have been conveyed by means of signal fires, this
writer says that such fires would have attracted the attention of the
English and native scouts, and that the whole country is unpropitious
to such methods; besides, no system of signal fires, no matter how
elaborate, could have conveyed the news so quickly and in such detail.
The whole matter is summed up as follows:

"The Arabs, therefore, have, manifestly, some other means of rapid
communication at their command. One is inclined to the presumption that
they, like the learned Pundits of Northern India, have a knowledge
of the forces of Nature that are yet hidden from our most eminent
scientists."

Can it be that the Arabs are acquainted with the very recently
discovered scientific principle, that it is possible to transmit
telegraphic communications without wires, and simply by means of
magnetic currents in earth and water?

Nor is this remarkable skill confined to the "barbarians of the Old
World." A correspondent from the far West to the New York Press wrote
that long before the news of the Custer massacre reached Fort Abraham
Lincoln the Sioux had communicated it to their brethren. The scouts in
Crook's column to the south knew of it almost immediately, as did those
with Gibbon farther northwest. The same writer says that several years
ago a naval lieutenant ran short of provisions. He pushed on to a
settlement as rapidly as possible and upon arriving there found that
the inhabitants had provided for his coming and had a bounteous store
awaiting him. The people in the village were of a different tribe from
those whose domain he had passed, and so far as could be learned were
not in communication with them.

The earliest accounts which we have of Egypt and Chaldea reveal the fact
that at a very remote period they were old and powerful civilizations,
that they had a settled government, a pure and philosophical religion,
and a profound knowledge of science and art; yet, notwithstanding the
great antiquity of these civilizations, that of the people which created
them must have been infinitely more remote.

The earliest historic nations recognized the greatness of these ancient
people and the extent of their dominion. In the oldest geographical
writings of the Sanskrit people, the ancient Ethiopia, or land of
Cush of Greek and Hebrew antiquity, is clearly described. Stephanus of
Byzantium, who is said to represent the opinions of the most ancient
Greeks, says: "Et