[183] Ramsay, Historical Geography of Asia Minor (London, 1890), p. 32.
[184] Professor Ramsay points out the neglected irrigation works, Luke the Physician, p. 129.
[185] Thought by Miss Gertrude Bell to have been artificially separated from the ridge, of which it seems like a projecting headland. See The Desert and the Sown (London, 1905), p. 223. The same work may be consulted for modern interests of this remarkable Arab town. So also Tyke, Dar el Islam (London, 1907).
[186] See [p. 85, note 2] (addendum); and Sayce in Proc. S.B.A. (1909), p. 259.
[187] Burckhardt, Travels in Syria and the Holy Land, (London 1822), p. 149.
[188] For the progress and vicissitudes of the attempts to obtain a record of the Hamath stones, consult Wright, The Empire of the Hittites; Burton, Unexplored Syria, and the Quarterly Statements of the Palestine Exploration Fund (1871-2-3); and for a connected account, Sayce, The Hittites (1905); pp. 60-64.
[189] One in particular, which was long, had virtues for the rheumatic, who stretched themselves upon it. The Aleppo stone was regarded as effective for ophthalmia; and some superstition clings to nearly all such remains when they have long been known to village communities. In Egypt any monuments of stone, even a stela newly found but of guaranteed antiquity, is particularly sought out by barren women, who seem to have a definite formula and ritual to observe—one of these acts is to cross and recross the stone, if possible, seven times each way without turning the eyes to right or left.
[190] C.I.H. (Mitteilungen, etc., 1900, 5), Pls. III. B; IV. A, B; V., VI., and text (1900, 4), pp. 6-8. Also Wright, op. cit., Pls. I.-IV., pp. 139-141.
[191] Being a characteristic specimen and of historical interest we reproduce this monument in [Pl. XXXVII.]
[192] Sayce, Proc. S.B.A., 1903, March.