A Botanist Would Find A Rich Harvest Here, And It
Is Much To Be Regretted That Two Mountains So Easy Of Access,
[P.571] and so rich in vegetation, as Sinai and Libanus, should be still
unexplored by men of science.
The pretty red flower of the Noman plant
[Arabic], Euphorbia retusa of Forskal, abounds in al[l] the valleys of
Sinai, and is seen also amongst the most barren granite rocks of the
mountains.
As we approached the summit of the mountain we saw at a distance a small
flock of mountain goats feeding among the rocks. One of our Arabs left
us, and by a widely circuitous road endeavoured to get to leeward of
them, and near enough to fire at them; he enjoined us to remain in sight
of them, and to sit down in order not to alarm them. He had nearly
reached a favourable spot behind a rock, when the goats suddenly took to
flight. They could not have seen the Arab, but the wind changed, and
thus they smelt him. The chase of the Beden, as the wild goat is called,
resembles that of the chamois of the Alps, and requires as much
enterprise and patience. The Arabs make long circuits to surprise them,
and endeavour to come upon them early in the morning when they feed. The
goats have a leader, who keeps watch, and on any suspicious smell,
sound, or object, makes a noise which is a signal to the flock to make
their escape. They have much decreased of late, if we may believe the
Arabs, who say that, fifty years ago, if a stranger came to a tent and
the owner of it had no sheep to kill, he took his gun and went in search
of a Beden. They are however even now more common than in the Alps, or
in the mountains to the east of the Red sea. I had three or four of them
brought to me at the convent, which I bought at threefourths of a dollar
each. The flesh is excellent, and has nearly the same flavour as that of
the deer. The Bedouins make waterbags of their skins, and rings of their
horns, which they wear on their thumbs. When the Beden is met with in
the plains the
[p.572] dogs of the hunters easily catch him; but they cannot come up
with him among the rocks, where he can make leaps of twenty feet.
The stout Bedouin youths are all hunters, and excellent marksmen; they
hold it a great honour to bring game to their tents, in proof of their
being hardy mountain runners, and good shots; and the epithet Bowardy
yknos es-szeyd [Arabic], “a marksman who hunts the game,” is one of the
most flattering that can be bestowed upon them. It appears, from an
ancient picture preserved in the convent, which represents the arrival
of an archbishop from Egypt, as well as from one of the written
documents in the archives, that in the sixteenth century all the Arabs
were armed with bows and arrows as well as with matchlocks; at present
the former are no longer known, but almost every tent has its matchlock,
which the men use with great address, notwithstanding its bad condition.
I believe bows are no longer used as regular weapons by the Bedouins in
any part of Arabia.
After a very slow ascent of two hours we reached the top of Mount St.
Catherine, which, like the mountain of Moses, terminates in a sharp
point; its highest part consists of a single immense block of granite,
whose surface is so smooth, that it is very difficult to ascend it.
Luxuriant vegetation reaches up to this rock, and the side of the
mountain presented a verdure which, had it been of turf instead of
shrubs and herbs, would have completed the resemblance between this
mountain and some of the Alpine summits. There is nothing on the summit
of the rock to attract attention, except a small church or chapel,
hardly high enough within to allow a person to stand upright, and badly
built of loose uncemented stones; the floor is the bare rock, in which,
solid as it is, the body of St. Catherine is believed to have been
miraculously buried by angels, after her martyrdom at Alexandria. I saw
inscribed here
[p.573] the names of several European travellers, and among others that
of the unfortunate M. Boutin, a French officer of engineers, who passed
here in 1811.[M. Boutin came to Egypt from Zante; he first made a
journey to the cataracts of Assouan, and then went to Bosseir, where he
hired a ship for Mokha, but on reaching Yembo, Tousoun Pasha, the son of
Mohammed Ali, would not permit him to proceed, he therefore returned to
Suez, after visiting the convent of Sinai, and its neighbouring
mountains. After his return to Cairo, he went to Siwah, to examine the
remains of the temple of Jupiter Ammon, carrying with him a small boat
built at Cairo, for the purpose of exploring the lake and the island in
it, mentioned by Browne. He experienced great vexations from the
inhabitants of Siwah; and the boat was of no use to him, owing to the
shallowness of the lake, so that after a residence of three days at the
Oasis, where he seems to have made no discoveries, he returned to Cairo
in the company of some Augila merchants. On his way he passed the wood
of petrified date trees discovered by Horneman; his route, I believe,
was to the south of that of Horneman, and nearer the lesser Oasis. I had
the pleasure of seeing him upon his return from Siwah, when I first
arrived at Cairo. He remained two years in Egypt, and then continued his
travels towards Syria, where he met with his death in 1816, in the
mountainous district of the Nosayris, west of Hamah, having imprudently
exposed himself with a great deal of baggage, in company only of his
interpreter and servant, and without any native guide, to the robbers of
that infamous tribe.
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