THE SITE OF OPHIR.

New Zealand Tablet, Volume XXVIII, Issue 6, 8 February 1900, Page 10

THE SITE OF OPHIR.

That much vexed question, the site of the Biblical Ophir, has, Dr. Peters believes, been settled by him, and he gives etymological reasons for his conclusion in a letter to the Journal of the Manchester Geographical Society. A district called Injakafura, on the south of the Zambesi, and to the east of the Lnpata gorge is the scene of his explorations, and this country he identifies with the renowned Sirra dv Fura of the Portuguese writers, or the longsought ' Mount Fura ' of the present day. In his analysis of the name he states that ' Inja' is a locative prefix meaning 'place of,' that ' Fura ' means a hole or mine, and ' Kaf ura ' to dig a hole. A water hole in a river is ' Fura,' and the name is applied to rivers, in the sense of their being ' beds in which they dig for water.' He gnes on to explain that Afur or Afer in the Sabaean language means, according to the latest etymology, hole or mine. Afur in Sabaean or Semitic is identical with Ophir in Hebrew, the vowels in Semitic languages being of secondary importance, as the consonants only are written He draws attention to a quotation in Mr. Brent's book on The Ruined Cities of Mashonaland from the Portuguese writer Conto, in regard to Mount Fura, 'It is Opher. for the Kafirs call it Fur, and the Moors Afur.' On old maps, too, Dr. Peters says Mount Fura is to be seen in the position of Injakafura, and he has found confirmatory evidence in ruins of undoubtedly Semitic type in the Fura esoaipment, as well as traces of the ancient gold mines with shafts and roads in tho rocks, as described in old reoords.