffused throughout these non-plutonic rocks. Lieutenant Yusuf fixed his position by climbing the adjacent hills went Sinafir bore 190 degrees and Shushu 150 degrees, both magnetic, while greater elevations to the west shut out the view of lofty tyran and even of the Sinaitic range. The nearest water in the Wadi al-Nachil to the northeast

was reported to be a two-hour march with loaded camels five miles. Several little ports, quite unknown to the hydrographic chart, were visited. These are, beginning from the north, the Minat Hamdan, lying between Mackna and Dabar, a refuge for some books defended like that of old Madjan by rising ground to the north. About three miles and a quarter further south is the Sham Dabach, the Shum Dabar, good anchorage, of the chart. This mass of reefs and shawls may have been one of the excellent harbours mentioned by Procopius. It receives the wadi Shab el-Ghan, or Jahn, the watercourse of the demons Jarn ravine, flowing from a haunted hill of redstone, near which no Arab dares to sleep.

From that point, the traveller struck nine miles and a half to the southeast of Robat-Suehill. This roadstead, used only by native craft, lies eastward of the long point, forming the Arabian staple of the Gulf Al-Arcabar's gate, where the coastline of Midian bends at a right angle towards the rising sun. Adjoining it to the east, and separated by long, thin spit, is the rhubat el wagab or wajib the mouth of the watercourse similarly named it is also known to the catira or smaller vessel and about a mile up its bed which comes from the northeast there is a well according to jazi the guide this rhubar or gulf distant only four to five hours of a slower marching from the sulphur hill will be their properest place for shipping produce in another eastern

feature the wadi gial or gial distant some eleven miles and a half from enuna and ending in a kind of sink there is a fine growth of palms about a quarter of a mile long and a supply of wild brackish water in wells and rain pools. These uninteresting details will become valuable when the sulphur mines of North Midian are ripe for working. From the Robat El-Warrab, the path, easily travelling over flat ground strikes to the northeast and 14 miles and a half beyond joins the Enuna Highway. On February 26th, at the end of nine days' work,

Lieutenant Yusuf returned to El Mawela with two sacks of sulphur-bearing chalk, which justified his previous report. As it will appear, the expedition was still travelling through the interior. After a halt for rest at headquarters, he rejoined us on our northward route from Sibar, and I again found useful occupation for his energies. Upon our happy return home, i.e. Sham Yahar, preparations for a march upon the Hizma were at once begun. My heart was firmly fixed upon this project, hoping to find an unworked California to the east of the Harar volcanoes, but the sheikhs and the camelmen who did not like the prospect of a rough reception by the Mazaar bandits,

through sundry small stumbling blocks in our path. It was evidently useless to notice them so far from the spot. They would develop themselves only too well as we approached the tribal frontier. While these obstacles were being cleared away, we carefully examined the little dock that had so often given us shelter in the hour of need, and I set a small party to work at the central Jebelal Kabrit, which had been explored by the first expedition.

Sham Yaha is the usual distorted tea, a long channel heading in a shorter cross-piece. It is formed by the confluence of four valleys, all composed of corollines and conglomerates of new sandstone. Those to the north and the northwest show distinct signs of upheaval. The two eastern features, known as the Wadi al-Har, the hot water course, of which Yahar appears to be a corruption, bare marks of man's hand. The dock is divided into an outer and inner port by a projecting northern point,

which was not sufficiently marked in the chart, enlarged plan. At this place, where the tide rises a full metre, the crew of the Mochbighur had built a jetty of rough boulders by way of Paston, and to prevent wading. Native craft lie inside opposite the ruins of a stone house. The existence of a former population is shown by the many graves on the upper plateau. In the northern Wadi al-Har, also we picked up specimens of obsidian, or logistic iron, and admirably treated,

query modern slags showing copper and iron. Evidently, some gypsy-like attelier must once have worked upon the Wadiahar. The obsidian also has apparently been subjected to the artificial fire, and a splinter of it contains a piet of free copper. What concerned us most, however, was the discovery of oysters, which, adhering to the reefs projected underwater from the rocky northern cliff, formed a live conglomerate, and, from the present time forwards, we found the succulent mollocks in almost every bay.

Those to the south, where the shallow's overlies sand and mud are not so good. At this season, the Ostrida is flat, fleshy, and full-sized. The shell has a purple border, and the hinge muscle of the savage, far stronger than that of the civilized animal, together with its exceeding irregularity of shape, giving no purchase to the knife, makes oyster opening a sore trouble. We tried fire, but the thick-skinned things resisted it for a long time. And when they did gape, the liquor had disappeared, thereby spoiling the flavour.

The beard was neither black, like that of the Irish, no colourless, as in the English oyster. The Bedouin, who ignored the delicacy, could not answer any questions about the spatting season. Probably it is earlier than hours, which extends through June. Whether also a close time is required, as in England to August 4th, we could not guess. The young probably find a natural culture in the many shells, cockle, and others that strew the rock, sand and clay. Knowing that my gallant friend Adderall MacKillopasha of Alexandria takes great interest in Austria culture, I sent him from sewers a barrel of the best Midianites. The water had escaped by the carelessness of the magazine man,

enough, however, remained alive to be thrown into the harbour Eunostos, where they will, I hope, become the parents of a fine, large progeny of natives. Similarly, we had laid in a store of 42 long-gust, curryfish, for presentation at court, and to gladden the hearts of carine friends. Our Greeks placed the tubs in the sun and so close to the funnel that, after about three hours, all the fine collection perished ignobly. We will now proceed to the central Jebel al-Kubriot, a superficial examination of which, by the first expedition, proved that the upper rock yielded four and a lower 9% of tolerably pure brimstone.

The shortest cut from the dock harbour lies up the southern Wadi Har, with its strangely weathered sandstone rocks, soft modern grits that look worm-eaten. Amongst them is a ledge-like block with undermined base projecting from the left bank. Both the upper and the lower parts are scattered over with Wassum or Arab tribal marks. On our return from El Widge, we found this sandstone tongue broken in two. The massive route remained in situ, but the terminal half had fallen on the ground. This was probably the work of an earthquake, which we felt at Sham Domega on March 22nd. The track then strikes the modern Harge Road, which runs west of and close to the Sulphah Hill. The line is a succession of watercourses and in Wadiqar we found

blocks of the hydrosilicate, carunda phyllite, which may be serpentine. It is composed of a multitude of elements, especially pyrrites. After an hour and a quarter's sharp walking, we hit the broad Wadi al-Kaburi which rounds its jebel to the south-east and which feeds the Wadi el Jibar, itself a feeder of the Shan Jibar. The latter, which gave us shelter in the Corvette Cinar, Captain Ali Bey, is a long blue line of water bounding the western base of the Sulphur Hill. This central Toil El-Kibrit is an isolated knob, rising abruptly from wady ground, measuring some 240 feet in height,

and about 880 metres in diameter, not including its tail of four vertebrae, which sets off from northwest to southeast. Viewed from the north it is, as the Egyptian officers remarked, a regular haram or pyramid with a kidney formed capping of precipitous rock. Drinkable water like that of the Wadi al-Ghal is said to be found in Wadi al-Kabrit to the northeast and the country is everywhere tolerably wooded. The Bedouin brought us small specimens of rock crystal and fragments of negro quartz,

apparently rich in metal from a neighbouring Maru. They placed it among the ill-masses to the east and south and we afterwards found it for ourselves. Our middle sulphur hill differs essentially from the two other deposits, the northern near McNar and the southern near Elwidge in being platonic and not sedimentary. One would almost say that it smokes, and the heat-altered condition of the granite, the greenstone and other rocks, looking as if fresh from a fire, suggests that it may be one of the igneous veins thrown westward by the great volcanic region, El Harar.

