Ophir

“ Here we have distinct evidence of dishonesty.'
'There is evil always mixed with good, and falsehood is associated with truth,' sighed Mr. Flamank. 'It may be—of course, as you state you have seen it, it must be—that there is trickery here, but still Ophir is somewhere hereabouts.'
'That of course is possible. But we have not now to consider the whereabouts of Ophir, but the whereabouts of your reputation and your capital, both sunk in this swindle.' Then the full truth of Herring's words came home to the Reverend Israel. ”

“ I believe Ophir to be a swindle, but how the swindling is done passes my comprehension.'
He sat looking into the fire, and kicking the logs with the toe of his boot. Then he threw himself back in his chair.
'I shall go to bed, Herring,' he said, 'and I shall stick there till there is a clearing in the air over Ophir. I am not going to be married whilst the cloud broods heavily. I shall go to bed.'
'Go to bed!' echoed Herring. 'It is early still.'
'I always go to bed when I want to get out of a difficulty. Old Tramplara is not far off, and he can come and see me. ”

“ Country folks will tell you that every cloud brings with it wind. That is the reverse of the fact. It is the wind that brings the cloud. So in this case there occurs a little mistake as to which is the impelling power. The Reverend Israel has shown me that the situation of Ophir is pretty accurately indicated. It is said in Scripture that Ophir lies between Mesha and a mountain in the East called Sephar. ”

“ He laughed. "Perhaps I may revise my opinion of Ophir," he said.
"No light!" she whispered. Her voice was low and vibrant.
"Why not?"
"I must not be seen here. But I had to warn you. It would not have been right not to warn you about Aidennsport."
"What of Aidennsport?"
"It is a dreadful—an evil place. There are forces here which you would not understand. Leave at once while you are still able to go!"
"You forget that I am a policeman. To leave without completing the census would be dereliction. I remind you that the Empire is inexorable in these things. And who are you, anyway?" ”

“ Ophir was too fresh in the memories of men. Some of the Christian auditors had suffered through it; all knew how Flamank had helped to launch the concern, and, although he had taken an active part in exposing the fraud, it was surmised that he had pocketed something by the transaction. Some rudely asserted that the Ho-ha mission was but another Ophir, and that Wankee-Fum was as mythical as Arundell Golitho of Trevorgan, Esq. Mr. Flamank returned from his round much disappointed and depressed. He heard from his wife what had occurred. Then he went to Dolbeare to offer his congratulations. ”

“ After a display of great ingenuity and considerable research, in the endeavour to prove Ophir situated in Arabia, India, and even Peru, I think it will be at length allowed that Sofala, on the east coast of Africa, is indubitably the Ophir of Solomon. ”

“ The Ophir went through without sticking in the sand, and the Guardian-Mother was likely to do as well. A solitary mosque and a châlet of the Khedive were passed, and the ship was approaching Lake Timsah when the gong sounded for lunch, and the air of the desert had given the tourists an appetite which caused them to evacuate the promenade with hasty steps. ”

“ For Ophir was a great Temperance mine, and the dedication of Ophir a Temperance demonstration, Ri-lid-de-riddle-roll! Who cannot rollick on ginger-beer? Who that is by nature inane can fail to make an ass of himself when out on a holiday on cold tea?
Ophir was a great Temperance mine. All the washers were sworn in as total abstainers. As was stated on the prospectus, the workings were to be carried on only with water. 'We may as well fish in two ponds, Sampy,' said old Tramplara ”

“ NambanilS. — The text is Mambarus. This is probably the same as the Saka ruler Nahapana. See under § 52.
41. Abiria. Phis is the native Abhira, which Lassen (I, 538-9) , argues must have been the Biblical Ophir. In the account of the Ophir trade given in I Kings, IX, 26-28; I Kings, X, 11; II Chronicles VIII, 17, and IX, 10, the products mentioned are gold, sandalwood ( ?) , precious stones, ivory, silver, apes and pea- cocks. The word translated ape, Lassen remarks, is kophi, not a Hebrew word, but derived from the Sanscrit word kapi. The word for ivory is noted under § 49. ”

