In alluding to the sale of the silphium at Charax, which he places as we have already stated at Zaffràn, Signor Della Cella has indulged himself in his favourite practice of emendation, and has proposed a new reading in the passage of Strabo which mentions this town and its commerce[5].
“I will not speak to you of the silphium (says the Doctor) till I arrive in the place which produces it . . . but I cannot conceal from you that I have allowed myself to read, in translating this passage of Strabo, οπον του σίλφιου, juice of the silphium, instead of οπον και σίλφιον, juice and silphium.” “We know that from this plant, peculiar to the soil of the Cyrenaica, the Cyreneans extracted a most valuable liquid which was particularly celebrated in those times. The juice of this plant alone was sold on account of the state, and it was of this liquid only that the contraband trade consisted which is mentioned by Strabo, and was carried on between the Cyreneans and Carthaginians. If you will only reflect now (continues Signor Della Cella, addressing himself as usual to his friend the Professor) that the Cyrenean liquid is very often used by Strabo, and others of the ancients, as a synonymous term for the silphium, you will agree with me in the trifling alteration which is thus effected in the text of the Grecian geographer.”
We must confess that the substituting the word of for and, and a genitive case for an accusative, appears to us to be hazarding more than would be ventured upon by critics and commentators in general; and it is to be feared, at the same time, that there is scarcely more reason for the changes here proposed than there has been hesitation in suggesting them. For the plant called silphium was as much an article of commerce as the liquid which was extracted from it, and we find them again mentioned as two distinct things in the very next page to the passage of Strabo which Signor Della Cella is so desirous of emending[6]. Pliny also distinguishes them by separate names, calling the extract “laser,” and the plant “laserpitium;” and many other authorities might be adduced to the same effect: so that we may perhaps allow the passage of Strabo to remain in the state in which it usually appears, without any detriment to its genuine and proper signification.
For ourselves, we are content to believe that the plant laserpitium, or silphium, was really sold, or rather bartered, at Charax, as well as the liquor which was extracted from it. We will however agree with Signor Della Cella in deferring any further remarks on the silphium till we find ourselves in the country which produced it; and will in the mean time proceed with our journey along the shores of the Syrtis.
Soon after passing the several mounds which we have suggested as the probable remains of Charax, we arrived at the wells of Hudīa; a name which the Arabs suppose to have been given to this place in consequence of the bad water usually found there, and which they consider to be only fit for Jews; the Arab term for a Jew being Hudi, and the Jews themselves little esteemed by Mahometans.
We will not however venture to attribute this origin to the term by which the place is distinguished, although it is by no means improbable that the name may have a reference to the persecuted people who are here so contemptuously alluded to. We know that the Jews were formerly very numerous in the Pentapolis, and we find them described by Procopius as having once inhabited the country on its western extremity[7]. Hudīa may in such case be the last settlement they possessed in this neighbourhood, and the place may very probably have received its appellation from that circumstance.
There being no other resting-place at less than a whole day’s journey from Hudia, we pitched our tents for the night near the wells above mentioned; about which we observed considerable remains of building, of which nothing however now remains but the ground-plans.
Hudīa was a few years ago so much infested by parties of marauding Arabs, that although they had been completely destroyed or dispersed by the vigorous measures of the Bashaw, yet the dread which had been created by their former depredations still continued to be felt in the place which was once the scene of them. Decoy-fires were carefully placed by our Arab escort, in various directions, at the suggestion of Shekh Mahommed, and that worthy personage could not resist from bestowing a few hearty curses on poor Morzouk, our watch-dog, who he said was too fond of barking. He related to us, looking round every now and then as he spoke, the massacre which was made among the robbers by Mahommed Bey, the eldest son of the reigning Bashaw, and which the number of piles of stones, which marked the graves of these unfortunate people, too evidently proved to have been very extensive. It appears, however, to have been very necessary; and the consequence is, that the route is now safe which was before its perpetration impassable.
Mahometan policy considers only the end without caring for the means which may be used for its accomplishment, and the most summary mode of getting rid of obnoxious persons is usually considered by Mussulmen as the best. If we did not approve this indiscriminate slaughter, we certainly experienced the advantages which resulted from it, and we slept much more quietly among the tombs of the robbers than we should probably have been allowed to do had they never been occupied.
At Hudīa there is a remarkable hill, through which gypsum protrudes itself in almost every part; it terminates in a conical mound of pure gypsum, so smooth as to have the appearance of ice, the diameter of the cone, at its base, being about thirty feet. We found the valleys between the hills very fertile, producing, among other flowers, a variety of wild geraniums, singularly mixed with a species of leek, which flourishes there in great abundance. The water was collected in a hollow between the hills, and having lately received a fresh supply from the rains, was found to be tolerably sweet. Neither its flavour nor its clearness were however much improved by the provident cares of our Arab conductors, who began to wash their caps and baracans in it before we were aware of their intentions; and it may readily be supposed that these articles of dress, which were almost the only ones that our friends possessed, and which had certainly not been washed since they left Tripoly, could not be particularly clean.