2. In serpentine.
(None in white quartz.)
Silver—
1. In Filon Husayn, 1/1000 = 265 to 300
francs per ton (very good).
2. In red sands, 1/10,000
(= 20 francs per ton).
3. In scoria, traces.
(None in white quartz or in the black sands.)
Copper—
1. In ’Aynunah quartz,
4 1/2 per 100.
2. In Filon Husayn, 2 1/2
to 3.40 per cent.
Filon Husayn = Titaniferous iron, 86.50
Silica, 10.10
Copper, 3.40.
3. In chloritic slate, 1.40
per cent.
(Chloritic slate of Makna’ =
Silica, 90.50
Carbonate of lime, 5.60
Oxide of iron, 2.30
Copper, 1.40.)
Sulphur (Jebel el-Kibri’t of El-Muwaylah)—
4 per cent. above. 9
ditto below.
Lead everywhere.
Calamine (zinc) very rich.
The March Through Central and Eastern Midian.
Work in and Around
El-Muwaylah.
We arrived at El-Muwaylah too late to meet the Hajj-caravan,
which, home returning, had passed hurriedly through
the station on February 9th. This institution
has sadly fallen off from its high estate of a quarter
of a century ago. Then commanded by an Amir el-Hajj—“Lord
of the Pilgrimage”—in the shape of
two Pashas (generals), it is now under the direction
of a single Bey (colonel). The “True Believers,”
once numbering thousands, were reduced in 1877-78
to some eight hundred souls, of whom only eighty appeared
at El-Muwaylah; 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 hire state-cabins on board well-appointed
“Infidel” steamers, and the poor content
themselves with “Faithful” Sambuks.
Indeed, it would seem that all the present measures,
quarantines of sixty days (!) and detention at wretched
Tor, comfortless enough to make the healthiest lose
health, are intended to discourage and deter “palmers”
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 Sa’id Pasha of Egypt once consigned
the memorial litter per steam-frigate to Jeddah:
the innovation saved Ghafr ("blackmail”) to
the Bedawin; but it was not approved of by the Moslem
world.
The Hajis were so poor that they had nothing for barter
or for sale. Happily, however, there was a farrier
amongst them, and Lieutenant Yusuf took care that
our mules were properly shod. M. Philipin had
been a marechal ferrant, 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 Makna on February
6th, and marched up the great Wady el-Kharaj.