In parts it is a conglomerate, where a quantity of quartz takes the place of chalk and gypsum. Other deposits are iron-stained and have the appearance of the decomposed iron pyrites which abounds in this neighbourhood. Usually the yield is normal brimstone yellow, yet some of the beds are deep red as if coloured by ochre or oxide of iron. This variety is very common in the sulphuris of Iceland, and I have heard of it in the Jebel Makatam near Cairo. The colour is probably due to molecular changes and possibly shows greater age than the yellow. Monsieur Philippine was directed to take charge of Sergeant Mabruk, the nine quarrymen and the Badawi owners of two camels to carry his boring irons, forge and water from El Mawela. I advised him to dig at least 40 feet down all around the pyramid

wherever surface indications attracted notice. Old experience had taught me that such depth is necessary before one can expect to find brimstone beds like those of Sicily. The bow rings brought up sulphur from 14 metres. Beyond these six were pierced but they yielded nothing. In and around the pyramid, Monsieur Philippine sank five pits, the northernmost shaft halfway up the hill gave crystals of the purest sulphur. If the depth of the deposit be not great, the surface extent is.

The pyramid evidently forms the apex of a large vein which strikes north-south. The field consists of this cone with its dependencies, especially the yellow cliffs to the north and the south, facing in the latter direction a large plain cut by the Wadi al-Kabrit. Moreover, a vein of the red variety about three cumulators long by 25 to 30 metres broad lies to the southeast near a gypsum hill. The latter also yields the crystallised salt which so often accompanies sulphur and heaps of gigantic half-fossilised oyster shells are strewed about it.

Monsieur Philippine here remained 16 days, February 18th to March 5th, during our absence in the East Country. On return, we found our good blacksmith, much changed for the worst. Whilst in hard work, he had been half-starved, the Jaraphin Bedouin of the neighbourhood, having disappeared with their flocks, he had been terribly worried by the cameleers, and he had been a perpetual feud with the miserable quarrymen. I never saw a man less fitted to deal with two-legged natives. The latter instinctively divined that he would rather work himself than force other. to work and they acted accordingly. The expedition was this divided into four, three working parties and one of idlers. Anton and Petros were left behind to do nothing

as magazine men. Lieutenant Darwesh, the linesman who was too weak to ride and sub-leftainant Mohammed the minor who was told to travel had charge of the sick. Both found the Varniente equally sweet. On February 17th I again bid adieu to the gunboat, Mohmir and marched with the largest party upon our camp at El Mawela, distant about six miles, one hour, 45 minutes. The path from Sham Yaha crosses the hard sands of the maritime plain, metalled with the natural macadam of the desert. The stone is mostly dark silex, the hens liver of the Brazil, and its surfaces kept finely polished and free from patina by the friction of the dust-laden winds. The line is deeply gashed by short, broad gullies.

The hardgerud, running further east, heads these ugly nilars. The third, third and largest channel is Wadi Sur, the greatest valley of El Mouela, which may regard it as the southern frontier of Madian proper. We shall trace it to its head in the Hizma. I had left the camp pitching at El Muela to the Egyptian officers, who naturally chose the site nearest the two northern wells, a wave of ground, hot by day, cold at night, windy and dusty at all times, moreover, the water was near enough to be horribly fouled. No wonder that in such a place many of the men fell ill and that one subsequently died our only lost during the four months march. On February 18th we proceeded under the misguidance of Abash Buzug of the fort,

Ahmed Salih El Maloon, to inspect a neighbouring ruin called Abba Hawauit, the father of dwelling walls. While in page 30 declares that, finding no mention made of Wemoele in Arab scripts, nor traces all traditions among their existing generational land pointing to a high antiquity. He is inclined to consider it a town of modern. origin, in fact the growth of the Egyptian pilgrimage. His error is excusable. He was a passing traveller and I well remember that for a whole year the true name of a hill immediately behind our house at Damascus remained unknown to me. We had called it after our own fashion and the term had at once been adopted by all our over-polite native friends. Indeed, this is one of the serious

difficulties to be encountered throughout the East by the scrupulous traveller whose greatest fear is that of misleading others. The expedition had paid for several visits to El Muehela and had never heard a word about ruins when I happened to read out before the sheikhs assembled at Marais Chouyeb a passage from Melma Creezy, treating of the destroyed cities of Matian. They at once mentioned half a dozen names

lying within the short distances of the little salt. Amongst them was Abu Huawait, literally meaning ten-mount walls, but here replied in the short form Hawawait to ruins in general. Had Wali Haji, as Walin was called by the Bedouin, looked only ten feet beyond the northeastern tower of the fort

near the ruins of a modern mastaba or masonry bench, he would have found long-forgotten vestiges of ovens and slags containing copper and iron. The same will prove to be the case about the inland defence of Elwidge. In fact, all these works seem for obvious reasons to have been built upon sites that have been utilised long before their modern day. El Mueuela was probably a more important place than it is at present when the reef harbour, which now admits native craft only by a gap to the south-west, had not been choked by shoals. The sandy soil once only water to produce a luxuriant perennial growth and every garden can have its well. But more life is wanting. A man heaps up a thorn hedge or builds a swish wall of the brick clay

underlying the wadi and if it gets only to lay out the field within. Local history does not, it is true, extend beyond 200 years or so, the probable date of Sheikh Abdullah's venerated subulcher, a truncated parallelogram of cut corraline on the Wadi-Sre year to the north of the settlement. Yet this little salt is too remarkable a sight to have remained. unoccupied. Possibly it is the untranslated word, the horse village and query fort, which Ptolemy 6.2 places in northern latitude 26 degrees 40 minutes, true 27 degrees 40 minutes, whilst his other untranslated word would be their glorious char, correctly consigned to northern latitude 27 degrees 20 minutes. This argues an error of nearly

60 miles by the geographer or his copyists. But chapter 12 will attempt to show that the latitude of a third untranslated word, the modern Shoak, is also one degree too low. So on the East African coast, Ptolemy places its Aromattoe Promontorium, which can only be Guadafui between northern latitude 5 degrees and 7 degrees, whereas it lies in northern latitude 11 degrees, 41 minutes and 4 seconds. The Owal Hawawet of First Ruins begin on the right bank of the sewer after one mile and three quarters from camp and bear northeast 55 degrees magnetic from the minaret of the minaret of Elmuella Fort. The position is a sandy basin containing old Badawe graves

bounded by a low ridge forming a boulder-clad buttress to the Wadi, while the circuit of the two may be a mile and a half, a crumbling modern tower crowning the right bank and two Maraca rubstones where the principal remains. The situation must have been well chosen in the days when the heights were wooded and the Wadi was a river. We afterwards mapped the body of the place, lying about three miles from the fort, showing the Yubu Bank to the northwest, 298 degrees of magnetic, and nearly due west, 260 degrees magnetic, Elmawila's only house, the Saeeds. The site is a home or island in the Wadi Sur, which here runs east-west and splits.

The main line is the southern, and a small branch, a mere gully, occupies the northern bedside. The chief ruin is an oblong of 20 metres by 16, the short ends facing 195 degrees magnetic, the whole built-of-huge-pevel The interior is composed of one large room to the north, with sundry smaller divisions to the south, east and west. Defence was secured by a wall, distant 142 metres, thrown across the whole eastern part of the islet. Outside it are three large pits, evidently the site of cisterns. The people also told us of a well, the beer el-a-ash-chram, which had long been mysteriously hidden. Immense labour has also been expended in reverting the northern and southern banks,

both of the islet and the smaller branch bed, for many hundreds of yards with red, and water-rolled boulders, even on a larger scale than at Mare Chouyeb. What all this work meant, we were unable to divine. Perhaps it belonged to the days when the seabird of Midian was agricultural, and it was intended as a protection against the two torrents, the Wadizalzila and the Abu Sabah, which here fall into the northern bank. The 18th of February also made itself memorable to the second expedition. Monsieur Marie was strolling near the old furnaces to the northeast of the fort,

where, in 1877, he had picked up an auriferous special. specimen, unfortunately lost before it reached Cairo. Here he again found a fragment of serpentine, broken and water rolled into the semblance of half a globe. It showed crust and stains of iron, fillets of white quartz, and a curve of bright yellow dots disposed like the chainlet of an aneroid. Thereupon we gravely debated whether these were the remains of a vein or had been brought to the surface by the rubbing and polishing of the stone in water. I could not but remark that the interior, which appeared piratiferous, did not show the slightest trace of pressure metal. Still, the discovery gave fresh courage to all our people, as Rofi was shown to every

bedouy, far and near, with the promise of a large reward, $50 to the lucky white who could lead us to the rock in situ. The general voice declared that the goldstone was the produce of Jebel Malay or Malé. We afterwards ascertained by marching up the Wadi Sur that it was not. In fact, the whole neighbourhood was thoroughly well scoured, but the results were nil. In due course of time, the tarnishing and the disappearance of the metal reduced my scepticism. to a certainty. The gold dots with a trace of some pilgrim or soldiers copper-neiled boots. It was the first time

that this ludicrous mistake arose, but not the last. Our native friends were ever falling into the same trap. Amongst the minor industries of the Fort El Mawela must be reckoned selling gazelles. The Bedouin bring them in and so succeed in taming the timid things that they will follow their owners like dogs

and amused themselves with hopping upon his shoulders. When this trained Ariel is supposed to be worth half a Napoleon. The wild ones may be bought at almost every fort as Zibar or Elwidge. End of chapter 9. Chapter 10 of the land of Midian, revisited by Richard F. Burton. This Libre Vox recording is in the public domain, read by Paul Wellford.

