the description of the remains themselves, see the Annali dell' Instituto Archeologico for 1829, pp. 78-87, 357-360; Classical Museum, vol. ii. pp. 167-170; Abeken, Mittel Italien, p. 140, &c.) The only other remains within the circuit of the walls are a temple (now converted into the church of S. Pietro) of Roman date, and built of regularly squared blocks of tufo; and nearly adjoining it a circular reservoir for water, of considerable size and lined with the " opus Signinum." (Annali, l. c. p. 82.) Several inscriptions of imperial date are also preserved in the modern town. [E.H.B.] GATE OF SIGNIA. SIGRIA'NE (parh, Strab. xi. p. 525), a district of Media Atropatene, near the Caspian Gates. Ptolemy calls it Zyplavikh (vii. 2. § 6). [V.] SI'GRIUM (Eypiov), the westernmost promontory of the island of Lesbos, which now bears the name of Sigri (Strab. xiii. pp. 616, 618.) Stephanus B. (s. v.) calls Sigrium a harbour of Lesbos. [L. S.] SIGULO'NES (youλaves), a German tribe mentioned by Ptolemy (ii. 11. § 11) as inhabiting the Cimbrian Chersonesus, to the north of the Saxones, but is otherwise unknown. [L. S.] SIGYNNES (Yuvves, Herod. v. 9; Ziyuvo, Apoll. Rhod. iv. 320; Orph. Arg. 759; yuvo, Strab. xi. p. 520). The only name of any TransDanubian population, other than Scythian, known to Herodotus was that of the Sigynnes, whom he seems to have described as the Thracians described them to either himself or his informants. The Thracian notion of one of these Sigynnes was that he wore a Median dress, and considered himself a descendant of the Medes; though how this could be was more than Herodotus could say. Anything, however, is possible in a long space of time." The horses of the Sigynnes were undersized - ponies, indeed, rather than horses. They were flatnosed and long-haired; their coat being five fingers deep. They were too weak to carry a man on their back; but not too weak for harness. In chariots they were light and quick; and in the drawing of chariots the Sigynnes took great delight, We must look on Sigynnes as a general and collective name for a large assemblage of populations; inasmuca as their country is said to extend as far westwards as the Heneti on the Adriatic. Say that it reached what was afterwards the frontier of Pan nonia. On the north it must really have been bounded by some of the Scythian districts. In the language of the Ligyans above Massilia, the word Sigynna means a merchant, or retail-dealer, or carrier. In Cyprus they call spears by the name Sigynna. The resemblance of this word to the name Zigeun-Gipsy has often been noticed. Word for word, it may be the same. It may also have been applied to the gipsies with the meaning it has in Ligyan. It does not, however, follow that the Sigynnes were gipsies. [R. G. L.] SIHOR (p). 1. The torrent more commonly known as "the River of Egypt," the southern boundary of the Promised Land, identified by the LXX. with Rhinocorura, the modern Wady-elArish. [RHINOCORURA.] (Joshua, xiii. 3; 1 Chron. xiii. 5; Jeremiah, ii. 18.) In the first cited passage, the LXX. read ἀπὸ τῆς ἀοικήτου τῆς κατὰ πρόσω πον Αἰγύπτου; in the second, ἀπὸ δρίων Αἰγύπτου, and only in the last is a proper name retained, and there it is changed to Inv. St. Jerome (Onomast. s. v.), following Eusebius, describes it as before Egypt, and speaks of a village of the name between Aelia and Eleutheropolis, which it is difficult to imagine that they could have identified with the Sihor above named. St. Jerome says that he has said more on the subject "in libris Hebraicorum quaestionum," but the passage is not to be found there. In his "Epitaphium Paulae" he writes, "veniam ad Aegypti flumen Sior, qui interpretatur turbidus" (p. 677); but he here probably means the Nile, which is sometimes supposed to be called Sihor, as in the passage of Jeremiah above referred to. The village named by Eusebius and St. Jerome doubtless marked the site of the city of the tribe of Judah, situated in the mountains, and written Zior in the authorised version, but in the ori ginal (Joshua, xv. 54), and in the LXX. Ziwp, (al. Σωραίθ). 