First the directions lead you—in the clearest possible way—to a valley called the Wady el Muluk (the valley of the kings). Here you find the crucibles and all the apparatus and tools necessary for smelting, merely waiting to be used. You go a little farther on and you come to the “high class mine”—and very high class it is. You have only to dig half a cubit deep into it and you come at once on to a mineral “like yellow earth in stony ground.” First you find it in lumps the size of beans, which “is sent by Allah,” and you are directed to take “His good fortune.” Then if you dig deeper, you will find it in lumps the size of melons. This you are explicitly told “is gold of Egypt. There is none better”—a statement it would be rash to contradict.
Having dealt with these particular mines, the old Arab astrologer directs his son, to whom the book is addressed, to go on to where two great rocks stand up, with a hollow before them, stating that in the hollow will be found “a black earth with green veins like silver rust,” and directs him to take it. It is “sent by Allah.” Unfortunately he omits to mention the nature of this mysterious mineral.
He then directs his son to “go with the blessing of Allah” to another place, where he states “You will find, oh! my son, before you a high hill in which they used to get the peridots.” Next he tells him how to go on to the “Emerald pits which are three in number,” and after that, directs him to the “Copper mine which is in a cave closed by a door,” adding that the copper ore is “green earth very like green ginger and having veins in it like blood.”
With the dazzling prospect of acquiring such untold wealth as that to be obtained in the very “high class mines,” described in books of treasure such as this, is it to be wondered that the natives of Egypt spend so much time in looking for them?
Treasure hunting must be a most fascinating pursuit. But it is seldom a remunerative one. Still it is a curious fact that peridots used formerly to be known in the trade as “Esna peridots,” which rather points to the fact that they were brought in to be marketed in that town, perhaps by the road alluded to in this book.
When I broached the subject of Zerzura to the ’omda of Rashida, he said he did not know of any place called the Der el Banat (convent of the girls), but the old name of the Der Abu Madi was, he said, the “der el Seba’a banat” (convent of the seven girls), and that there was supposed to be a book and a mirror buried somewhere near there. By following the directions contained in the book, and then looking in the mirror the way to Zerzura would, he said, appear.
He told me—I don’t guarantee his veracity—that three years before, while he was staying in an hotel in Egypt, a waiter had come up to him and asked him if he were not the ’omda of Rashida. On hearing that he was, he told him that he wanted to go to the “Der el Seba’a Banat,” as he had read in a book of treasure that seven hundred cubits to the north of the Der, there were three mastabas round a round hill, and that under each of them was buried a pan of large gold coins called gurban. He then showed him a specimen which the ’omda said was very old, larger than a five-piastre piece and very thick and heavy. The waiter told him he had found the coin in the Nile Valley by following the directions given in his book of treasure, and offered, if he would go into partnership with him, to give him half of anything they found.
The ’omda had apparently refused this offer, and started digging on his own account; but having failed to find the treasure, he was very anxious for me to go into partnership with him, and said that by combining our instructions we ought to be able to find something. I was not, however, sufficiently sanguine as to the result to feel justified in entertaining his offer—still three pans full of gurban. . . !
After a night spent at Rashida we started for Qasr Dakhl, stopping on our way to visit Budkhulu, a poor little place with but a scanty water supply. Like Rashida it lies close to the cliff that bounds the oasis; but being situated at a considerably higher level than either Qasr Dakhl or Rashida, the number of modern wells sunk in these two districts are said by the inhabitants to have greatly diminished their water supply. Its ’omda was only noted for his drunken habits.
On leaving Budkhulu we rode past the little hamlet of Uftaima, and soon afterwards entered a stretch of soft sandy ground, a mile or two in width, beyond which we could see Qasr Dakhl with its palms and fields. This is the biggest town in the oasis, and is said by its inhabitants to produce the richest dates in Egypt.