NoveEMBER 12, 1903] 
NAOT 
29 
EMRE RS- LO ne ME DITOR. 
[The Editor does not hold himself responsible for opinions 
expressed by his correspondents. Neither can he undertake 
to return, or to correspond with the writers of, rejected 
manuscripts intended for this or any other part of NatTurg. 
No notice is taken of anonymous communications.] 
Hyksos-Hittites. 
In the Times of October 28 there appeared, under the 
signatures of Prof. J. M. Mackay, of Liverpool University, 
and Messrs. Percy Newberry and John Garstang, a letter 
on an important archeological subject, entitled ‘* Etruscan 
and Hyksos—a Hittite Clue.’ The object of this letter 
appears to have been to prove a culture-connection in the 
second millennium, B.c., between the Etruscans in Italy, the 
Kheta or ‘“ Hittites’’ in Asia Minor and northern Syria, 
and the mysterious Hyksos or ‘‘ Shepherd Kings ’’ who in- 
vaded Egypt, and usurped its government between the 
thirteenth and eighteenth dynasties. 
The subject is, of course, one of considerable interest, 
and the theory is a suggestive one, but readers of the 
Times would hardly guess from the tenor of this letter that 
the theory enunciated in it has been well known to all 
archeologists for the last fourteen years at least! In fact, 
the theory was adumbrated by several workers in the field 
of Oriental archeology before it was finally thrown into 
a concrete form and placed before scholars by Father A. C. 
de Cara, in the year 1889. As expounded by this learned 
Jesuit, the theory is simply repeated by the three writers 
of the letter already mentioned; hardly any original addi- 
tions are made, and these are not of a character to com- 
mand the adherence of students. For example, it is 
suggested, though not definitely said, that the well-known 
company of immigrants from Asia depicted on the walls 
of the tomb of Khnemu-hetep at Beni Hasan was a party 
of ‘‘ Hittites.”’ Unluckily, however, these people are 
Semitic in feature, and the name of their chief, Abesha, is, 
judging by all analogy, Semitic. Now we are quite certain 
that the features of the Kheta, and their names also, were 
non-Semitic. This Prince Abesha, the writers of the letter 
say, “‘is entitled the ruler of a foreign (mountainous) 
land—the Sinaitic deserts, it has been conjectured, to the 
south of Hebron, where Hittite and Semite had intercourse 
and intermarriage in the age of the Patriarchs.’’ Here 
aa unwarrantable assumption, and even this is not original, 
has been made, for there is no proof that the ‘“‘ children 
of Heth,’’ who in the Bible are said to have lived near 
Hebron, are of the same race or nation as the Hittim of 
northern Syria, who are certainly to be identified with the 
Khatti of the Assyrian records and the Kheta of the 
Egyptian monuments, who were undoubtedly the builders 
of the great sanctuaries of Boghaz K6i and Eyuk, and to 
whom the inscriptions commonly called ‘‘ Hittite ’’ be- 
longed. 
The writers of the letter also show confusion of thought 
in the following matter. After stating that in the statues 
of Queen Nefert and Amenemhat III. a clear Mongolian or 
Turanian strain is visible, and noting that ‘* she wears on 
her head a horse-shoe-like attire, he a pigtail to his wig,” 
they go on to say that the statues which the Hyksos made 
or usurped are Mongoloid, *‘ Turanian on a Semitic stock, 
Hittite-Semite.’’ The conclusion seems to be that these 
“ Mongoloid ’’ Hyksos had appeared in Egypt, and had 
assumed its government before the reign of Amenemhat III., 
but the statues referred to are well known to belong to the 
reign of Amenemhat, and were usurped by the Hyksos; 
therefore we have no proof whatever from the statues that 
the Hyksos were Mongols, and from this it follows that 
the “‘ Mongoloid ’’ Nefert and Amenemhat III. cannot be 
proved to be Hyksos-Hittites. Further, the idea that the 
statues of Amenemhat’s reign are Mongoloid at all is a 
pure matter of opinion, on which many archzologists would 
differ from the writers of the letter. The horse-shoe head- 
dress of Nefert is an ordinary Egyptian woman’s wig in 
the fashion of the twelfth dynasty, and Amenemhat’s pig- 
tail is no proof that he was a Mongol; it might just as 
well be argued that Frederick the Great was a Mongol 
because he wore a pig-tail. 