“ Of all the fowls that sweep the air
None with the Peacock may compare;
Not only for its loveliness,
Though queens in vain might ask such dress,
But o'er those painted plumes are cast
So many shadows from the past,—
Those gorgeous ships which wont to bring
The wealth of Ophir to that king
Who ransacked earth and swept the main,
To find their pleasures were in vain. ”

“ Ophir has most frequently been placed by its advocates in Hayti or Peru. [187] Such speculations, however, are incapable of proof, and are scarcely deserving of sober consideration. The theory itself is one of the few that command respectful attention, since tradition, history, and many facts in natural science, seem to point to its probability. [188] Mr. Bancroft refers at some length to the voyage of Hanno, a Carthaginian navigator, whose exploits beyond the pillars of Hercules, with a fleet of sixty ships and thirty thousand men, is recorded in his Periplus. ”

“ The stir of Ophir drew him back. He liked watching the stampers, and to stand on the bank above the washing floors, chuckling and sniggering at the people examining the sediment and picking out the glittering grains.
There Herring found him. He at once attacked him on the subject of the shekel.
'I found 'n in the airth just below the great stone to the head o' the Giant's Table. I found 'n about six foot vour inches below the surfass o' the ground. There was dree or vour more, all alike, but Loramussy! I didn't give mun (them) no heed. ”

“ On the other hand, the avatars were his hands and feet, and had larger bodies.
The large-headed Ophirian sat in his wallow and accepted the food offered him with long, leathery fingers. He crunched noisily. Once he turned to stare at them briefly with great, owl eyes. Eleven avatars turned simultaneously to stare. ”

“ Judas also knew that Jesus had cured many of the masons who were injured by the fall of the Tower of Siloe. The greatest part of the inhabitants of Ophel were converted after the death of our Lord, and joined the first Christian community that was formed after Pentecost, and when the Christians separated from the Jews and erected new dwellings, they placed their huts and tents in the valley which is situated between Mount Olivet and Ophel, and there St. Stephen lived. Ophel was on a hill to the south of the Temple, surrounded by walls, and its inhabitants were very poor. ”

“ We have a little sister, and she hath no breasts. If she be a Comah, we will build upon her a palace of silver. A palace cannot be supposed to be built upon a wall; though it may be inclosed with one. The place for building was a Comah, or eminence. It is said of Jotham, king of Judah, that [294] on the wall of Ophel he built much. Ophel is literally Pytho Sol, the Ophite Deity of Egypt and Canaan. What is here termed a wall, was a Comah, or high place, which had been of old erected to the sun by the Jebusites. ”

“ Ophrah - Or Ephra, was a city, or village rather, in the half tribe of Manasseh, beyond Jordan.
His son Gideon threshed wheat - This is not the only instance in which a man taken from agricultural employments was made general of an army, and the deliverer of his country. Shamgar was evidently a ploughman, and with his ox-goad he slew many Philistines, and became one of the deliverers of Israel. Cincinnatus was taken from the plough, and was made dictator and commander-in-chief of the Roman armies. ”

“ The Grecians called this city Orpheus: [1044] Ορφευς εστι πολις υπο τῃ Πιεριῃ. Orpheus is a city of Thrace, below Pieria. But the place was originally expressed Orphi, by which is meant the oracular temple of Orus. From hence, and from the worship here instituted, the people were styled Orphites, and Orpheans. They were noted for the Cabiritic mysteries; and for the Dionusiaca, and worship of Damater. They were likewise very famous for the medicinal arts; and for their skill in astronomy and music. But the Grecians have comprehended, under the character of one person, the history of a people. ”

“ This was Orpheus, that best of harpers, who went with the Grecian heroes of the great ship Argo in search of the Golden Fleece.
After his return from the quest, he won Eurydice for his wife, and they were as happy as people can be who love each other and every one else. The very wild beasts loved them, and the trees clustered about their home as if they were watered with music. But even the gods themselves were not always free from sorrow, and one day misfortune came upon that harper Orpheus whom all men loved to honor. ”