Chapter 10, through East Midian to the Hismar. The land of Midian is by no means one of the late Prince Metternich's geographical expressions. The present tenets of the soil give a precise and practical definition of its limits. Their Ars Madian extends from El Akaba north, northern latitude 29 degrees 28 minutes, to El Muele with its Wadi El Sur, northern latitude 27 degrees 40 minutes. It has thus a total latitudinal length of 108 direct geographical miles. South of this line, the seaboard of northwestern Arabia, as far as al-Hajaz, has no generic name. The Bedouin are contented with such vague terms deriving from some striking feature as the lands of Zibar, of Wadi Salma, of Wadi Salma, of Wadi Wadi Dama of El Uijj to denote the tract lying between the parallels of El Muella and of Wadi Hams

in northern latitude 25 degrees 55 minutes 15 seconds. Thus the north-south length of the southern moiety would be 105 direct geographical miles or a little less than the northern and the grand total would be 213 miles. The breadth of this Egyptian province is determined by the distance from the sea to the maritime mountains. In Madian proper or north median the extremes would be 24 and 35 miles. For the southern half, these figures may be doubled. Here again, the better way now definitive as regards limits. All the Tehama or lowlands and their ranges belong to Egypt. East of it, the Dalat Sharm, or Government of Syria, claims possession. I have taken the liberty of calling the whole tract Midian. The section above El Mawela, Madian proper, I would term North Midian,

and that below it, South Midian. In the days of the ancient Midianites, the frontiers were so elastic that at times, but never for a continuity, they embraced Sinai and were pushed forward even into central Palestine. Moreover, I would prolong the limits eastward as far as the Damascus Medina road. This would be politically and ethnologically correct. With the exception of the Maaza country, the whole belongs to Egypt and all the tribes, formerly Nabathian, are now more or less Egypto-Arab, never questioning the rights of His Highness the Viceroy who garrisons the seaboard forts. Of the other points, historical and geographical, I'm not so sure. My Leonard friend Alloy Spranga remarks,

Let me observe that you're extending the name Midian over the whole country As far south as the dominions of the port appears to me an innovation by which the identity of the race along the shore of the Gulf of Aqaba and of the coast Antoaj and Haura is prejudged. Would it not be

better to leave Midian where it always has been and to consider Bada, the centre of Thamuditis, as it was at the time of Pliny and Ptolemy and has continued to be until the Bali and other Kuda tribes came from southern Arabia and exterminated the Thamudites? This is doubtless valid objection. Its only weak point is that it goes too far back.

We cannot be conservatives in geography and ethnology, nor can we attach much importance in the 19th century to erase the Benitamud, which had wholly disappeared before the 7th. On the whole, it still appears to me that by adopting my innovation, we gain more than we lose, but the question must be left for others to decide. In nowadays, two great sultanis or high highways bound Madian the less and Midian the greater. The western, followed by the Hajel Misri, or Egyptian caravan, dates from the age of Sultan Salim Khan, the conqueror, who, before making over the province to the later Mamluk bays, levelled rocks, cut through ridges, dug wells, laid out the track, and defended the line by forts. Before that time, the road

ran for convenience of water to the east or inland. It was, in fact, the old Nabathian highway, which, according to Strabo, connected Lucay-e-e-Komei with the western capital Petra. Further east and far beyond the double chain of maritime mountains is the highway followed by the Hajal Shami or Syrian or Damascus caravan, which sets out from Constantinople, musters at Damascus and represents the Sultan. On both these main lines, water is procurable at almost every station, and to them military expeditions are perforce limited. The parallelogram between the two, varying in breadth, according to while in from 90 to 120 miles,

direct and geographical, is irregularly supplied in places with springs, wells and rain pits, which can always be filled up or salted by the Bedouin. The main body of the expedition, Mr. Clark, Monsieur's Marie and Lecaz, Ahmed Kaptan, and Lieutenant Tamir, set out from El Mueuila at 6.30 a.m. February 19th, escorted by the Saeed and the three salaried sheikhs, including our friend for age. The Remington's numbered ten, and there were also ten picks, of him five waited upon the mules, of the 61 camels, six were dromedaries, and as the road grew lighter, our beasts of burden increased, somehow or other, to 64. The caravan now loads in 20 minutes instead of five hours,

and when Politique, or fear of danger, does not delay us, we start in a quarter of an hour after the last bugle sound. This operation is under charge of Lieutenant Tamir, who does his best to introduce Darfurian discipline, the camels being first charged with the fanatus, metal water barrels, then with the boxes, and lastly with the tents. After passing the ruins of Abu Hawaouaouet, we began at 9.15 a.m. to exchange the broad Wadi-sur of the flat seaboard with its tall bank of stiff drab clay for a gorge walled with old conglomerates and threading the ruddy and dark green foothills of the main rat. As in the Wadale-Makadar and other winter brooks,

the red porphyritic trap, heat-altered argyll easily distinguished by its fracture from the cyanites of the same hue, appeared to be ironclad, coated with a thin crust of shiny black or brown peroxide. This peculiarity was noticed by Tucki in the Congo, by Humboldt in the Orinoco and by myself in the San Francisco River. I also saw it upon the sandstones of the wild mountains east of Jerusalem, where, as here, air and not water, must affect the oxide of iron. In both cases, however, the cause would be the same, and the polish would be a burnishing of nature on a grand scale. After six very slow miles

were halted for rest and refraction at a thread of water in a section of the sewer which receives the Wadi al-Nadil. The sides were crowded with sheep and goats, the latter, as in the Syrian lowlands, almost invariably black, and the adjoining rocks had peculiar attractions for hares, hawks, and partridge. In these upland regions, water is almost everywhere, and generally it is drinkable, hence the Bedouin naturally prefer them to the coast, an umbrella-shaped thorn tree, actually growing on a hilltop, and defined by the skyline, excited our wonder and admiration, for here, as in Pontus. Grava neke-Felix, in Apertis eminet alvis abhor, et in terra is altaira former mares.

Indeed, throughout our journey, this spectacle always retained its charm, aiding fancy to restore the barons to what they had been in the prosperous days of yore. The Wadi-sur now began to widen out and to become more riot, whilst Poffrey was almost the only visible rock. After a total of ten dawdling miles, marching almost due east, we found our tents pitched in a broad and quasi-circular basin called the Al-Saf, the level ground of Jebel Mali Mount Pleasant, which the broad-speaking Bedouin lengthened to Malay. Our camelmen had halted exactly between two waters and equally distant from both,

so was to force upon us the higher of extra animals. We did not grumble, however, as we were anxious to inspect the Afran or furnaces said to be found upon the up heights of the shahar, of these apocryphal features more hereafter. Fresh difficulties. The Jarafin-Hawetat tribe that owns the country south of the sewer

could not be reached under a whole day of dromedary riding. In reality, they were camped a few furlongs off, but anything to gain eight pounds per diem for doing nothing. Two Bedoui shepherd lads promised to act guides next morning and duly failed to appear, or more probably were forbidden to appear. They had also romanced about ruins, fountains, palms and rushes in the Wadi al-Kusayb, the southeastern influence. At night, Ahmed al-Ukbi, surnamed Abu Khartoum, arrived in camp.

