Barclay V. Head were good enough to compare with their rich
collections the coins of ancient Midian found (Chap. III.), for
the first time, at Maghair Shu'ayb[EN#1]. Some years ago, Mr.
Robert Ready, of the British Museum, had bought from a Jew, Yusuf
Kalafat (?), a miscellaneous collection, which included about
sixty of the so-called Midianitic coins. But the place of
discovery is wholly unknown. The Assistant Keeper read a paper
"On Arabian Imitations of Athenian Coins," Midianitic,
Himyaritic, and others, at a meeting of the Numismatic Society
(November 21, 1878); and I did the same at the Royal Asiatic
Society, December 16, 1878. The little "find" of stone
implements, rude and worked; and the instruments illustrating the
mining industry of the country, appeared before the
Anthropological Section of the British Association, which met at
Dublin (August, 1878), and again before the Anthropological
Institute of London, December 10, 1878.

Finally, the skulls and fragments of skulls from Midian were
submitted to Professor Richard Owen, the Superintendent of
Natural History; and my learned friend kindly inspected the
Egyptian and Palmyrene crania which accompanied them. The whole
was carefully described by Dr. C. Carter Blake, Ph.D., before the
last-named seance of the Anthropological Institute (December 10,
1878).

The tons of specimens brought to Cairo were, I have said,
publicly exhibited there, and created much interest. But the
discovery of a mining-country, some three hundred miles long,
once immensely wealthy, and ready to become wealthy once more, is
not likely to be accepted by every one. Jealous and obstructive