Les aventures du Capitaine Magon. English
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NOTES.
CHAPTER I.
_Phœnicians._--It is for simplicity's sake that throughout the preceding fiction I have adopted the classical name Phœnicians, which may be interpreted either as "the red men" or "men of the date-lands." Amongst themselves they were designated "Canaanites," or "people of the lowlands," in contradistinction to "Aramites," or "people of the highlands."
It would be out of place here to enter into any critical dissertation upon the words Khna and Aram, from which Canaanites and Aramites derive their appellation.--_Page 1._
_Shekel._--This word (which, in the Hebrew tongue, signifies a weight) is applied both to coined money, the use of which originated with the Phœnicians, and to a certain standard of ordinary weight.--_Page 2._
_Tariff of the Sacrifices._--The ritual or tariff of sacrifices is extracted from the work of the Abbé Bargès on the Phœnician inscription discovered at Marseilles.--_Page 5._
_Gaoul._--Originally this word signified any round hollow object. The Phœnicians designated the island of Gozo "Gaulo Melitta," Malta the Round, and it may easily be understood how the term came to be applied to their circular merchant ships, which were of a type essentially Tyrian. "_Onerariam navem Hippus Tyrius invenit._" (Pliny, 'Nat. Hist.')
My authorities for the description of the Phœnician vessels are:
1. Two engravings in Layard.
2. Ezekiel's prophecy against Tyre. (Chap. xxvii. 7.)
3. Xenophon's description in the '?'conomia' of the great Phœnician ship that came every year to the Piræus.
4. The engravings in Wilkinson.
I have likewise ventured to draw some inferences by analogy from the accounts of Genevan, Pisan, and Venetian ships of the thirteenth century, given by Col. Yule, in his edition of 'Marco Polo.'--_Page 8._
_Sheathed with Copper._--Although this may seem an anachronism, it may with some degree of certainty be alleged that the Phœnicians had an idea of using copper for this purpose. It would seem to be implied by Vegetius ('Rei militaris,' iv. 24) and by Athenæus (v. 40). An ancient legend attributes the invention to Melkarth, the Tyrian Hercules: _Hercules ... nave æneâ navigavit ... navem æneam habuit_ (Servius).
The other materials employed in the building of the ships are mentioned by the prophet Ezekiel.
Besides the gaoul, I have introduced the barque, the fast ship, and the long ship, or fifty-oared war-galley.
Without entering into minute details, it may be said that the barque is essentially Phœnician. Barek, in Hebrew, signifies to bend or curve anything, as a plank. _Barca est quæ cuncta navis commercia ad littus portat_ (Isidorus, Origines). In the modern Berber dialect it is called "ibarka."
The fast ship was called ?????, a horse, by the Greeks, either on account of its speed, or from the figure ordinarily found at its prow: Strabo distinctly asserts the latter reason. The vessel described in the text being of the type most frequently used in the Phœnician colony of Gades, has, on that account, been designated 'the _Gadita_.' Several Phœnician coins, apparently current on the coast of Africa, bear the impression of a horse's head; and the legend of a horse's head being discovered in the foundation of Carthage, probably originated in the national symbol affixed to the Phœnician ships.
The true Sidonian war-ship is the fifty-oared galley:
???? ????????????? ????????. EURIP. _Hel._ 1141.
What was the tonnage of such a vessel, or how it could be worked by only fifty oars, or carry 400 men, are matters on which I give no opinion; it is not my province to enter upon any technical arguments.
If an analogy be required, it may be suggested by the huge Chinese junks which were seen by the Arabian, Ibn Batuta, in the fourteenth century, and which carried 600 men, and had fifty or sixty immense oars, each oar being worked by eight men, by means of ropes pulled in opposite directions. Those seen by Marco Polo had four men to each oar. It is not improbable that the Phœnician vessels were worked by some similar method.--_Page 9._
_Purple sail._--My description of the parade-boats is not imaginary; pictures of them are given in Wilkinson (vol. iii.), and all the ancient writers, from Herodotus to Plutarch, enter into details concerning them. Herodotus describes the Sidonian vessel, from which Xerxes reviewed his fleet, as being adorned with golden hangings, meaning Babylonian materials wrought with gold.--_Page 16._
CHAPTER II.
_Pigeons. Ravens._--The custom of taking birds on a voyage, to indicate by their flight the direction of land, is mentioned repeatedly in the annals of antiquity. As an instance of more modern time and of semi-barbarous races, it may be incidentally quoted that the sea-king, Ingolf, or Floke Vilgedarson, in 868 took with him three ravens when he set out for the discovery of Iceland.--_Page 23._
_Fleur-de-lys._--The tiara with this device may be seen amongst the engravings at the end of Botta's work.--_Page 31._
CHAPTER V.
_Pharaoh._--The blank which exists in the records of Egypt at the end of the eleventh and beginning of the tenth centuries B.C., renders me unable to give the name of the Pharaoh reigning at this period.
The war-chariots of the Egyptians were mounted by Libyans, i.e., by Berbers of the Tamachek race, of which the Kabyles and Touaregs are the modern representatives. These chariots and cavalry, also Libyan, formed the great strength of the Egyptian army.--_Page 79._
CHAPTER VI.