He had travelled more than once to Dubuque, carrying grain, and though he had failed as a merchant, he retained his reputation as a guide. As regards to the furnaces, he also, like Farage, could speak only from here, say, opinions were divided in camp I saw clearly that a stand was being made to Delia's for four or five days and despite grumbling I resolved upon deferring the visit till I return from the interior

the first march had led us eastward instead of north-eastwood in order to inspect the Wadi Sur from the seaboard this line which drains the northern flank of the Sharr Mountains appears the directest road into the interior we shall presently see however why the devious northern way of the Wadi Sadr

had become the main commercial route connecting El Muella with Tobuk During the evening we walked up the Wadi Tsur, finding in its precipitous walls immense veins of serpentine and porphyritic greenstone, but not a speck of gold. The upper part of the Fiumara also showed abundant scatters of water-rolled stones, serpentines and hard felsbars, whose dove-coloured surface, was streaked with fibrales, and at times with regular veins of silvery luster as if brought out by friction of the surface. I offered a considerable sum to Jarofin Bedoui if he would show the rock in situ. He was evidently ignorant of it, but like others he referred as to Jewell Malie. The whole of the next day, February 20th, was spent in Norton. Leaving the noisy brain caravan to march straight on its destination,

we set out 6.15 a.m. up the wadi Gawemara, guided by Hassan El-Oqbi, who declared that he well knew the sights of the ruined settlements of El Chalasa and El Zibayeb. After walking half an hour, we turned eastward into a feed over the sewer, the Wadi El Chalasa, whose aspect charmed me. This drain of the inner Jadaal block was the replica of a fiumara in Somaliland, a broad, tree-dotted flat of golden sand bordered on either side by an Emerald Avenue of dense mimoses, forming line under the greenstone hills to the right and the redstone heights to the left. The interior, we again remarked, is evidently more rained upon

and therefore less sterile and desolate than the coast and the submaritime regions, and here one can well imagine large towns being built. At last, after walking about an hour and a half, four miles and a half, towards the shah, with our backs turned upon our goal, the rat-furt based little intriguer Hassan declared that he knew nothing about El Khlaasa, but that Zibayab lay there, pointing to a bright red cliffy peak. Abal Barid on the left bank of the wadi, and to others whose heads were blue enough and low enough to argue considerable distance. He had intended his cousin Gabr to be the real guide and to take himself all the credit, but I had sent off the palace judge in another direction. Mr. Clark, whose cantering mule had no objection to leave its fellows,

rode off with a recreant Hassan while we awaited his return under a tree. Instead of hugging Abal Barid, behind which a watercourse would have taken him straight to his destination, he struck away from the Wadil Khalasa, then crossing on foot and hauling his animal over, a rough divide, he fell after six miles instead of two

into the upper course of the Wadisur, which he reported to be choked with stones and refusing passage to loaded camels, as will appear afterwards, the reverse is the case. The ruins of Al-Zabaiab lie at a junction of three, or rather four watercourses. The eastern is the sewer,

here about 500 yards broad, forming a bulge in the bed, and then bending abruptly to the south. A short line from the south-west, the Wadi Zibib, drains the Abal Barid Peak, and the northernmost is the Wadi al-Safra, upon which the old place stands Acheval.

The western part is the larger and the more ruinous. The thin line, 300 yards long by 30 broad, never shows more than two tenements deep owing to the hill that rises behind it. Here, the only furnace was found. The eastern block measures 100 yards by 40. Both are raised to their basements, resembling the minor settlement on the Shamar cliff. They attract attention only by the material, red boulders being used instead of green porphyries on the hills, and the now desolate spot shows no signs of water or of palm groves.

Mr. Clark rejoined us after a couple of hours, having lost the dog Brahim, under a sudden change of diet, it had become too confident of its strength, and thus it is that dogs and men come to grief. We retraced our steps down the Wadi al-Khalasa, whose Jebel is the crupper of the little block um Jideal. The lower valley shows a few broken walls, old Arab graves and other signs of ancient habitation, but I am convinced that we missed the ruins which lay somewhere in the neighbourhood. One Suleiman, a Bedoui, of the Salalima Huitat tribe, who had been rascalized by residents at El Muella, was hunted by the energetic Saeed, hoping as usual that no action would be taken upon mere words. He declared that El-Halasa stood on the top of a trap lump.

We halted to inspect it, and Lieutenant Tamir rode the Shatana, his vicious little Shemul, up and down steeps fit only for a goat. Again, all was in vain. We then travelled over granite gravel along the western foothills of Umjadale, in which a human figure or statue had been reported to me. Now, however, it became a saboot or upright stone. Along the flanks of the chief outlier, the Jebelelarumzah, distinguished by its red crest and veins, the slope was one strew of quartz, whole and broken, like that which we had seen to the north, and which we were to see on our southern journey. Despising the rotten water,

offered in two places by the Umjidele, we pitched camp on the fine gravel of the Sail Wadi El Jim. Here I heard for the first time, after citing it for many weeks, that the latter is the name, not of a mountain, but of a shaw or gully in the Jebel Debach, where waters meet. The Wadiqqq, separating the Umbria, separating the Umbuds, the Debaugh, looks like a highway,

but all declare that it is closed to camels by war or stony ground. of its ruins more when we'd travel to the Shahr. This day's march of four hours, ten miles and a half, had been a series of zigzags north, northeast, west, and again north. After a cool, pleasant night, we set out at 6.30 a.m. February 21st, across the broad Sa'il, towards a bay in the mountains bearing north-west, the mouth of the Wadi-Zanara. Entering the block, we made two shortcuts to save great bends in the bed.

The first was the Shab El Luei, the Wei of Wallewe. page 3 or 4, wild riding enough, the path often winding almost due east when the general direction was north-northeast. We saw for the first time pure greenish-yellow chlorite outcropping from the granite. The animals were apparently hibernating and the plants were rare. We remarked chiefly the sorrel and a blue thistle, or rather wild artichoke, the Shauk El-Germal, a thorn loved by the camel's Bleferus Adoulis, which recalled to mine the highlands of Syria. The second shortcut, the Wadi El-Ga-A-Aa-Sawain, was the worse of the two. The deep drops and narrow gutters in the quartz vein granite induced even the shakes to dismount before attacking the descents.

This is rarely done when ascending for the beasts climb-like Iceland ponies. One of Monsieur Lacasse's most effective croquis is that showing Montour and men, disappearing in the black depths of a crevice. Some of the hillcrests were weathered with forms resembling the artificial. By the midday halting ground, we saw a stone mother nursing a rock child, which might still be utilised in lands where thomoturgy is not yet obsolete. Our course then slay eastward Up the easy bed of the Fiumara

An eastern section of an old friend The Wadi Tyrium It now takes the well-known name Wadi Sadr And we shall follow it to its head in the Hismar The scene is rocky enough for Scotland Or Scandinavia with its huge walls bristling in broken rocks and blocks

Its blue slides and its polished sheets Of dry watercourse which, from afar, flash in the sun like living cataracts On the northern or right bank rises the mighty Harb whose dome, single when seen from the west, here becomes a tridactylon, splitting into three, several heads. Facing it, the northernmost end of the Debach range forms a truncated tower, conspicuous, far out at sea, having no name it was called Bayeuse,

Burge, Jebel, Debach. A little further to the east, it will prove to be the monstrous pommel of a dwarf saddleback, everywhere a favourite shape with a granite outcrop. Monsieur Clark and Lacasse, who had never before seen anything higher than the hillocks of the of white or the Butte de Montmartre were hot upon ascending the almost perpendicular signs of the birge, relying upon the parallel and horizontal fissures in the face, which were at least 10 to 20 feet apart. These dark marks, probably stained by oxide of iron, reminded me of those which wrinkle the granitic peaks about Rio de Janeiro and which have been mistaken for hieroglyphs. The valley sole is party-coloured. The sands of the deeper line to the right are tinctured

a pale and sickly green by the degradation of the porphyritic traps, here towering in the largest masters yet seen, while the gravel of the left bank is warm and lively with red grit and cyanitic granite. Looking down the long and gently waving line, we feel still connected with a civilised world by the blue and purple screen of Sinai forming the splendid background. Everything around us appears deserted. The Maaza, Europe country and the Beny Okba have temporarily quitted these grazing grounds for the Soir of El Mawela. We count for the night after a total march of 11 miles at the Sa'il El Naguay, a short nula at the foot of a granite block, similarly named, and a gap supplied us with tolerable rainwater. On the next day, February 22nd, we left the