2. SIHOR or SHIHOR LIBNATH (LXX. Xiv kal Aabavá0), perhaps to be taken as two names, as by the LXX., Eusebius, and St. Jerome, who name "Sior in tribu Aser," without the addition of Libnath. It is mentioned only in the border of Asher. (Joshua, xix. 26.) The various conjectures concerning the place or places are stated by Bonfrerius (Comment. in loc.), but none are satisfactory, and the site or sites have still to be recovered. [G. W.] SILA (λa: Sila) was the name given in ancient times to a part of the Apennines in the S. of Bruttium, which were clothed with dense forests, and furnished abundance of pitch, as well as timber for ship-building. Strabo tells us it was 700 stadia (70 geog. miles) in length, and places its commencement in the neighbourhood of Locri. (Strab. vi. p. 261.) It is evident, therefore, that he, as well as Pliny (iii. 5. s. 10), who notices it in connection with Rhegium and Leucopetra, assigned the name to the southernmost group of the Apennines (the range of Aspromonte), S. of the isthmus which separates the Terinaean and Scylletic gulfs. At the present day the name of Sila is given only to the detached and outlying mountain group N. of that isthmus, and E. of Cosenza (Consentia.) It is probable that the name, which evidently means only "the forest," and is connected with the Latin silva, and the Greek An, was originally applied in a more general sense to all the forest-covered mountains of this part of Calabria, though now restricted to the group in question. [E. H. B.] SILANA, a town in the NW. of Thessaly, near the frontiers of Athamania, mentioned along with Gomphi and Tricca by Livy. Leake conjectures that it occupied the site of Poliána, near which are several squared blocks of ancient workmanship. (Liv. xxxvi. 13; Leake, Northern Greece, yol. iv. p. 529.) town of Phrygia, on the east of Apamea and 8.) [T. H. D.] SILICENSE FLUMEN, a river in Hispania Baetica, in the neighbourhood of Corduba, probably the Guadajoz, or one of its tributaries. (Hirt. B. A. 57.) [T. H.D.] SILINDIUM (Avdiov), a small town of Troas at the foot of Mount Ida, is mentioned only by Stephanus B. (s. v.) on the authority of Demetrius of Scepsis. [L. S.] SI'LARUS (lλapos, Ptol,; Ziλapís, Strab.: Sele), SILI or SIMI (Ziλoi or Zuol, Strab. xvi. p. 772), a considerable river of Southern Italy, flowing into a tribe of Aethiopians, who used the horns of the the gulf of Posidonia, and forming the boundary oryx, a species of gazelle, as weapons. Some have between Campania and Lucania. It rises in the considered them to be the same as the Altíones mountains near Teora, on the confines of the Hir-Zuoi of Agatharchides, p. 42. (Comp. Diodor. iii. pini, and not far from the sources of the Aufidus; thence flows for some distance in a southerly direction till it receives the waters of the Tanager (Tanagro), a considerable stream, which joins it from the SE.; it then turns to the SW. and pursues that direction to the sea, which it enters about 5 miles to the N. of the city of Paestum. About 5 miles from its mouth it receives another important tributary in the Calor (Calore), which joins it from the S. Between the Calor and Tanager, on the S. bank of the Silarus rises the mountain group of Mount Alburnus, mentioned by Virgil in connection with that river. The "luci Silari" of the same author are evidently the same with the extensive woods which still clothe the valley of the Sele from its confluence with the Tanagro to within a few miles of the sea. (Virg. Georg. iii. 146.) The Silarus was in the days of Strabo and Pliny the recognised boundary between Campania (including under that name the land of the