Page:Palestine Exploration Fund - Quarterly Statement for 1894.djvu/250

210 the British Museum; and the other being copied from an ancient gem (Maffei. "Gem. Ant." iii, 64), and representing "a tree with four oscilla hung upon its branches." From the noun "oscillum" was derived the verb "oscillo," meaning to swing, which is the root of our English words oscillate, oscillation, &c.

Here at Jaffa I am shut out from the possibility of reference to all but a few of the back numbers of the Quarterly Statement, but I think that in one of Herr Schumacher's reports there occurs the mention (with illustration) of one of these masks.



A couple of years ago, at the time of the Greek excavations inside and close to the rock-cut tomb with sculptured grape-clusters, &c., at the traditional Aceldama, popularly called "The Retreat of the Apostles," though identified half a century ago by the late Dr. Schulz as the monument of Ananus, I one day visited a small Jewish settlement on the traditional Hill of Evil Counsel. A fellah who met me there offered me some beads, &c., which he said he had picked up whilst working on the said excavations, and of his own accord told me the following legend, which I record—firstly, because it seems to me to contain an undoubted reference to the freaks of the mad Fatimite Khalifeh II Hakim bi amr illah, whom the Druzes worship as a deity, but of whom, as far as I am aware, no traditions have hitherto been found to exist in the folk-lore of Southern Palestine, and secondly, because Mr. Bliss, to whom I recently told the strange story on the spot it referred to, suggested that it would not be deemed valueless if offered for the pages of the Quarterly Statement:—

"A long time ago, when Palestine was under the Egyptian Government, the caves in Wad el Rababeh were inhabited by a great number of monies and holy men who spent their time in fasting and prayer. Now it happened that the Governor in Egypt— "El Hakim bi Musr"—needed money, and, therefore, sent orders to the Mutasarrif (Governor) of El Kuds to make everybody pay a tax. The Mutasarrif and Mejlis wrote back to say that it was impossible to do so, seeing that there were such large numbers of poor but holy men who, though Christians, lived like dervishes in the caves, and who, as they earned nothing, could not pay the sum demanded of each of them. On receiving this news the Governor of Egypt ordered his secretary to write back the order  "Number the men," but, whether through carelessness or wickedness Allah knows, the secretary wrote a  instead of a  in the word for "number," and so 