Chapter X. Through East Midian to the Hismá. The Land of Midian is by no means one of the late Prince Metternich's "geographical expressions." The present tenants of the soil give a precise and practical definition of its limits. Their Arz Madyan extends from El-‘Akabah north (north lat. 29° 28') to El-Muwaylah with its Wady, El-Surr (north lat. 27° 40'). It has thus a total latitudinal length of 108 direct geographical miles.[EN#149] South of this line, the seaboard of North-Western Arabia, as far as El-Hejaz, has no generic name. The Bedawin are contented with such vague terms, derived from some striking feature, as "the Lands of Zibá," "of Wady Salmá," "of Wady Dámah," "of El-Wijh," to denote the tract lying between the parallels of El-Muwaylah and of Wady Hamz (<Arabic>) in north lat. 25° 55' 15. Thus the north-south length of the southern moiety would be 105 direct geographical miles, or a little less than the northern; and the grand total would be 213 miles. The breadth of this Egyptian province is determined by the distance from the sea to the maritime mountains. In Madyan Proper, or North Midian, the extremes would be twenty-four and thirty-five miles. For the southern half these figures may be doubled. Here, again, the Bedawin are definitive as regards limits. All the Tihámah or "lowlands" and their ranges belong to Egypt; east of it the Daulat Shám, or Government of Syria, claims possession. I have taken the liberty of calling the whole tract Midian; the section above El-Muwaylah (Madyan Proper) I would term "North Midian," and that below it "South Midian." In the days of the ancient Midianites the frontiers were so elastic that, at times, but never for a continuity, they embraced Sinai, and were pushed forward even into Central Palestine. Moreover, I would prolong the limits eastward as far as the Damascus-Medínah road. This would be politically and ethnologically correct. With the exception of the Ma'ázah country, the whole belongs to Egypt; and all the tribes, formerly Nabathæan, are now more or less Egypto-Arab, never questioning the rights of his Highness the Viceroy, who garrisons the seaboard forts. Of the other points, historical and geographical, I am not so sure. My learned friend, Aloys Sprenger, remarks: "Let me observe that your extending the name ‘Midian' over the whole country, as far south as the dominions of the Porte, appears to me an innovation by which the identity of the race along the shore of the Gulf of ‘Akabah, coast down to Wajh and Hawrá, is prejudged. Would it not be better to leave Midian where it always has been, and to consider Badá[EN#150] the centre of Thamûditis, as it was at the time of Pliny and Ptolemy, and as it continued to be until the Balee (Baliyy), and other Qodhâ' (Kudá') tribes, came from Southern Arabia, and exterminated the Thamûdites?" This is, doubtless, a valid objection: its only weak point is that it goes too far back.