Picentini) and Lucania; but this applies only to its course near its mouth, as Eburi (Eboli), though situated to the N. of it, is included by Pliny among the towns of Lucania. (Strab. v. p. 251, vi. p. 252; Plin. iii. 5. ss. 9, 10, 11. s. 15; Ptol. iii. 1. § 8; Mel. ii. 4. §9; Tab. Peut..; Dionys. Per. 361.) A peculiarity of its waters, mentioned by several ancient writers, is that they had the power of petrifying sticks, leaves, and other substances immersed in them. (Strab. v. p. 251; Plin. ii. 103. s. 106; Sil. Ital. viii. 582.) The name is written by Lucan and Columella Siler, and the same form is found in Vibius Sequester, indicating an approach to the modern name of Sele. (Lucan, ii. 426; Colum. x. 136; Vib. Seq. p. 18.) [E. H. B.] SILAS (hs, Arrian, Ind. c. 6; Strab. xv. p. 703; Diod. ii. 37), a river of the Upper Panjab, the story of which, as told by ancient writers, is clearly fabulous. According to Arrian and others, the water of this river was so light that nothing could swim in it. Lassen, who has examined this story with his usual acuteness, has shown from the Mahabharata that there was a stream in the northern part of India called the Sila, the water of which was endowed with a highly petrifying power, from which circumstance the river obtained its signification, Sila meaning in Sanscrit a stone. (Zeitschr. f. Kunde des Morgenlands, ii. p. 63.) It may be remarked that the name occurs differently written. Thus Diodorus writes lλλav TоTaμóv; Antigonus Ziλav крhνην. (Mirab. c. 161.) Pliny evidently refers to the same story, but calls the river Side in his quotation from Ctesias (xxxi. 2. 6. 18). [V.] SI'LBIUM (6tov: Eth. Silbianus), a small SILINGAE (λlyyaı), a tribe of Germany, on the south of the Semnones, between the western slopes of Mons Asciburgius and the river Albis. (Ptol. ii. 11. § 18.) It is generally supposed that this name is the one from which the modern Silesia or Schlesien is formed. (Latham, Tacit. Germ. p. 138; Palacky, Gesch. von Böhmen, vol. i. p. 68.) [L. S.] SILIS (Sele), a small river of Venetia, in the N. of Italy, which rises in the mountains above Treviso (Tarvisium), and flows into the lagunes at Altinum (Altino). It is still called the Sele. (Plin. iii. 18. s. 22.) [E. H. B.] SILLA (íλa, Isid. Charax, § 2, ed. Müller, 1855), a river of Apolloniatis, a district of Assyria, which, according to Isidorus, flows through the centre of the town of Artemita. [ARTEMITA.] There can be little doubt that this is the river now called the Diyaleh. It is also, in all probability, the same as that called by Steph. B. (s. v. 'Anáμeia) the Delas. Forbiger imagines that the Diabus of Ammianus (xxiii. 6), the Durus of Zosimus (iii. 25), and the Gorgos of Ptolemy (iv. 1. § 7), refer to the same river. It is, however, more likely that the first of these streams is the same as that elsewhere called the Zaba tus. [V.] SILO or SHILOH (Σηλώμ: Eth. Σηλωνίτης), 8 town of Palestine, in the tribe of Ephraim, in the mountain region according to Josephus (Ant. v. 1), where the ark and the tabernacle were first established by Joshua on the settlement of the land by the tribes of Israel. There also were assembled the national convocations for the division of the land and the transaction of other public business affecting the whole Union. (Joshua, xviii. 1, 10, xix. 51, xxi. 2, xxii. 9.) There Samuel ministered before the Lord in the days of Eli the high-priest (1 Sam. i.—iii.). There was the seat of the Divine worship until the disastrous battle of Aphek, from which period the decline of Shiloh must be dated (ch. iv.) until its desolation became proverbial in Israel. (Psalm lxxviii. 