Nagwa at 7 instead of 6am and passed to the right a granitic outcrop in the wadi bed, a reduced addition of the burge. After an hour's slow walking, we were led by a Badawi lad, Hassan bin Hussain, to a rock spur projected northwards from the left side and separating two adjacent sails or torrent beds, mere bays, in the bank of mountains. A cut road runs to the top of the granite tongue, which faces the westernmost or downstream outbreaks of the huge porphyritic masses on the other side of the Wadi Sadr. The ridge itself is strewed with spalled stone,

quartz broken from the veins that seam the granite, and with slag, as usual, admirably worked. Not a trace of human habitation appears, nor is there any tradition of a settlement having existed here. Consequently, we concluded that this was another atelier of wandering workmen. Below the rock tongue, we found for the first time oxidated iron and copper either free or engaged in trap and basaltic dikes. The former metal also attached in layers to the dark red Vermeil Jasper,

here appears streaked with white quartz. Resuming our ride, we dismounted after four miles at the halfway Mahata halting place. It is a ron point in the Wadi Sadr marked from afar by a tall blue pyramid, the Jebelal Gala or Jala. We spent some time examining this interesting bulge. Here, the Jabal-Al-Tihama end and the eastern pack. range, the Jabal al-Shafar begins. The former belong to the Huatat and to Egypt, the latter, partly to the Maaza and to Syria. The geographical frontier is well marked by two large watercourses

disposed upon a meridian and both feeding the main drain, the sad of Tyrium. To the north, the Wadi Soada divides the granitic harb from the Porphoritic Jebel Soada, while the southern Wadi-Elan separates the Bach from the Jebel Elan, a tall form distinctly visible from the upper shahr. The rest of our eastward march will now be through the Shafar Massif. It resembles on a lower scale the Tahrama Rats, but it wholly wants their variety, their beauty and their grandeur. The granite, which before pierced the porphyritic traps in all directions, now appear only at intervals,

and this, I'm told, is the case throughout the northern, as we found it to be in the southern, prolongation of their lip range. At the same time, there is no distinct geographical separation between the two parallels, and both appear, not as if parted by neutral ground, but rather as topographical continuations of each other. While breaking off fast and resting the meals, a few shots ringing ahead caused general excitement. We were now on the edge of the enemy's country.

Presently, three of the Maaza came in and explained with their barking voices that their people had been practicing at the Nishan target, which meant we have powder in abundance. One of them at once dubbed Elnus Nass, the satyr, from his exceeding monstrous ugliness, a baboon's muzzle with a scatter of beard, kindly volunteer to guide us with the intention of losing the way. The dialogue that took place with something as follows,

What are your names? Answer, na'akal, why a shrab. Our names are, we eat and we drink. Why do we find water today? Freijiculates, the water of the recab! Answer, no by Allah. The Arabs will never allow you to drink. You should be killed for carrying off in Dumuz or skins,

the sand of the Wadi Jad. alluding to Lieutenant Amir's trip. We did not pay much heat to these evil signs. Ahmed al-Ukby had been sent forward to obtain a free pass from the chiefs, and we hardly expected that the outlying thieves would be daring enough to attackers. Resuming our way in a cold wind and a warm sun up the wadi-sadder, we threaded the various bends to the south and southeast, with a general south-southeastern direction.

The normal dark-green traps and burnished red porphyries and grits were sparsely clad with the shohat and yassar trees, resembling the Salvador and the Tamarix. The country began to show a few donkeys and large flocks of sheep and goats. The muttons have a fine tog and sell for $3.5. The women in charge, whose complexions appeared notably lighter than those of the seaboard, barked like the men. They were much puzzled by curious bleating which came from the mules

and hurriedly countered their kids, suspecting that one had been purloined, whilst they had some trouble to prevent the whole flock following us. All rode with laughter when they found that Mr. Clark was the performer. We crossed two short cuts over long bends in the wadi and at the second found a pothole of rainwater by no means fragrant except to nostrils that love impure ammonia. It has a grand name

Moire from Mia'El Ricab the waters of the caravan and we made free with it despite the morning's threats. We again camped in the valley at an altitude of 2,200 feet, aneroid 27.8 and though the thermometer showed 66 degrees Fahrenheit at 5pm, fires inside and outside the mess tents were required. A wester, or sea breeze, deflected by the ravines to a nether, was blowing, and in these regions, as in the sub-frigid zones of Europe, wind makes all the difference of temperature.

During the evening we were visited by the Maaza Bedouin of a neighbouring encampment. They began to notice stolen camels and to wrangle over past times, another bad sign. Setting out on a splendidly lucent morning, 6.45 a.m. February 23rd, when the towering heads of Harb and Debach looked only a few furlongs distant, we committed the imprudence of proceeding, as usual, the escort. Our men had become so timid, starting at the sight of every wretched bedouy, that they made one long for a rash act. After walking about a mile and a half, we passed some black tents on the left bank,

where the sadder enters a narrow rocky gorge, and suddenly about a dozen varlets were seen scampering over the walls, manning the pass, and with lighted matches threatening to fire. Then loud rang the war song. Hill el Zawaiib Hilah ha And abdi nohudak Kullah Lose thy top locks

With a loosing like a lion's mane And advance thy breast All of it Oppenite Pectara without shrinking Other varieties of the slogan are O man of small mouth Am Miserable If we fail, who shall win

And By thy eyes I swear oh she-kamel, if we go to the attack and gird the sword, we will make it a day of sorrow to them and avert from ourselves every ill. We dismounted, looked our weapons and began to parley. The ragged ruffins, some of them mere boys, and these always the readiest to blow the matches of guns longer than themselves, began with high pretensions. They declared that they would be satisfied with nothing less than plundering us. They flouted Shech for rage and they insulted the side, threatening to take away his sword. Presently, the air, the air.

escort and the Arab camelmen were seen coming up at the double. The Maaza at once became abject, kissed our heads and declared, there was some mistake. I had already remarked, whilst the matchlockmen were swarming up the Wadi sides, that the women and children remained in camp, and the sheep and goats were not driven off. This convinced me that nothing serious had been intended. Probably the demonstration was ordered from headquarters in order to strike us with a wholesome awe. The fellows gently reproached us with travelling through their country without engaging and paying, grapher, guides and protectors. So far, as owners of the soil, they were in the right, and Manning our pass is here the popular way of levying transit dues. On this occasion, the number

of our Remington suffice to punish their insolence by putting them into flight, and by carrying off their camels and flocks. But such a step would have stopped the journey, and what would not the Aborigines Protection Society have said and done? I therefore hired one of the valets, and both parties went their way, rejoicing that the peace had not been broken. The valley, and green hills was dull and warm till the cool morning Easter, which usually set about 8 a.m. began to blow. The effect of increasing altitude

showed itself in the vegetation. We now saw for the first time the cadad, or astragalus, with horrid thorns and a flower resembling from afar, the gooseberry. It is common on the hizma and in the south country. A cahla, or ekeem, a buglos, a borage-like plant with viscous leaves and flowers of two colours,

the young light pink and the old dark blue, everywhere beautified the sands and reminded me of the Istrian mills where it is plentiful as in the Nile Valley. The Jared Thorn was not in bloom, and the same was the case with the hyacinth, Dipcardi erythrium, so abundant in the hismar, which some of us mistook for a wild onion. The Zati, Lavangula, had just donned its pretty azure bloom. There were recedar, wild indigo, tribulous or terrestris, the blue aristida, the pale steeper, and the bromus grass, red and yellow. The ratum, spartium,

with delicate white and pink blossoms, was a reminiscent of turnerite. reef in its glorious crater, whilst a little higher up, the Amin Cytisus flowering with gold, carried our thoughts back to the far past. Presently, the great Fioramara opened up a large basin denoting the raze or head Wadi Sadr. Native travellers considered this their second stage from El Mawela. In front, the Jabal Sadr extended far to the right and left, a slight depression showing the herita or pass which we were to ascend on the morrow. Butressing the left bank of the broad watercourse was the dwarf hill, of which we had been told so many tales. By day, its red sands gleam and glisten-like burnished copper during the night fire flashes from the summit.

