They Told
Me Farther That About Four Months Before Our Arrival This Most Blessed
And Holy Body Was Carried From
The mountain with great pomp, on a
triumphal chariot all gilt, to the city of Cairo, where the Christians
of
That city, which are the bulk of the inhabitants, came out to receive
it in solemn procession, and set it with great honour in a monastery.
The cause of this strange removal was the many insults which the
monastery on Mount Sinai suffered from the Arabs, from whom the friars
and pilgrims had often to redeem themselves with money; of which the
Christians of Cairo complained to the Turkish governor, and received
permission to bring the blessed and holy body to their city, which was
done accordingly, in spite of a strenuous opposition from the friars of
Mount Sinai. I am somewhat doubtful of the truth of this
transportation, suspecting that the friars may have trumped up this
story lest we might have taken the holy body from them, as they expected
us with an army of 10,000 men. Yet they affirmed it for truth,
expressing great sorrow for the removal. These friars told me likewise
that several hermits lead a solitary and holy life in these mountains
over against the town; and that all through the Stony Arabia, there are
many towns of Christians. I asked if they knew where the Jews had passed
the Red Sea; but they knew of no certain place, only that it must have
been somewhere between Toro and Suez.
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