60; Jeremiah, vii. 12, xxvi. 6, 9.) Its situation is very particularly described in the book of Judges (xxi. 19), as " on the north side of Bethel, on the east side of the highway that goeth up from Bethel to Shechem, and on the south of Lebonah." chem = Pliny (iv. c. 17) mentions the Ulmanetes in Gallia Belgica: "Suessiones liberi, Ulmanetes liberi, Tungri." It is possible that this too may be a corrupted form of Silvanectes, for the modern name Senlis confirms the form Silvanectes, and the name Ulmanetes is otherwise unknown. [G. L.] SILVIA, a place in Illyria, on the road from Sirmium to Salona. (Itin. Ant. p. 269.) It is probably the same town as the Salvia of Ptolemy [SALVIA]. It is identified with Keupris by Lapie. [T. H. D.] St. Jerome places it xii. M. P. from Neapolis (=She-Ratomagus their capital. But this Ratomagus is Nablus), in the toparchy of Acrabattena. conjectured to be the same as the Augustomagus of (Onomast. s. v.) Its ruins were shown, and the the Itin. and of the Table, which is Senlis [Avremains of the altar among them, in his day. (Com- GUSTOMAGUS]. ment. in Sophon. i. 14, Epitaph. Paulae.) From these notes the site is easily identified with the modern Silun, on the east of the Nablús road, about four hours south of that town, situated over against a village named El-Lebban (Lebonah), which lends its name also to a Khan on the road-side. Silun is merely a heap of ruins lying on a hill of moderate elevation at the south-eastern extremity of a valley through which passes the great north road from Judaea to Galilee. "Among the ruins of modern houses are traces of buildings of greater antiquity, and at some distance, towards the east, is a well of good water, and in the valleys many tombs excavated in the rock." (Robinson, Bibl. Res. vol. iii. pp. 86-89.) Among the tombs of Shiloh, if Reland's conjecture is correct, is to be sought the very slender authority on which the pagans rested their assertion that their demigod Silenus was buried in the country of the Hebrews; and the fact of the effigy of this deity being found on the coins of Flavia Neapolis, certainly lends countenance to his ingenious hypothesis that the fable originated in the imaginary correspondence between this name and the town of Ephraim. (Palaestina, p. 1017.) But the error which he has copied from Benjamin of Tudela, of placing the tomb of Samuel in Shiloh, is obviously attributable to a lapse of memory on the part of that writer, as no one has ever identified Shiloh with the modern Nebi Samwil. The error is corrected by Asher. (Itinerary of R. Benjamin of Tudela, ed. A. Asher, vol. i. p. 78, vol. ii. p. 95.) [G. W.] SILOAM. [JERUSALEM, p. 28, b.] SILSILIS (Not. Imp.), a fort situated on the SILVANECTES. This name occurs in the Notitia of the Provinces of Gallia, where the chief town is called Civitas Silvanectium. In the Notit. Imp. the Silvanectes are placed in Belgica Secunda, but the name there denotes a town, according to the usage then established of giving to the capital towns the names of their people. It appears almost certain that the Subanecti of Ptolemy (ii. 9. § 11) is the same name as Silvanectae or Silvanectes. Ptolemy SILVIUM (λovïov: Eth. Silvinus: Garagnone), a town of Apulia in the interior of the country. It is noticed by Strabo (vi. p. 283) as the frontier town of the Peucetii, and its name is noticed by Pliny among the municipal towns of Apulia (Plin. iii. 11. s. 16). But at a much earlier period it is mentioned by Diodorus as an Apulian town, which was wrested from the Samnites by the Romans in B. c. 306 (Diod. xx. 80). Our only clue to its position is derived from the Itineraries, which place 20 miles from Venusia, on the branch of the Appian Way which led direct to Tarentum. This distance coin. cides with the site of a town (now destroyed) called Garagnone, situated about midway between Spinaz zolo and Poggio Orsino, and nearly due E. of Venosa (Pratilli, Via Appia, iv. 6. p. 478; Romanelli, vol. ii p. 188). [E. H. B.] SILURA, an island of Britain, separated only by a narrow strait from the coast of the Dumnonii, who inhabited