In truth, its sole peculiarity is out of being yellow amongst the gloomy heights around it, whilst the wadier-safra higher up to the left discharges from its jebel, a torrent of quartz and cyanite, gravel and sand. Abu Khartan, the author of the romance, was among the party. He only smiled when complimented upon the power of his imagination. This was a day of excitement. Even the mules kept their ears pricked up. After a short nine miles, we had camped below the Jebel Kibar,

and we had remounted our animals to ascend a neighbouring hill commanding a bird's eye view of the Hezmar plain. There was evidently much excitement amongst the Bedoui shepherds around us, and presently Ahmed Elokubi, our messenger, appeared in sight, officially heading the five chiefs of the Maaza, who were followed by a tale of some 30 clansmen. Only two road horses, Richard Garans, stolen from the Ruala, the great branch of the Aniza, which holds the eastern regions,

the rest rode fine, sturdy and long-coated camels, which looked Syrian rather than Midianite. We returned hurriedly to make arrangements for the reception. Our sheikhs could not, without derogating, go forth to meet the strangers, but the latter was saluted with due ceremony by the bugler and the escort drawn up in line before the mess tent. After the usual half-hour's delay, the palava, to speak African Isse, came up, and Monsieur Lacaz had a good opportunity of privily sketching the scene. The Sheikh Mohammed bin Atiyah, who boasts falsely that he commands more than half the 2,000 males composing the tribe, is a tall, sinewy man of about 50, straight-featured, full-bearded and gruffoiced.

His official style of speaking from the throat, a kind of vaccine low, imitated in camp for many a day, never failed to cause merriment. His costume rose to the heights of desert fashion. Described when portraying Sheikh Khazir the Emrani, his manners were those of a gentleman below the pass, and above it he became an unmitigated ruffian who merited his sobriquet el-calb the hound. On one side sat his son Salem, a large, beardless lad, who had begun work by presenting us with a sheep. Georgy, Cook, said it cost us £40. On the other was his eldest brother and alter ego,

the wrinkled sagr or sacchar, had been a resident at Cairo, and still boasts that he received the tribute of a horse from the viceroy, whom he effect to treat as an equal, or rather an inferior. The others were old Sagara's ill-visaged son Ali And lastly, a cunning-eyed villain, Abed bin Salim, the rightful heir to the chieftainship, which, however, he had been unable to keep. All the sheikhs were dressed in brand-new garments And glaring, glossy kofirs or headkerchiefs.

They traded chiefly with Mazareb in the Horan, And during the annual passage to and fro of the Damascus caravan, they waited at Tabook and threatened to cut off the road Unless liberally propitiated with presence of Raymond and rations. The Muratiba, or Honorarium, contributed by Al-Sham, would be about $100 in ready money to the headman, diminishing with degree to one dollar per annum. This would not include free gifts by pilgrims. The Mazar are under Syria, that is, under no rule at all, and they are supposed to be tributary to, when in reality they demand tribute from the port. In fact, nothing can be more

pronounced than the contrast of the Bedouin who are subject to Egypt, and those supposed to be governed by the wretched Ottoman. During the Palaam, all outside was sweet as honey to use the Arab phrase and bitter as gall inside. The maaza, many of whom now saw Europeans for the first time, I'd the Banatta or hat, curiously, with a certain facial movement which meant, this is the first time we have let Christian dogs into our land. They were minute in observing the escort and not a little astonished to find that all were Negroes. In the old day, Egyptian soldiers under the great Muhammad Ali Pasha and his stepson,

Ibrahim Pasha, had made themselves at terror to the wild. man. What had now become of them was the mental question. When asked whence they had procured the two horses, they answered curtly, min rabina from our lord. Thus signifying stolen goods, and like medieval knights, they took a pride in a vowing that not one of their number could read or write. Finally, a tent was assigned to them, food was ordered, and they promised us escort to their dens on the morrow. During the raw and gusty night, the mercury sank to 38 degrees Fahrenheit, the aneroid 26.91, showing about 3,000 feet above sea level, and blazing fires kept up within and without the tents hardly sufficed for comfort. On the morning of February 24th, over the world the wind blew cold,

and the Egyptian officers all donned their gloves. The early hours were spent in a last struggle with our sheikhs who now felt themselves and their camels hopelessly entering the lion's lair. The sole available pretext for delay was that their animals could never carry the boxes and tents up the pass, but though very ugly reports prevailed concerning the reception of Ahmed al-Ockm, and the observations that had been made last night not so word was suffered to reach my ears until our retreat had been resolved upon. Such concealment would have been inexcusable in a European.

In the east, it is the rule. At 7.15 a.m., we struck the camp at Jabal-Kibar and moved due eastward towards the pass. This north-eastern hereta, or col, is termed the heritat el-hizma or El Jils, after a hillock on the plateau summit, to distinguish it from the similar feature to the south-west, The latter is known as the Cretat El Zibar, or El Tahama, the local pronunciation of Tehama.

About two miles of rough and broken ground lead to the foot of the ladder. The zigzags then follow the line of a mountain torrent, the natural pass, crossing its bed from left to right and from right again to left. The path is the rudest of Corniche's worn by the feet of man and beast, and showing some ugly abrupt turns. The absolute height of the ascent is about 450 feet, aneroid 26.7 to 26. and the length half a mile. The ground composed mostly of irregular rock steps

has little difficulty for horses and mules but camels laden with boards, the mess table and long tent poles must have had a queer time. I should almost expect after this to see an oyster walking upstairs. Of course, they took their leisure, feeling each stone before they trusted it, but they all arrived without the shadow of an accident and the same was the case during the two subsequent descents. We halted on the Sathel Nakhab, the pass stop,

to expect the caravan and to prospect the surrounding novelties. Heaps and piles of dark trap dotted the summit like old graves. Many of the stones were inscribed with tribal marks, and not a few were capped with snowy lumps of quartz detached from their veins in the porphyry. This custom, which appears universal throughout Midian, has many interpretations. According to some, it denates the terminus of the successful raid. Others make it sure where a dispute was settled without bloodshed, whilst, as a rule, it is an expression of gratitude. The bedew erected it in honour of the man who protected or who did a service to him, saying at the same time, Abiaz alaqa fulan, white or happy, be it to thee, naming the person.

Amongst these votive stones, we picked up copper-stained quartz like that of anuna, fine specimens of iron, and dove-coloured serpentine with silvery threads, so plentiful in the Wadisur. The wasam, in most cases, showed some form of a cross, which is held to be a potent charm by the Sinaitic Bedouin, and on two detached water-rolled pebbles were distinctly inscribed 1H and V1, which looked exceedingly like Europe. Apparently the custom is dying out, the modern Midianites have forgotten the art and mystery of tribal signs, Wussum, in many places the people cannot distinguish between inscriptions and Bill snooks his mark, and they can interpret very few of the latter.

Looking westward through the inverted arch formed by the two hill staples of the Greta and down the Long Valley which had given us passage, the eye distinguishes a dozen distances who several planes are marked by all the sheds of colour that the most varied vegetation can show. There are black browns, chocolate browns and light umber browns, bright reds and dull reds, grass greens and cypress greens, neutral tints and the French greys contrasting with the rosy pinks, the azures, the purples, and the golden yellows, with which distance paints the horizon. From a few feet above the coal floor appear the eastern faces of the giants of the coast range, and our altitude, some 3,800 feet, gave us to a certain extent a measure of their grand proportions. We now stand upon the westernmost edge of the great Central Arabian plateau known as El Nijd or the Highlands, opposed to El Tehama, the lowland regions. In Africa, we should call it the true subtending the false coast, delightful to home compared with the Leprous Lagos.

This upland, running parallel with the lip range and with Maritam Graz, is the far-famed Hismar. It probably represents a remnant of the old terrace which, like the secondary Gypsies formation, had been torn to pieces by the volcanic region to the east and the platonic upheavals to the west. The length, maybe 170 miles, the northern limit is either close to or a little south of Fort Ma'an and we shall see its southern terminus sharply defined on a parallel with the central Shah, not including El Jor. An inaccessible fortress to the south, it is approached on the south-west by difficult passes, easily defended against man and beast.

