[EN#8] In a fragment of similar chalcedony, from the same site (Aba'l-Maru), Dr. Moser found specks of "free gold." [EN#9] This was the "splendid button" smelted at Makna. [EN#10] The "button" was pronounced to be almost pure antimony in the Government Establishment of Mines, Trieste. [EN#11] In "box No. 4" Messrs. Jackson found rough crystals of corundum; and a qualitative analysis of this sample and "box No. 7" yielded quartz, carbonate of lime, alumina, and oxide of iron. [EN#12] The italics are mine. Mr. Mathey remarks of the specimen containing 48 grains of gold per ton, "It would be worthless in its present condition; if however, it could be enriched by proper washing and dressing, and the cost in labour, etc., be not too great, it might be made to give fair returns." [EN#13] "Little health" at Cairo prevented my choosing the instruments; and the result was that at last I had to depend upon my pocket-set by Casella. Even this excellent maker's maxima and minima failed to stand the camel-jolting. The barometer, lent by the Chief of Staff (Elliott Brothers, 24), contained amalgam, not mercury. The patent messrad, or odometer (Wittmann, Wien), with its works of soft brass instead of steel, was fit only to measure a drawing-room carpet. M. Ebner sold us, at the highest prices, absolutely useless maxima and minima, plus a baromètre aneroide, whose chain was unhooked when it left the box. M. Sussmann, of the Muski, supplied, for fifty francs, a good and useful microscope magnifying seventy-five times. The watches from M. Meyer ("Dent and Co.!") were cheap and nasty Swiss articles; but they were also subjected to terrible treatment:--I once saw the wearers opening them with table-knives. Fortunately M. Lacaze, the artist, had a good practical knowledge of instruments; and this did us many a good turn. [EN#14] For Arabian travel I should advise aconite, instead of Dover's powder; Cockle's pills, in lieu of blue mass; Warburg's Drops, in addition to quinine; pyretic saline and Karlsbad, besides Epsom salts; and chloral, together with chlorodyne. "Pain Killer" is useful amongst wild people, and Oxley's ginger, with the simple root, is equally prized. A little borax serves for eye-water and alum for sore mouth. I need not mention special medicines like the liqueur Laville, and the invaluable Waldöl (oil of the maritime pine), which each traveller must choose for himself. [EN#15] It is Lane's "Kiyakh, vulgó Kiyák," and Michell's "Kyhak, the ancient Khoiak," or fourth month. The Copts begin their solar year on our September 10-11; and date from the 2nd of Diocletian, or the Era of the "Martyrs" (A.D. 284). It is the old Sothic, or annus quadratus, which became the Alexandrine under the Ptolemies; and which Sosigenes, the Egyptian, converted into the Julian, by assuming the Urbs condita as a point de départ, and by transferring New Year's Day from the equinox to the solstice.