_Cydonians. Pelasgians._--Without entering upon any dissertation on this topic, I content myself with mentioning the existence throughout Europe of races distinct both in type and language from the Aryan races whom they preceded. Two of these may be especially remarked: one with round skulls of Mongolian type, commonly called Turanians; the other with elongated skulls, classified as Australoids. These races have everywhere left traces alike of their presence and of their inferior civilisation. In the island of Crete, the Greeks preserved the memory of the Cydonians by the few words which I have introduced into the text.--_Page 100._
CHAPTER VII.
_Homer._--My introduction of the name of Homer undoubtedly demands an apology. I can only plead that the temptation to uplift the veil of mystery, and to reveal the mighty poet in connection with my fiction, was very great. Even after Schliemann's researches, the date of the Trojan war is so uncertain that I feel quite at liberty to regard it as an open question.--_Page 129._
CHAPTER IX.
_Tyrrhenian Privateers._--The description of these vessels is based upon a figure found upon a vase in the Campana Museum.--_Page 158._
_Scylla. Charybdis._--The romances interwoven into my tale are strictly Phœnician; and I have felt quite justified in introducing an allusion to the way in which the Tyrian sailors delighted to mystify strangers upon whom they could impose. I may adduce the passage in Herodotus, where he speaks of the young girls fishing for gold in the island of Cyraunis, and calls it a fine Phœnician story. "Tell it to the Greeks!" has passed into a proverb, and the Phœnician tar was only too glad to amuse himself and to enhance the price of his wares by giving a highly-coloured version of his adventures.--_Page 164._
_Nergal._--The superstition about the gigantic cock is borrowed from a Rabbinical legend quoted by Movers.--_Page 164._
CHAPTER XI.
_Adonibal._--I had already completed my fiction before I learnt from the researches of M. Sainte-Marie that Adonibal was the name usually borne by the naval suffects at Utica, or that it is at least established that a long line of magistrates were so called. It was a mere coincidence that I chose it as being the first appropriate Phœnician name that occurred to my mind.
I may observ
e here that I have throughout the preceding pages written proper names in the way in which they are most familiar. It would be mere pedantry to put Hanna-baal (cherished by the gods) instead of Hannibal, or Bod-melkarth (the face of Melkarth) instead of Bodmilcar; and it will suffice for any reader who has not studied the Semitic dialects to know that any ancient Phœnician or Jewish name may be dissected like most modern Arab names; for example, Hamilcar is Abd-Melkarth (the servant of Melkarth), like Abd-Allah (the servant of God). The student of the Semitic dialects will have no need to come to my book for instruction.
With regard to the names of places, I have felt considerable difficulty. My reasons for not writing them in Semitic are threefold:--
1. They are not all known to us under this form.
2. If known, they are unfamiliar to the general reader.
3. The identity, orthography, and pronunciation could not be substantiated without entering into minute arguments, which would be out of place.
I have accordingly, with few exceptions, used the most familiar forms, and have, at the risk of criticism, written Crete, for Caphtorim; Egypt, for Mizraim; Libyans, for Mashowiah, &c.--_Page 177._
CHAPTER XII.
I have represented Mago as sacrificing in a dolmen in the form of a covered avenue below a tumulus. The details are drawn from Bourguignat's _Monuments mégalithiques du nord de l'Afrique_. M. Daux also gives a description of a similar temple. I profess, however, that I am very far from accepting Bourguignat's theory about rude stone monuments being arranged in the form of serpents, scorpions, and other figures; I am altogether mistrustful of the accounts of prehistoric temples, and am quite of Fergusson's opinion, that these monuments are comparatively modern.--_Page 202._
_Atlantides._--To my mind there is nothing improbable in the idea of the existence of an inland sea in Algeria which is suggested by the text. I cannot, however, say so much for the existence of Atlantis, but while speaking of the migrations of the Libyans, it seemed consistent to mention all the ancient traditions that relate to them.--_Page 203._
CHAPTER XVI.
_Ar-Mor._--I entertain considerable doubt whether at the period of which I write the Celts had penetrated so far as the west coast of France; but at any rate they were already in the east, and upon the Rhone. I have ascertained the existence of anterior races, such as the Mongoloids and Australoids, and both here and in a subsequent chapter have referred to them. I plead guilty to an anachronism of four whole centuries, but I felt that to the general reader it would seem strange that I should depict my Phœnicians landing in Gaul without meeting with some well known Gallic people; all that I can say in extenuation is that I have endeavoured to construct my story so as to make the anachronism not too flagrant.--_Page 244._
CHAPTER XVII.
_Suomi._--There is no reason to doubt the existence of Finns at this date at the mouth of the Elbe. For want of an ancient Finnish name, I have invented an appellation from the modern Finnish word Suomi.--_Page 261._
CHAPTER XX.
_Circumnavigation of Libya._--Some adverse criticism may probably be aroused by my resorting to this expedient for the prosecuting of my story. That the Phœnicians might have accomplished it, cannot be disputed; and although the _Periplus_ of _Hanno_ has recently been proved to be apocryphal, and the work of some scientific Greek romance writer, I have not hesitated to incorporate the prominent feature of it into these imaginary adventures.--_Page 302._
CHAPTER XXI.
_Sheba. Ophir._--The identity of this locality with the southern coast of Arabia is beyond a doubt.--_Page 309._
"_Fairer, etc._"--These verses are translated from some later Arabian poetry. Oriental taste has altered so little, that I may claim to be pardoned for putting into the mouth of a Phœnician, a thousand years before the Christian era, some poetry belonging to a period a thousand years after.--_Page 310._