4 ([return])
[ Chap. XVI.]
5 ([return])
[ The Saturday Review, in a courteous notice of my first volume (May 25, 1878), has the following remarks:—"The Arabs talk of some (?) Nazarenes, and a 'King of the Franks,' having built the stone huts and the tombs in a neighbouring cemetery ('Aynúnah). But there can be no local tradition worth repeating in this instance." Here we differ completely; and those will agree with me who know how immutable and, in certain cases, imperishable Arab tradition is. The reviewer, true, speaks of North Midian, where all the tribes, except the Beni 'Ukbah, are new. Yet legend can survive the destruction and disappearance of a race: witness the folk-traditions of the North-Eastern Italians and the adjacent Slavs. Here, however, in South Midian we have an ancient race, the Baliyy. And what strengthens the Christian legend is that it is known to man, woman, and child throughout the length and breadth of the land.]
6 ([return])
[ In Sinai "Shinnár" is also applied to a partridge, but I am unable to distinguish the species—caccabis, Desert partridge, (Ammoperdix heyi, the Arab Hajl), or the black partridge (Francolinus vulgaris).]
7 ([return])
[ Chap. IX. has already noticed Ptolemy's short measure.]
8 ([return])
[ Chap. XVII.]