So much for mistakes. It is a matter for surprise that 
NO. 1776, VOL. 69] 
three writers who thought fit to send a communication to 
the Times on an important archzological matter should 
have been, as it appears, totally unaware of the long 
priority of another writer in the whole field of which their 
letter treats. X. 
Telegraphic Disturbances in Spain on October 31, 
On Saturday, October 31, the telegraphic communication 
was interrupted almost from morning until late at night. 
The first sign of the perturbation was observed at oh. 30m. 
in the morning (W.E.T.) in the form of continuous currents 
along nearly all the lines that start from Madrid. At first 
it was thought that some leakage from a cable in the 
vicinity of the Central Office was the cause of the pheno- 
menon, but- on making inquiries it was ascertained that 
the same occurrence was observed in Cordoba, in the line 
to Malaga. At the same time the cable from Vigo to 
Emden was rendered useless, and at Lisbon the phenomenon 
was observed at some moments in which the situation was 
normal at Madrid. The maximum intensity took place 
between 12h. 30m. and 15h.; at 21h. the phenomenon had 
nearly ceased. 
During the first hours of the evening the currents were 
continuous for periods of twenty to thirty minutes in some 
of the wires, for instance, in those of Vigo; at 22h. the 
current in the Corufa wire was continuous during 3m. ; at 
th 45m. of November 1 the current was also continuous 
in the Bilbao wire. At 3h. 20m. the cable from Cadiz to 
Tenerife in the Canary Islands remained perturbed so 
strongly that the clerks made the contact with the earth 
t) avoid the discharges. 
At 19h. communication between Madrid and Burdeos 
was re-established; information received at the Central 
Office stated that the cable from Senegal to Noronha was 
disturbed. In Spain, in some lines running approximately 
east and west, the phenomenon was not observed, namely, 
in the coast of Andalusia, from Malaga to Almeria, but in 
the line from Malaga to Granada, which runs roughly to 
the north, the perturbation was very marked, also in the 
more north-easterly line from Granada to Murcia. These 
three lines are approximately of the same length. In the 
centre of Old Castile, in the transversal line from Aranda 
to Ariza and to Valladolid, nothing abnormal was observed ; 
meanwhile, in the general line that runs north-south, the 
disturbance prevented all cor@munication. In the provinces 
of Cuenca and Extremadura, the lines of which run approxi- 
mately east and west, the communications. remained un- 
disturbed. 3 sy 
The night was clouded, so that nothing could be seen 
of an aurora borealis. even if a display occurred. 
Avucusto ARCIMIS. 
Instituto Centra] Meteorolégico, Madrid, November 3. 
The November Leonids. 
TueERE appears to be little prospect of a brilliant recur- 
rence of the November meteors on about November 15 next, 
though the moon will offer little impediment, being past 
the last quarter. The parent comet returned unobserved 
to perihelion in the spring of 1899, and is now far on its 
outward journey, beyond the orbit of Jupiter, so that any 
meteors appearing this year must be at a vast distance 
from the supposed derivative body. There ‘is evidence, 
however, that minor groups circulate, along the orbit, and 
that these are sufficiently condensed to produce pretty rich 
showers in certain years, aS in 1879, 1888, &c. The system 
or stream is no doubt a continuous one, for every year at 
the middle of November some meteors of the swift, streak- 
ing class are seen shooting from the radiant in the 
‘* Sickle.’’ It is obviously necessary, as a means to increase 
our knowledge of the shower, to watch for the display 
annually, and to record the time of its maximum and the 
observed horary number of its meteors. 
The position of the radiant has been frequently deter- 
mined in past years by eye-estimated meteor-tracks, and it 
now remains to obtain some further photographic records 
so that this feature may be more precisely ascertained. It 
is curious that the mean place of the radiant resulting from 
eye observations of meteors is nearly two degrees west of 