Further north, however, the wadis at Afal, near El Sharaf, El-Hagul and El Yutim at El Akabar. are easily lines without water, stony ground or nakub ravines. The Hizmar material is a loose modern sandstone showing every hue between blood red, rose pink and dead dull white. Again and again fragments had been pointed out to us near the coast in ruined buildings and in the remains of handmills and rubstones. Possibly the true coal measures may underlie it, especially if the rocks east of Petro be a some travel estate,

a region of the old, not the new red. According to my informants, the Hizmah has no heard. hills of quartz, a rock which appears everywhere except here, nor should I expect the region to be metalliferous. We ascended the Jebel of Hereta, a trap hillock some 120 feet high, the southern germ of the Jareta Gate. The summit, where stands a ruined burge, measuring 14 metres in diameter, gives a striking and suggestive view. After hard, dry living on grisly mountain and unlovely wadi, this fine, open plain, slightly concave in the centre, was a delightful change of diet to the eye, the first enjoyable sensation of the kind since we had gazed lovingly upon the broad

bosom of the Wadi al-Arabah. The general appearance is that of eastern Syria, especially the Horan at the present season, all is a sheet of pinkish red, which in later March will turn to lively green. On this parallel, the diameter does not exceed a day's march, but we see it broadening to the north. Looking at that direction of the gloomy, metal porphyritic slopes upon which we stand, the glance extends to a manner of sea horizon, while several planes below it are dotted with hills, and hill ranges white, red and black, all dwarfed by distance to the size of thimbles and pincushions. The guides especially pointed out the Ridge Al-Mocaycom, a red block upon red sands, had a far-famed rendezvous for Raid and Razia.

Nearer, the dark lumps of El-Herani rise from a similar surface. Nearer still lie the two white dots, El Rackamatein. The nearest is the Riddish, Jebel and Jils El Rawian, containing, they say, ruins and inscriptions of which Wallin did not even hear. The eastern versant of the Hizma is marked by long chaplets of tree and shrub, disposed along the salvage of the watercourses, and the latter are pitted with wells sunk after the fashion of the Bedouin. In this rum, the horizon is bounded by Al-Hara,

the volcanic region whose black porous lavas and honeycomb basalts, often charged with white zeolite, are still brought down even to the coast to serve as mortars and handmills. The profile is a long, straight and regular line, as if formed under water, capped here and there by a tiny head like the Syrian Kulab, Horan. Its peculiar dorsum makes it distinguishable from afar and we could easily trace it from the upper heights of the shah. It is evidently a section of the mighty platonic outburst which has done

so much to change the aspect of the parallel Midian seaboard. Wallen's account of it, page 307, is confined to the place where he crossed the lava flood and he rendered al-Hara, which in Arabic always applies to a burnt region by a red-colored sandstone. The Bedouin far more reasonably declare that this Haraw is not a mere patch as it appears in Welland's map, an arrow oblong not exceeding 60 miles, northern latitude 27 to 28 degrees, disposed diagonally from north-west to southeast. According to them, it is a region at least as large as the Hizma, and it extends southwards not only to the parallel of Al-Medina,

but to the neighbourhood of Yambu. The upper region has two great divisions, the Harad Hizma, or the Harar Par Excellence, which belongs to the Maaza, and which extends southwards through El Solacea as far as the jaw. The latter region, a tract of yellow sand, dotted with red hills, apparently a prolongation of the Hizma separates it from the Harat Al-Aweras

in which the Jebel al-Maharak lies. This line of volcanism is continued south by the Harat el Meshiref, Pia of a man, by the Harat Situ Jada and finally by the Harat al-Bahiri. The latter shows close behind the shore at Al-Hara in nearly the same latitude as El Medina where we shall presently cite it.

There is great interest and a general importance in this large coast subtending eruptive range whose eastern counter slope demands long and careful study. Swipping the glance round to the south, we see the southern of the two Gilsain, tall mounds of horizontal strata, with ironstone in harder lines and finial blocks. This is the Gillesel dame,

so distinguished from the northern Gillesel Rawian. The lower edge of the Hizmar swells up in red and coin-like masses, the jibble al-Zawiya and then falls suddenly with a succession of great breaks into the sub-maritime levels. During our next 10 days travel We shall be almost in continuous sight of its southern ramparts and buttresses Far over the precipices

lie the yellow sands of the Rahaaba Aalus the Wadi Dama and behind it rises the sky-blue mountain block which takes the name from the ruins of Chagab and Chouac. We breakfasted on the Greta Crest and Mr. Clark set out to shoot the fine red-legged Greek partridges

Kakabis that haunt the hilltops while the rest of us marched with a caravan to the nearest camping ground About a mile from the coal And lying to the west of Gilles-Arrawayan It is supplied with excellent drinking water By the Mier-L-Jidade Lying 900 to 1,000 metres to the southeast

On the other hand, fuel Here a necessary of life was wanting Nor could the camels find forage Thus we were camped upon the western edge Of the Hizma The Maaza sheikhs who vainly urged us forwards showed a suspicious disappointment At our not reaching their quarters on the far side

Where they said a camel was awaiting To be slaughtered for our reception Meanwhile, we were enjoying the reverse of hospitality. The Bedouin evidently now held that all which was ours had become theirs. Their excessive greed made them imprudent, not satisfied with eating us up, with a coffee pot ever on the fire, with demanding endless tobacco, and with making their two garrans devour more barley than our eight mules, they began to debate aloud as usual how much more ready money they should demand.

This was at last settled as $400, and the talk was reported to me by their, Bash-Busuk Hussain, whom they had compelled to cook for them. At the same time, unpleasant discussions were beginning. This man stole my camel. That man killed my father, already took the form of threats. In fact, I almost repented, having brought the Huatat and their camels into the trap. Still, they all respected for rage, as might be seen by their rising and making room for him whenever he approached the fire. At last, an evil rumor arose that the Maaza had determined to supplies with transport, and had sent messages in all directions to come. the animals. This step looked uncommonly like a gathering of warmen. I was sorely disappointed

for more reasons than one. The state of affairs rendered a distant march to the east highly unadvisable. The principal object of this journey had been to investigate the inland depth of the metalliferous deposits. In fact, their extent from west to east. Their north-south length would be easily ascertained, but the width would still remain unknown. The land of Midian, through which we have been travelling, has evidently been worked, and in places well worked. Thus, chance of finding a virgin California would be in the unknown tracts lying to the east of the Haraz, too bad to be thwarted in such a project by the exorbitant demands of a handful of thieves. The disappointment was aggravated by other considerations. From all that I had heard,

the Hizma is a region full of archaeological interest. Already we were almost in sight of the ruins of Roaffa, lying to the north between the two white dots, El Arachametain. Further eastward and north of the pilgrim station, Zart Hajj, are the remains of Karaya, still unvisited by Europeans. Finally, I had been shown, when too late to inspect the place, a fragment of a Nabathian inscription finally cut in soft white sandstone. It had been barbarously broken,

and two of the pieces were en route. The stone is said to be ten feet long, all covered with writings, from which analytic information might be expected. It lies, or is said to lie, about two hours right north of our camp, and beyond the Gilles El Rauian, famed for Hawaouet. At first I thought of having it cut

to portable size. But second thoughts determined me to leave it for another visit or for some more fortunate visitor. Lastly, we were informed a few weeks afterwards that the Ma'aza sheikhs had carried it off to their tents. I fear, piecemeal. It was not pleasant to be to retreat, but under the

circumstances, what else could be done? No one was to be relied upon, but the Europeans, and not all, even of them. The black escort, emancipated slaves, would have run away at the first shot, except only acting corporal care. And when I told the officers assembled at Mess that we should march back early next morning, the General Joy showed how little they relished the prospect of an advance, then came out in mass

the details, many doubtless apocryphal, which should have been reported to me, and which had carefully been kept secret. The Maaza, when our messenger first notified our visit, had declared that they would have no Nazarenes in the mountains, that they did not care Afiko for Egypt. Why had not Effendina written to them? They were his equals, not his equals, not his subjects. It was then debated whether they should not raise a force of geometry men to fall upon us. Some of them proposed to summon to their aid the rival chief, Ibn Hamas, but the majority thought it would be better to reserve themselves the hundred dollars per diem, of which they proposed to fleeces.

