May 1 8, 



1911J 



NATURE 



585 



nearly correct, renderings of the Hebrew names for 

 which they stand ; and the same is doubtless the case 

 with coral, which is found in the Red Sea and the 

 Persian Gulf. Pearls in the Old Testament is, how- 

 ever, the rendering of the Hebrew gdbhish, signify- 

 ing- ice and thus rock-crystal, whereas in the New 

 Testament napyapiTm is rightly translated pearls. 

 Manna, it is perhaps needless to add, was certainly 

 not the product of a Coccus, as the natives of Palestine 

 now tell travellers, but apparently a mountain lichen, 

 of which quantities were at times blown down to the 

 plains. 



A few allusions to botany have been already made, 

 and it may be added that in the case of cultivated 

 plants many of the transla- 

 tions are more or less 

 nearly true to nature. .V 

 "garden of cucumbers," for 

 instance, conveys an excel- 

 lent idea of the abundance 

 of melons, gourds, cucum- 

 bers, &c., characteristic of 

 so many Eastern countries ; 

 but a local touch of colour 

 is unfortunately lost in the 

 reference to "'white, green, 

 and blue hangings," in 

 which the word rendered 

 "green" should have been 

 translated "cotton," so that 

 the passage should run 

 " where were hangings of 

 white and violet-coloured 

 cotton." Lack of space 

 prevents me, I regret to 

 say, saying more on this 

 part of my theme, and 

 the same limitation pre- 

 vents a discussion on 

 minerals. This, hovv'ever, is 

 not a matter for regret, as 

 Dr. Fletcher informs me 

 that the whole subject is 

 in j^reat confusion, and it 

 will therefore be advisable 

 to await his contribution 

 to the forthcoming exhibit 

 at the Natural History 

 Museum. It may be men- 

 tioned, however, that in 

 many cases at any rate 

 the precious stones referred 

 to in the Bible are rightly 

 identified only so far as 

 the matter of colour is 

 concerned, sapphire being 

 apparently lapis lazuli, 

 ruby an unknown red 

 stone, chrysolite probably a 



topax, and chrysoprasus a green chalcedony 

 akin to the " prase " from which Egyptian scarabs 

 were cut. 



I should have liked to say something with regard 

 to the animals of the New Testament, but can only 

 refer to Prof. Ridgoway's identification of the "pale 

 horse" {innns x^«"P''f) "^ Revelation with the dun 

 breed, or the one of the colour of dry grass. Natur- 

 ally one would have expected to find the black horse 

 associated with Death ; but, according to Prof. Ridge- 

 way, the dun was regarded as the worst breed, and 

 accordingly des()iscd, a fact which, it may be sug- 

 gested, perhaps affords another argument in favour of 

 (he antiquity of this type. R. L. 



NO. 2168, VOL. 86] 



MEDITERRA^^EAN CIVILISATION AND THE 

 PHAESTOS RIDDLED 



JUDGED by the declared aims of the author, who 

 before his lamented death, was one of the 

 brightest of Italian men of science, this is an 

 eminently successful work. He is "convinced that 

 it is worth while to excite the curiosity of those 

 who are not archaeologists," and he never forgets" 

 the average reader. He is equally convinced of the 

 independence of Mediterranean civilisation, and he 

 has undoubtedly made out a very strong case. The 

 author's enthusiasm sometimes makes the reader un- 

 necessarily suspicious, but added to the popularising 

 and argumentative motives of thr auihor is .1 -incere 



Face A. 



Fig. 1. — Disk, with Hieroglypliic Inscription, from Phsestos. From "The Dawn of Mediterranean 



Civilisation." 



respect for facts, and the wants of the specialist are 

 also provided for in numberless references and foot- 

 notes. The author was himself an experienced explorer, 

 and he has some interesting theories of his own to 

 put forth, such as that Cyprus is not "the land of 

 copper " and that the word bronze is a form of 

 Brindisi (p. 208). On Minoan matters he writes from 

 first-hand knowledge. In Italy he did excellent 

 work in completing a survey of the known dolmens 

 of that country. The dolmens illustrated are remark- 

 ably similar to our British cromlechs. The book is 



1 "The Dawn of Mediterrone.in Civilisation." By A. Mosso, translated 

 hy M. C. Harrison. Pp. xxiii + 424' (London: T. Fisher Unwin, J910.) 

 Price tts. net. 