the most SW. point of Britannia. (Solin. c. 22.) It is probably the same island which Sulpicius Severus (ii. 51) calls Sylina, and seems to mean the Scilly Islands. [T. H. D.] SILURES (Aupes, Ptol. ii. 3. § 24), a powerful and warlike people in the W. part of Britannia Romana, whose territory was bounded on the S. by the estuary of the Sabrina. The important towns of Isca and Venta belonged to them. Tacitus (Agr. 11) calls them descendants of the Iberi of Spain, and states that they had emigrated from Ireland into Britain; but there seems to be no foundation for this opinion. (Cf. Zeuss, Die Deutschen, p. 202.) Although subjugated by the Romans, they caused them continual alarm; and they were the only people of Britain who, at a later period, maintained their independence against the Saxons. (Beda, Hist. Ecc. i. 12, seq.; cf. Tac. Ann. xii. 2, 31; Plin. iv. 16. s. 30.) [T. H. D.] SIME'NA (Σίμηνα: Eth. Σιμηνεύς), a town on the coast of Lycia, 60 stadia from Aperlae (Plin. v. 27; Steph. B. s. v.; Stadiasm. Mar. Mag. §§ 239, 240, where it is called Somena, Zóunva; comp. Leake Asia Minor, p. 188; Spratt and Forbes, Travels in Lycia, vol. i. p. 137, vol. ii. pp. 86, 274.) [L. S.] SI'MENI. [ICENI.] SIMEON. PALAESTINA, p. 529, b.] SIMITTU (Zuio@ov, Ptol. iv. 3. § 29), called by Pliny (v. 4. §4) Simittuense Oppidum, a Roman colony in the interior of Numidia, on the road from Cirta to Carthago, 7 miles to the W. of Bulla Regia. (Itin. Ant. p. 43.) There were some mineral waters 5 miles E. of the town (b.). It lay on the site of the present Ain Semit, on the Qued-el- Bull, 2 leagues to the W. of Bull. [T. H D.] SIMOIS (Zubeis), a small river of Troas, having Cotylus, which passed by Ilion, joined the Scamander | below that city. This river is frequently spoken of in the Iliad, and described as a rapid mountain torrent. (Il. iv. 475, v. 774, xii. 22, xxi. 308; comp. Aeschyl. Agam. 692; Strab. xiii. p. 597; Ptol. v. 2. § 3; Steph. B. s. v.; Pomp. Mela, i, 18; Plin. v. 33; and SCAMANDER.) Its present name is Dumbrek Chai, and at present its course is so altered that it is no longer a tributary of the Scamander, but flows directly into the Hellespont. [L. S.] SIMUNDU. [TAPROBANE.] SIMYLLA (quóλλa, Ptol. vii. 1. § 6), a commercial entrepôt on the western coast of Hindostan, in the district called 'Apiarà Zadivov. It is noticed in the Periplus by the name of hμvλλa, and was probably at or near Bassein, a little N. of Bombay. [V.] SI’MYRA (Ziμúpa), a maritime city of Phoenicia mentioned by Pliny in connection with Marathus and Antaradus, N. of Tripolis, Orthosia, and the river Eleutherus (v. 20). It is placed by Ptolemy between the mouth of the Eleutherus and Orthosia, and, if the figures can be trusted, 10' west of the former, 14' north; in the same latitude with Orthosia (i. e. 34° 40′), but 40′ east of it, which would seem either to imply an ignorance of the coast, or to intimate that Simyra lay at some distance from the shore, and that the Eleutherus ran southward to the sea. Strabo says that it was occupied by the Aradians, together with the neighbouring Marathus (xvi. p. 753), apparently placing it north of the Eleutherus. In addition to what has been said under MARATHUS, and in confirmation of the identification there attempted, the following may be cited from Shaw, and will serve to illustrate the situation of Simyra: "The ancient Marathus inay be fixed at some ruins near the Serpent Fountain, which make, with Rou-wadde and Tortosa, almost an equilateral triangle. About 5 miles from the river Akker, and 24 to the SSE. of Tortosa, there are other considerable ruins known by the name of Sumrah, with several rich plantations of mulberry and other fruit trees growing in and round about them. These, from the very name and situation, can be no other than the remains of the ancient Simyra... the seat formerly of the Zemarites. Pliny