“ A Roman lance had hit him, and he lay transfixed by the side of a living purple fount, like a rock in the surf from which a sapling has sprung. Orpheus saw his father’s life-blood flowing and fell on his knees by his side; but the old man pointed to the bow that his son had cast aside and murmured eagerly: “Leave me—let me be. What does it matter about me? Fight—for the gods—I say. For the gods! ”

“ Of all these minstrels none was so famous as Orpheus who had gone with the Argonauts; none could tell truer things about the gods, for he himself was half divine.
But a great grief came to Orpheus, a grief that stopped his singing and his playing upon the lyre. His young wife Eurydice was taken from him. One day, walking in the garden, she was bitten on the heel by a serpent, and straightway she went down to the world of the dead.
Then everything in this world was dark and bitter for the minstrel Orpheus; sleep would not come to him, and for him food had no taste. ”

“ And Orpheus went on his way, with hope beating high in his heart, till he came to the portals of the palace of Death. On the threshold lay Cerberus, the three-headed hound of hell, who night and day kept watch beside the gate to see that no one passed in save those who had died upon earth, and that those who had passed him once should pass him never again. When he heard Orpheus coming, he sprang to his feet and snarled and growled and bared his sharp white fangs ”

“ Then Nefert turned to a large group of the girls, who were sorting plants, and said: “Do you, children, know the origin of all these wholesome, healing herbs? The good Horus went out to fight against Seth, the murderer of his father, and the horrible enemy wounded Horus in the eye in the struggle; but the son of Osiris conquered, for good always conquers evil. But when Isis saw the bad wound, she pressed her son’s head to her bosom, and her heart was as sad as that of any poor human mother that holds her suffering child in her arms. ”

“ This appears, however, to be a supposition purely gratuitous on the part of the ancient writers, since a careful examination of the subject leads directly to the belief that Orpheus was of Indian origin; that he was a member of one of those Sacerdotal Colonies, which professed the religion of Buddha; and who being driven from their home, in the northern parts of India, and in the plains of Tartary, by the power of the rival sect of Brahma, moved gradually onwards to the west, dispensing, in their progress, the benefits of civilisation and the mysterious tenets of their peculiar faith. ”

“ So came Orpheus to the throne of great Pluto, by whose side sat Proserpine, his Queen. And the king of the infernal gods asked: "What wouldst thou, mortal, who darest to enter unbidden this our realm of death?"
Orpheus answered, touching his lyre the while: "Not as a spy or a foe have I come where no living wight hath ventured before, but I seek my wife, slain untimely by the fangs of a serpent. Such love as mine for a maiden such as she must melt the stoniest heart. Thy heart is not all of stone, and thou too didst once love an earthly maiden. ”

“ For the moment we discussed Neit-akrit as we would a coming foe. I refused to believe that a woman, young and fascinating, would without murmur or struggle resign her chances of a throne. Accustomed to rule by her beauty, she must love power, and surely would not resign herself patiently to a secondary position in the land.
We were looking forward to a preliminary battle on the morrow. Hugh was determined that the Pharaoh should be placed under my charge, and we both much wondered whether the arbitrary high priest would allow himself to give way to the stranger upon every point. ”

“ They are on this account by many supposed to have been the same person. But in reality they were not persons, but places. They are, however, so far alike, as they are terms which relate to the same worship and Deity. Opheltin is the place, and altar of the Ophite God above-mentioned: and Archemorus was undoubtedly the antient name of the neighbouring town, or city. It is a compound of Ar-Chemorus; and signifies the city of Cham-Orus, the same who is styled Ophel. In many of these places there was an antient tradition of some person having been injured by a serpent in the beginning of life ”

“ The prophet therefore indicates a certain difference here between that shadowy kingdom and the new kingdom which God will openly manifest at the advent of the Messiah.” - Calvin. ↑ The opinion that Ophel is the whole of the southern steep rocky promontory of Moriah, from the southern end of the temple ground to its extreme point (Robinson, Schultz, Williams) , viz., the Ophla or Ophlas of Josephus, as Arnold (Herzog's Cycl.) ”