In 1883 he
wrote the following to Burton from Jerusalem, anent certain inquiries
in which he was much interested:
"JERUSALEM, June 3, 1883.
"MY DEAR BURTON,
"I have a favour to ask, which I will begin with, and then go on to other
subjects. In 1878 (I think) I sent you a manuscript in Arabic, copy of
the manuscript you discovered in Harar. I want you to lend it to me
for a month or so, and will ask you in sending it to register it. This
is the favour I want from you. I have time and means to get it fairly
translated, and I will do this for you. I will send you the translation
and the original back; and if it is worth it, you will publish it. I
hope you and Mrs. Burton are well. Sorry _s.d_. pounds sterling keep
you from the East, for there is much to interest here in every way, and
you would be useful to me as an encyclopaedia of oriental lore; as it
is, Greek is looked on by me as hieroglyphics.
"Here is result of my studies: The whole of the writers on Jerusalem,
with few exceptions, fight for Zion on the Western Hill, and put the
whole Jerusalem in tribe Benjamin! I have worked this out, and to me
it is thus: The whole question turns on the position of En-shemesh,
which is generally placed, for no reason I know of, at Ain Hand. I
find Kubbat el Sama, which corresponds to Baethsamys of the Septuagint,
at the north of Jerusalem, and I split Jerusalem by the Tyropoean
Valley (_alias_ the Gibeon of Eden, of which more another time).
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