v. 20) makes Simyra a city of Coelesyria, and acquaints us that Mount Libanus ended there to the northward; but as Sumrah lies in the Jeune (i. e. the great plain), 2 leagues distant from that mountain, this circumstance will better fall in with Arca, where Mount Libanus is remarkably broken off and discontinued." (Travels, pp. 268, 269.) The ruins of Arca are 5 miles E. of Sumrah, and 2 leagues WSW. of Arca is the Nahr-el-Berd, the Cold River, which Shaw and others identify with the Eleutherus. It is manifest how irreconcilable all this is with Ptolemy and other ancient geographers. [ELEUTHERUS; ORTHOSIA; MARATHUS.] [G.W.] SINA. [SENA.] SINAE (oi Zivai, Ptol. vii. 3, &c.), the ancient nation of the Chinese, whose land is first described by Ptolemy (l. c.) and Marcianus (p. 29, seq.), but in an unsatisfactory manner. Indeed, the whole knowledge of it possessed by the Greeks and Romans vested on the reports of individual merchants who had succeeded in gaining admittance among a people who then, as in modern times, isolated themselves as much as possible from the rest of the world. For the assumption which Deguignes sought to establish, that a political alliance was formed between Rome and China, and that the emperor M. Aurelius Antoninus sent a formal embassy thither in the year 166, rests solely on the name of Yan-Tun, which that writer discovered in some ancient Chinese annals, and must therefore be regarded with great suspicion. (See Bohlen, das Alte Indien, i. p. 71.) According to the description of Ptolemy, the country of the Sinae extended very far to the S., and was connected with the E. coast of Africa by an unknown land, so that the Indian Ocean formed a large mediterranean sea. He does not venture to define its eastern boundary, but finishes his account of the known earth with the 180th degree of longitude, without, however, denying that there were tracts of unknown land still farther to the E. But Cosmas Indicoplenstes (ap. Montfaucon, N. Coll. Patrum, ii. p. 337), who calls the country of the Sinae Thivira, was the first who laid down its correct boundary by the ocean on the E. On the N. it was bounded by Serica, and on the S. and W. by India extra Gangem, from which it was divided by the river Aspithra (probably the Bangpa-Kung) and the Semanthine mountains. Thus it embraced the southern half of China, and the eastern part of Further India, as Tongquin, Cochin-China, Camboja, &c. Ptolemy mentions several large bays and promontories on the coast. At the extreme NE. of the Indian Ocean, where the land of the Sinae abutted on Further India, was the great gulf (of Siam), which on the coast of the Sinae was formed by the South Cape (TO NOTION Expor) (probably Cape Camboja), and on the side of India by another large promontory (perhaps Cape Romania). To the S. of South Cape, and between it and the Cape of the Satyrs (Zarúpwr &xpov), Ptolemy and Marcianus (p. 30) place another large bay called Theriodes (Onpiwdns Kóλños); and to the S. of the Cape of Satyrs, again, and between it and the mouth of the river Cottiaris, the Bay of the Sinae (Zivŵv kóλmos). These very vague and incorrect accounts do not permit us to decide with any confidence respecting the places indicated by Ptolemy; but it has been conjectured that the Cape of the Satyrs may have been Cape St. James, the Theriodes Sinus the bay between it and the mouth of the river Camboja or Maykiang, and the Bay of the Sinae the gulf of Tongquin. Among the mountains of the country Ptolemy names only the Montes Semanthini (Enμavoiòv õpos), which formed its NW. boundary. Among the rivers indicated are the Aspithra (Aompa), rising in the mountains just mentioned, to which we have already alluded; the Ambastus (Aubaoros), probably the Camboja, which fell into the Great Bay between the towns of Bramma and Rhabana; the Senos or Sainos (Zévos or Zaivos) more