Of course, everything around us was intrigue, the Maya Tad al-Tibin water under the straw of the Arab's saying. Forage, it is true, like serene, and privately offered me to fight the affair out, but he was alone in the idea. The Said was tranquil as usual. Hassan the Okby wore an unpleasant appearance of satisfaction as if he had been offered a share in the plunder of the Hewetat, and Alain, a brave man on his own ground, could hardly conceal his dejection. I might, it is evident, have seized Sheikh Mohammed, placed a pistol to his ear and carried him off a prisoner, but such Grand Moyon must be reserved for great occasions. The worst symptoms in camp that the Maaza at once knew the whole of my project, while the

Egyptian officers were ever going to their tents, and one stayed talking with them till not. near midnight. February 25th was a day of humiliation. I aroused the camp at 4.30 a.m. and once gave orders to strike the tents and load. The command was obeyed in double quick time, but not before Sheikh Mohammed had visited us to propose a march to his home in the east. He was not comfortable, probably his reinforcements had still to arrive. His face was calm as the easterns generally is, but his feet trembled and his toes twitched. I dryly told him of our changed plans and he left us in high dungeon. The tragedy comedy which followed may be divided into six acts.

1. The Maaza mount their horses and camels. I walk up to them and expostulate about so abrupt a departure without even drinking a friendly cup of coffee. Two, they dismount and squirts in council round the fire, sending on three drummetry riders to Crown Hill commanding the pass. The burning question is now whether armed clansmen are or are not lurking behind the heights. Three, Sheikh Mohammed comes forward and demands blackmail to the extent of $200. I offer $100. Four, our hosts break off the debate in a towering rage,

refuse coffee, and declare that the caravan of Effendina, the Viceroy, shall not be loaded. Muhammad's feet twitch more violently as the camels are made to kneel. Five, the caravan shows too much emotion. I pay the $200 into the chief's hand. He at once demands his shard-off honor in the shape of a kiswa or handsome dress, and that failing an additional $25 for each of the five headmen. I promise that a robe shall be sent from El Mawela.

Six. The caravan sets out for the pass when the three dromedary riders open with the war cry. It is stopped with much apparatus by the sheikhs, who affect to look upon it as dangerous. We now marched without delay upon the coal, which was reached at 8.15 a.m. Mohammed bin Atia, having meanwhile disappeared. We descended the Cretat al-Gyields in 26 minutes

and dismissed the remainder of our Maazza escort at the foot. I vainly offered them safeguard to El Mouela, which they had not visited for the last dozen years, all refused absolutely to pass their own frontiers. Au revoir, Mohammed bin Atir, and company. Having broken our fast and sent forward the caravan, we at once began to descend the southern pass, the heret at El Ziba. Here, the watershed of the Wadisur, heads and merchants,

objects to travel by its shorter line because the camels must ascend two ladders of rocks instead of one at the top of Wadish Sadr. The coal was much longer and but little less troublesome than its northern neighbour. The formation was the same and 45 minutes placed us in a gully that presently widened to a big valley,

the Wadi de Hall or El Jureta. We reached it at 1230pm and laid down the distance from the summit of the northern coal at about five miles and a quarter. The air felt tepid, the sun waxed hot, drinking water was found on the left of the bed and a hole in the sole represented a spring

which the people say is perennial. We were dismounting to quench our thirst at the latter when Juno plunged into it and stood quietly eyeing us with an air of intense satisfaction. We spent that night at a place lower down the Wadi Dahl known as the Jabe al-Haretta,

collar of the coal. The term Jabe locally applied to two places only, the other being the Jabel Salua, which we shall presently visit. A larger feature than a wadi it reminds of us an offer broad, but it is of course waterless. Guards were placed around the camp

and a wholesome dread of the Maza kept them wide awake. The only evil which resulted was that none dead to lead our meals to water and the poor animals were hardly ridable on the next day. Of the Hismar, in its present state, we may say as of ushant, who are tuesan, va la more. Nothing can be done towards working the minds of Midian until this den of thieves is cleared out. It is an asylum for every murderer and bandit who can make his way there, a centre of turbulence which spreads trouble all around it, under the sham rule of miserable charm, Syria, with its turrets, Turkish Ualis, men like the late Rashid Pasha,

Mattas can only wax worse. Subject to Egypt, the people will learn discipline and cease to torment the land. Happily for their neighbours, there will be no difficulty in reducing the Maaza. They're surrounded by enemies and have lately been obliged to pay brother tax to the Ruala as a defence against being plundered.

The tributes consist of one piece of haircloth about 20 cubits long. On the north, as far as El Mahan, they meet the hostile Benisakar Jowazi under the Sheikh Mohammed Ibn Jaze. Southwards, the Bili, commanded by Sheikh Afnan, are in terms of blood with them. Eastward stand the Anizar and the warlike Shararat Houtem,

whoever covered their 2,000 camels. Westward lie in wait their hereditary foes, the Huetad. Sheikh Farage, the tactician, has long ago proposed a general onslaught of his tribesmen by simultaneous movement up the Wadi's Tsur, Sadr, Ernub, and Afal. They seem to have some inkling of his intentions, as they hastened to conclude with him a five months alt-o-tie or truce. Finally, a small, disciplined force marching down the Damascus-Medina Pilgrimage Road to the east

and cooperating with the Heitat on the west would place this vermin between two fires. The tale of my disappointment may conclude with an ethnological notice of those who caused it. The Mazur is a Syro-Egypto-Bedawi clan, originally Arab or rather Syrian, but migratory, as are all Arabs. It now extends high up the valley of the Nile and is still found in the Wadi Muzah of Suez and on the Zafarana block. Even in Egypt it is turbulent and dangerous. The men are professional robbers and their treachery is uncontrolled by the Bedoui law of honour.

They will eat bread and salt with a traveller whom they intend to murder. For many years it was unsafe to visit the camps within sight of sewers until a compulsory residence at headquarters taught the Sheikh's manners. The habitat in Arabia stretches from the Wadi Musa of Petra where they are kinsmen of the Ti'aha, the Bedouin of the Tih Desert and through Ma'an as far as the Burkat al-Muazama south of Tabuq. Finally, they occupy the greater part of the Hizma and the northern Harah. According to Muhammad al-Kalb, these bandits own the bluest of blue blood.

Their forefather was one Wa'il who left by his descendants two great tribes. The first and the eldest took a name from their Maas he goats, while the junior called themselves after the Anaz Shigots. From the latter spring the great Anizar family, which occupies the large. and choicest provinces of the Arabian Peninsula. Meanwhile, genealogists ignore the Maaza. Wallin would divide the tribe into two, the Maaza and the Beniatia of the latter in Midian.

I could hear nothing except that they represent the kinsmen of the Sheikh's family. We find Benu Atiyah in maps like that of Crichton's 1834, where the Maaza are laid down further south, and northwards, the Benyatia are a powerful clan who push their arseas as far as the frontiers of Moab. My informants declared that the numbers of fighting men in the Midianite division of the race may be 2000, query 200, and that they are separated only by allegiance to two rival sheikhs. The greater half under the Ibn Hermas is distributed into five clans,

of whom the first Orban Khomeisa contained two sepses. Under Muhammad Ibn Atir, El Kalb, they number also five divisions. Amongst them are the Sabut or Benny Sabt, sons of the Sabbath, that is Saturday, whom Welland suspects to be of Jewish origin, relying it would appear principally upon their name. The ringing of the large bell, suspended to the middle pole of the tents at sunset, to hail the return of the camels and the mystic hour of descending night, is an old custom still maintained because it confers a barakat or blessing upon the flocks and herds. Certainly there is nothing of the Bedoui in this practice,

and it is distinctly contrary to the tradition of El Islam. Yet many such survivals hold their ground amongst the highly conservative, wild men and they must be looked upon only as local and tribal peculiarities. End of Volume 1 End of Chapter 10 End of the Land of Midian Revisited by Richard F. Burton