100 THE INTELLECTUAL RISE IN ELECTRICITY. 



Bab-el-Mandeb, wherein rises a mountain called "Mouru- 

 kein," which is, however, partly submerged by the tides: 

 and this, he says, (as usual on the authority of some one 

 else, one Hhasan ben al-Mondar,) seizes and holds ships 

 built with iron nails. He adds, however, on his own 

 authority, that there is still another magnetic mountain, 

 which he is careful to locate as far off as possible, to-wit: 

 in a gulf near Cape Zanguebar, which is very high, and 

 over the sides the waters fall with a frightful noise, and it 

 is named Adjoud. 1 



The finishing touch to the romance which set the nails 

 flying from the ships, was given by one Bailak, a native of 

 Kibdjak, 2 who wrote, in 1242, a treatise on stones, in which 

 he quotes from a pretended work 3 on the same subject 

 by Aristotle, which, in fact, was an Arab concoction. His 

 story is worth quoting in full, because it not only rounds 

 out the fable to completion, but also, as is very likely to 

 happen in such cases, contains the explanation which 

 leads to it own destruction. He says: 



" According to Aristotle, there is a mountain of this 

 stone in the sea. If the ships approach it, they lose their 

 nails and their iron, which detach themselves from the 

 ships, and fly, like birds, toward the mountain, without 

 being retained by the cohesive force of the wood. Hence 

 the vessels which navigate in this sea are not fast- 

 ened with iron nails, but cords made of palm fibres are 

 used to unite them, being secured by soft wooden nails 

 which swell in the water. The Yemen people also fasten 

 their ships with strips detached from the branches of the 

 palm tree. It is said that there is a similar mountain in 

 the Indian Sea." 



It may be remarked, in passing, that when the Domin- 



1 Klaproth, cit. sup., 119. 2 Ibid, 57. 



5 As is well known, there is much doubt concerning the actual works of 

 Aristotle. Most of those now accepted are not included in the full Aris- 

 totelian catalogue given by Diogenes Laertius, nor were they known to 

 Cicero. Grote: Aristotle, v. i., c. ii. 



