[178] Our relatively large material for this region is mostly due to the consistent researches of Professor Sir William Ramsay and his school. [179] Ramsay, _Luke the Physician_, p. 174, footnote. [180] See above, p. 56, and Pl. XXV. [181] This uncertainty, however, forbids us to use their _provenance_ as evidence, though in themselves objects with special features of interest. [182] Herodotus, i. 76, and i. 72; see also above, pp. 21, 22. [183] Ramsay, _Historical Geography of Asia Minor_ (London, 1890), p. 32. [184] Professor Ramsay points out the neglected irrigation works, _Luke the Physician_, p. 129. [185] Thought by Miss Gertrude Bell to have been artificially separated from the ridge, of which it seems like a projecting headland. See _The Desert and the Sown_ (London, 1905), p. 223. The same work may be consulted for modern interests of this remarkable Arab town. So also Tyke, _Dar el Islam_ (London, 1907). [186] See p. 85, note 2 (addendum); and Sayce in _Proc. S.B.A._ (1909), p. 259. [187] Burckhardt, _Travels in Syria and the Holy Land_, (London 1822), p. 149. [188] For the progress and vicissitudes of the attempts to obtain a record of the Hamath stones, consult Wright, _The Empire of the Hittites_; Burton, _Unexplored Syria_, and the Quarterly Statements of the Palestine Exploration Fund (1871-2-3); and for a connected account, Sayce, _The Hittites_ (1905); pp. 60-64. [189] One in particular, which was long, had virtues for the rheumatic, who stretched themselves upon it. The Aleppo stone was regarded as effective for ophthalmia; and some superstition clings to nearly all such remains when they have long been known to village communities. In Egypt any monuments of stone, even a stela newly found but of guaranteed antiquity, is particularly sought out by barren women, who seem to have a definite formula and ritual to observe—one of these acts is to cross and recross the stone, if possible, seven times each way without turning the eyes to right or left. [190] _C.I.H._ (_Mitteilungen_, etc., 1900, 5), Pls. III. B; IV. A, B; V., VI., and text (1900, 4), pp. 6-8. Also Wright, _op. cit._, Pls. I.-IV., pp. 139-141. [191] Being a characteristic specimen and of historical interest we reproduce this monument in Pl. XXXVII. [192] Sayce, _Proc. S.B.A._, 1903, March. [193] This feature distinguishes this sign from the determinative of a district, represented as a conical hill. [194] See for example the groups of symbols accompanying the divine figures at Boghaz-Keui, Pls. LXV., LXII. [195] A reading of No. 1 was tentatively put forward by Sayce, _Proc. S.B.A._ (1903), p. 354; but this must be revised in the light of the new reading of No. 2, and the note on one of the signs of No. 1, in _Proc. S.B.A._, 1905, Nov., p. 218. [196] Cf. the Aintab stone below, p. 107, and Pl. XLI. Also the corner-stones _in situ_ at Eyuk, Pls. LXXII., LXXIII.