The Adventures of Captain Mago

Tyrrhenian Privateers.– The description of these vessels is based upon a figure found upon a vase in the Campana Museum. —Page 158 (#Page_158).

Scylla. Charybdis.– The romances interwoven into my tale are strictly Phœnician; and I have felt quite justified in introducing an allusion to the way in which the Tyrian sailors delighted to mystify strangers upon whom they could impose. I may adduce the passage in Herodotus, where he speaks of the young girls fishing for gold in the island of Cyraunis, and calls it a fine Phœnician story. "Tell it to the Greeks!" has passed into a proverb, and the Phœnician tar was only too glad to amuse himself and to enhance the price of his wares by giving a highly-coloured version of his adventures. —Page 164 (#Page_164).

Nergal.– The superstition about the gigantic cock is borrowed from a Rabbinical legend quoted by Movers. —Page 164 (#Page_164).

CHAPTER XI

Adonibal.– I had already completed my fiction before I learnt from the researches of M. Sainte-Marie that Adonibal was the name usually borne by the naval suffects at Utica, or that it is at least established that a long line of magistrates were so called. It was a mere coincidence that I chose it as being the first appropriate Phœnician name that occurred to my mind.

I may observe here that I have throughout the preceding pages written proper names in the way in which they are most familiar. It would be mere pedantry to put Hanna-baal (cherished by the gods) instead of Hannibal, or Bod-melkarth (the face of Melkarth) instead of Bodmilcar; and it will suffice for any reader who has not studied the Semitic dialects to know that any ancient Phœnician or Jewish name may be dissected like most modern Arab names; for example, Hamilcar is Abd-Melkarth (the servant of Melkarth), like Abd-Allah (the servant of God). The student of the Semitic dialects will have no need to come to my book for instruction.

With regard to the names of places, I have felt considerable difficulty. My reasons for not writing them in Semitic are threefold: —

1. They are not all known to us under this form.

2. If known, they are unfamiliar to the general reader.

3. The identity, orthography, and pronunciation could not be substantiated without entering into minute arguments, which would be out of place.

I have accordingly, with few exceptions, used the most familiar forms, and have, at the risk of criticism, written Crete, for Caphtorim; Egypt, for Mizraim; Libyans, for Mashowiah, &c. —Page 177 (#Page_177).

CHAPTER XII

I have represented Mago as sacrificing in a dolmen in the form of a covered avenue below a tumulus. The details are drawn from Bourguignat's Monuments mégalithiques du nord de l'Afrique. M. Daux also gives a description of a similar temple. I profess, however, that I am very far from accepting Bourguignat's theory about rude stone monuments being arranged in the form of serpents, scorpions, and other figures; I am altogether mistrustful of the accounts of prehistoric temples, and am quite of Fergusson's opinion, that these monuments are comparatively modern. —Page 202 (#Page_202).

Atlantides.– To my mind there is nothing improbable in the idea of the existence of an inland sea in Algeria which is suggested by the text. I cannot, however, say so much for the existence of Atlantis, but while speaking of the migrations of the Libyans, it seemed consistent to mention all the ancient traditions that relate to them. —Page 203 (#Page_203).

CHAPTER XVI

Ar-Mor.– I entertain considerable doubt whether at the period of which I write the Celts had penetrated so far as the west coast of France; but at any rate they were already in the east, and upon the Rhone. I have ascertained the existence of anterior races, such as the Mongoloids and Australoids, and both here and in a subsequent chapter have referred to them. I plead guilty to an anachronism of four whole centuries, but I felt that to the general reader it would seem strange that I should depict my Phœnicians landing in Gaul without meeting with some well known Gallic people; all that I can say in extenuation is that I have endeavoured to construct my story so as to make the anachronism not too flagrant. —Page 244 (#Page_244).

CHAPTER XVII

Suomi.– There is no reason to doubt the existence of Finns at this date at the mouth of the Elbe. For want of an ancient Finnish name, I have invented an appellation from the modern Finnish word Suomi. —Page 261 (#Page_261).

CHAPTER XX

Circumnavigation of Libya.– Some adverse criticism may probably be aroused by my resorting to this expedient for the prosecuting of my story. That the Phœnicians might have accomplished it, cannot be disputed; and although the Periplus of Hanno has recently been proved to be apocryphal, and the work of some scientific Greek romance writer, I have not hesitated to incorporate the prominent feature of it into these imaginary adventures. —Page 302 (#Page_302).

CHAPTER XXI

Sheba. Ophir.– The identity of this locality with the southern coast of Arabia is beyond a doubt. —Page 309 (#Page_309).

"Fairer, etc." – These verses are translated from some later Arabian poetry. Oriental taste has altered so little, that I may claim to be pardoned for putting into the mouth of a Phœnician, a thousand years before the Christian era, some poetry belonging to a period a thousand years after. —Page 310 (#Page_310).

notes

1

Hiram I. reigned from 980 to 947 B.C.

2

Sidon, or Zidon, in the Phœnician tongue means "fishery."

3

Bostra, or Bozrah; hence Byrsa, the citadel.

4

Carthage, or Kart-Khadecht, the new city.

5

Tarshish, the Tartessus of the Greeks, Spain.

6

Suffect, or choupheth (plural chophettim), the Hebrew and Phœnician magistrates preceding the monarchy.

7

The silver shekel was the standard money of the Phœnicians, and was worth about 2s. It was a tenth part of a shekel of gold.

8

Astarte. The Aphrodite of the Greeks; the goddess of navigation, and the national deity of the Sidonians.

9

The stars in the constellation of Ursa Major were also tutelary deities of navigation; the pole-star by the Greeks being called "the Phœnician."

10

Gaoul, a round ship, employed in merchant service.

11

Kitonet, a short tunic, worn by Phœnician sailors.

12

Baal Moloch, the sun god.

13

Nergal, the Chaldean god of fire and war, always represented with a cock's head.