to the S.; and further still in the same direction the Cottiaris (KorTíapis), which emptied itself into the bay of the Sinae to the N. of the town of Cattigara. The last may perhaps be the Si Kiang, which discharges itself at Canton. Respecting the nation of the Sinae themselves, we have no information, though Ptolemy mentions several subdivisions of them; as in the N. the Semanthini, on the like named mountains; S. of them the Acadorae, with a town called Acadra, and again to the S. the Aspithrae, on the Aspithra, and having a city of the same name as the river. SE. of the latter, on the Great Bay, and dwelling on the river Ambastus, were the Ambastae. Lastly, in a still more southern district between the bay of Theriodes and that of the Sinae, were the Aethiopes D ; and, 2dly, that instead of making Zin identical with Kadesh, as it is in the Hebrew, the LXX. read so as to make "the desert of Paran," which they identify with "the desert of Kadesh," an intermediate station between Sin and Mount Hor (Numb. xxxiii. 36, in LXX.) Lehtnyophagi and the Sinae Ichthyophagi. Among | Kadesh" (Numb. xx. 1, xxxiii. 36), is identical the 8 cities mentioned by Ptolemy, namely, Bramma, in Greek with the Sin (i. e. Zív); the Σ representing Bhabana, Cattigara, Acadra, Aspithra, Cocconagra, both the y (tsadi) of ¡y and the (samech) of Sarata, and Thinae or Sinae, the last was undoubtedly the most important, and was regarded by him and others as the capital of the nation. It has been conjectured to be Thsin, in the province of Chensi, or even Nankin itself. It may be remarked that the Sinae were anciently called Thinae (îvai); though it is said that this form of their name only arose from the Arabic pronunciation of Sinae. (See Sickler, ii. p. 518; Gesenius, Heb. Lex. p. 788.) The next town in point of importance was Cattigara, which both Ptolemy and Marcianus regard as the chief place of trade. [CATTIGARA.] [T.H.D.] SINAI (Za opos), the celebrated mountain of Arabia Petraea. It, however, lent its name to the whole peninsula in which it was situated, which must therefore first be described. It is formed by the bifurcation of the Red Sea at its northern ex tremity, and is bounded by the Heroopoliticus Sinus (or Sea of Suez) on the west, and the Aelaniticus Sinus (the Gulf of Akaba) on the east, ending in the Posidium Promontorium (Ras Mohammed). At the northern extremity of the Sea of Suez stood Arsinoe (Suez), and Aelana (Akaba), at the extremity of the gulf that bears its name. The caravan road of the great Haj, which joins these two towns, traverses a high table-land of desert, now called Et-Tih" the Wilderness of the Wandering," part of ancient Idumaea. To the south of this road, the plateau of chalk formation is continued to Jebel Tih, the μéλava opn of Ptolemy, extending from the eastern to the western gulf, in a line slightly curved to the south, and bounded in that direction by a belt of sandstone, consisting of arid plains, almost without water or signs of vegetation. To this succeeds the district of primitive granite formation, which extends quite to the southern cape, and runs into the Gulf of Akaba on the east, but is separated by a narrow strip of alluvial soil called El-Kâa from the Sea of Suez. The northern part of the Tih is called in Scripture "the wilderness of Paran" (Numb. xii. 16, xiii. 3, xxxii. 8, &c.), in which the Israelites abode or wandered during great part of the forty years; although Eusebius and St. Jerome, as will be presently seen, identify this last with the wilderness of Sin. This wilderness of Sin is commonly supposed to be connected, in name and situation, with Mount Sinai; but as the Israelites entered on the wilderness of Sin on leaving their encampment by the Red Sea, the next station to Elim (Exod. xvi. 1; Numb. xxxiii. 