further north. The conclusion forced itself upon me that the name
of the celebrated Arab mine Zu'l Marwah or El-Marwah, the more
ancient (Mochura), which Ptolemy places in north
lat. 24 30', applied to the whole district in South Midian, and
then came to denote the chief place and centre of work. To judge
by the extent of the ruins, and the signs of labour, this focus
was at Umm el-Karayat (the "Mother of the Villages"), which, as
has been shown, is surrounded by a multitude of miner-towns and
ateliers. And the produce of the "diggings" would naturally
gravitate to El-Bada, the great commercial station upon the
Nabathaan "Overland."

Thus El-Marwah would signify "the Place of Maru," or
"Quartz-land," even as Ophir means "Red Land." A reviewer of my
first book on Midian objects to the latter derivation; as
Seetzen, among others, has conclusively shown that Ophir, the
true translation of which is 'riches,' is to be looked for in
Southern Arabia." Connu! But I question the "true translation;"
and, whilst owning that one of the Ophirs or "Red Lands" lay in
the modern Yemen, somewhere between Sheba (Saba) and Havilah
(Khaulan), I see no reason for concluding that this was the only
Ophir. Had it been a single large emporium on the Red Sea, which
collected the produce of Arabia and the exports of India and of
West Africa, the traditional site could hardly have escaped the
notice of the inquiring Arabian geographers of our Middle Ages.
The ruins of a port would have been found, and we should not be
compelled theoretically to postulate its existence.

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