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XXV. Ethnographic Notes from Marsa Maṭrūḥ

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  15 March 2011

Oric Bates
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Extract

Marsa Maṭruḥ, the classical Parætonium, lies about 150 land-miles west of Alexandria, on the Marmaric coast. During the winter of 1913–14, with the help of my friend W. J. Harding King, Esq., I made a preliminary archæological survey of the locality, and collected a few notes on the modern inhabitants.

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Articles
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Journal of the Royal Asiatic Society , Volume 47 , Issue 4 , October 1915 , pp. 717 - 739
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Copyright © The Royal Asiatic Society 1915

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References

page 721 note 1 Voyage dans la Marmarique et la Cyrenaïque, etc., p, 64 sq., Paris, 1827. Pacho's spellings are sometimes puzzling. The equivalences I have noted are: I, 6 (in the above list) = Shaēth (in Pacho, loc. cit.); II = Affrat; III = Harâouah; IV = Acheïbat; IV, 1 = Mahâffit (?); V = Moughaoureh; VIII = Ghenâcheat; X = Djeraïdat; XI, 3 = Djouâbis (?); XIII = Seneghrèh; XIV = Kemeilïat; XV = Srhêet; XV, 3 = Chtour(1); XVI = Sammalous; XVIII, 1 = Senenèh; XIX = Mansour.

page 721 note 2 For the origin of these marks the reader is referred to Smith, W. R., Marriage and Kinship in Early Arabia 3, p. 247 sqq., London, 1907Google Scholar, and to the literature there cited in the notes.

page 722 note 1 'Ait is the Berber filiative corresponding to the Arabic aulād or benū. Its occurrence at Maṭrūḥ was noted by Pacho, who gives it as heit.

page 724 note 1 A perfect parallel exists among the Gallas. There “the navel-string is carefully kept, sewn up in leather, and serves as an amulet for female camels, which become the child's property, together with all the young they give birth to” (Frazer, J. G., The Golden Bough 3, vol. i, p. 195, London, 1911Google Scholar, citing Paulitschke, P., Ethnographie Nordost Afrikas: die materielle Cultur der Danakil, Galla und Somal, p. 192, Berlin, 1893).Google Scholar

page 724 note 2 It may be remarked that Celsus considered the fortieth day of a child's life the first critical date in its existence (Celsus, , ii, 1).Google Scholar Cf. Pliny, , Hist. Nat., viiGoogle Scholar, 4 (5). The Cairenes hold that during its first forty days a child is in danger from the blood-sucking Umm Ḳawîḳ (“R.S.” , Cairo, 1894, p. 186).

page 725 note 1 A similar custom is known to Algerian children, who toss a lost first tooth toward the sun with the cry: “O Sun, give me a new tooth!”

page 726 note 1 In Roman times, as to-day, the scarcity of rain in this region was well known—Expositio Totius Mundi et Gentium (ed. Reise, , Heilbrunn, 1878)Google Scholar, par. 62: “Libya [seil. Marmarica] … quae non accipit aquam de coleo, non pluente eis per singulos annos.”

page 726 note 2 means literally “without shame”, i.e. “without diminishing Thine own glory”. is used colloquially to denote especially the overweening conceit of a boastful giver, who parades the obligations under which he has laid others.

page 727 note 1 Bates, O., The Eastern Libyans, p. 179, London, 1914.Google Scholar

page 727 note 2 Frazer, J. G., The Golden Bough 3, vol. i, p. 276.Google Scholar Armenian and other parallels will be found in the same work, p. 275 sq.

page 728 note 1 Lord Edward Cecil first informed me of these Egyptian scarecrows. In these Priapus-like dummies, and in the current explanation of them, one has an excellent illustration of how an inaccurate popular story is likely to spring up to account for a misunderstood survival. For the ithyphallic hayal or baw of the modern Egyptian fellah represents unquestionably a Priapic phase of Min or of Osiris known to his ancestors.

page 728 note 2 Cf. the Arabian conception of the curse as a material thing which can be “dodged” by falling flat on the earth (Smith, W. R., Religion of the Semites 3, p. 164).Google Scholar

page 729 note 1 This phrase is to be related to the tying of magical knots. Such a knot, the rbaṭ, is much dreaded in North Africa. Doutté, E., Magie et religion dans l'Afrique du Nord, Algiers, 1908, pp. 88, 288 sqq.Google Scholar Cf. Davies, T. W., Magic, Divination, and Demanology, etc., London, 1898, p. 55.Google Scholar

page 729 note 2 See Freytag, U. W., Lexicon Arabico-Latinum, s.v. (vol. ii, p. 470).Google Scholar

page 729 note 3 Ibid.s.v. (vol. i, p. 282).

page 730 note 1 This division into four groups may be in sympathetic relation with the four cardinal points. It may also be pertinent to remark that processes for the recovery of stolen or lost articles are generally called , terbi', or “quadrature”, in Africa Minor. Cf. Doutté, E., op. cit., p. 269.Google Scholar

page 730 note 2 It is difficult to explain the exact meaning of these words, or their pertinence. Ḥurr may signify here a “freeman”; inkīs is the name of the geomantic figure , which is often employed in the darb er-raml, and is also called ašhab is a greyish shade; dabbār comes presumably from , and means “the arranger” or “orderer”; and, finally, gebbār means the “Almighty”, and is one of the commoner ninety-nine “names” of God.

page 732 note 1 For the transcription and translation of this charm I am indebted to Professor Charles C. Torrey, of Yale University, who courteously furnished me with a clear copy and an English version.

page 734 note 1 Professor Torrey points out that the grammar and spelling of this charm are not above reproach. In line 3, for example, the word is written in the original (the classical form would be ).

page 735 note 1 For the control of the gann by the spiritual power denoted by the word rūḥānīah, see Doutté, E., op. cit., p. 249.Google Scholar

page 735 note 2 Aelian, , De Animalibus, vii, 5Google Scholar; Phile, , De Animalium Proprietate, ed. de Pauw, , Utrecht, 1730, pp. 178 sqq.Google Scholar; cf. Myndius, Alexander, ap. Athenaeum, v sub finem.Google Scholar The last-named writer explained the Catobleps as a Gorgon, likened it to a sheep, and declared that it killed by its glance.

page 735 note 3 Phile, , loc. cit., v, 21 sqq.Google Scholar

page 738 note 1 Frazer, J. G., The Golden Bouyh 2, vol. iiGoogle Scholar, “Taboo and the Perils of the Soul,” p. 69.Google Scholar

page 739 note 1 The name is a derivative of and means “swimmer”.