10, 11), and traversed it between Elim and Rephidim, where they had apparently left it (Exod. xvii. 1),-for Dophkah and Alush are inserted between the two in Numbers xxxiii. 12-14,- and yet had not arrived at Sinai (ver. 15; Exod. xvi. 1), it may be questioned whether the identification rests on solid ground. Eusebius and St. Jerome, who distinguish between the deserts of Sin and Sinai, yet appear to extend the former too far eastward. "The desert of Sin," they say, "extends between the Red Sea and the desert of Sina; for they came from the desert of Sin to Rephidim, and thence to the desert of Sinai, near Mount Sina, where Moses received the dispensation of the Law; but this desert is the same as that of Kaddes according to the Hebrew, but not according to the LXX." The confusion indicated by this last remark may be explained by the observations, 1st, that Zin, which is a synonym" for the wilderness of The wilderness of Sin, then, must be fixed to the northwest part of the granite district of the peninsula between Serbal and the Red Sea, while Zin is north of Ezion Geber, between it and Mount Hor,— the southern extremity in fact of Wady Músa, or the Arabah, north of Akaba. With respect to Sinai, it is difficult to decide between the rival claims of the two mountains, which, in modern as in ancient times, have been regarded as the Mountain of the Law. The one is Serbal above-mentioned, situated towards the NW. extremity of the granite district, towering with its five sharp-pointed granite peaks above the fruitful and agreeable oasis of Wady Pharan, still marked by extensive ruins of the churches, convents, and buildings of the old episcopal town of Paran; the other between 30 and 40 miles south-east of Serbal, in the heart of the granite district, where native traditions, of whatever value, have affixed to the mountains and valleys names connected with the inspired narrative of the giving of the Law, and where the scenery is entirely in unison with the events recorded. Emerging from the steep and narrow valley Nakba Hawa, whose precipitous sides rise to the perpendicular height of 1000 feet, into the wide plain called Wady Musa, at the northern base of the traditionary Horeb, Russegger describes the scene as grand in the extreme. "Bare granite mountains, whose summits reach to a height of more than 7000 Paris feet above the level of the sea; wonderful, I might say fabulous, forms encompass a plain more than a mile in length, in the background of which lies the convent of St. Catharine, at the foot of Jebel Musa, between the holy Horeb on the In this valley, west, and Ebestimmi on the east." then, formed at the base of Horeb by what may be called a junction of the Wady-er-Rahah and Wadyesh-Sheikh, but which, according to Russegger's express testimony, bears in this place the native name of Wady Musa, must the children of Israel have encamped before Jebel Músa, whose rugged northern termination, projected boldly into the plain, bears the distinctive name of Ras Sasafah. Jebel Músa rises to the height of 5956 Paris feet above the sea, but is far from being the highest of the group. Towering high above it, on the south, is seen the summit of Horeb, having an elevation of 7097 Paris feet, and south of that again Jebel Katherina, more than 1000 feet higher still (viz. 8168 Paris feet), all outtopped by Jebel-om-Shomer, the highest of this remarkable group, which attains an altitude of 8300 Paris feet. Over against Jebel Musa on the north, and confining the valley in that direction, is the spur of a mountain which retains in its name, Jebel Sena, a memorial of the ancient Scripture appellation of the Mountain of the Law. To attempt anything like a full discussion of the questions at issue between the advocates of the conflicting traditions or hypotheses, would be as inconsistent with the character of such an article as this, as with the limits which must be assigned it: a very few remarks |