For Arab Christians, Therefore, The
Roman Translation Will Not Easily Be Superseded, And If Mussulmans Are
To Be Tempted To
Study the Scriptures, they must be clothed in more
agreeable language, than that which has lately been presented to them,
For they are the last people upon whom precepts conveyed in rude
language will have any effect.
In the present state of western Asia, however, the conversion of
Mohammedans is very difficult; I have heard only of one instance during
the last century, and the convert was immediately shipped off to Europe.
On the other hand, should an European power ever obtain a firm footing
in Egypt, it is probable that many years would not elapse before
thousands of Moslems would profess Christianity; not from the dictates
of their conscience or judgment, but from views of worldly interest.
I was cordially greeted on my return to the convent, by the monks and
the fatherly Ikonómos, one of the best-natured churchmen I have met with
in the East. The safe return of pilgrims from the holy mountains is
always a subject of gratulation, so great is their dread of the Arabs. I
rested the following day in the convent, where several Greeks from Tor
and Suez had arrived; being friends of the monks, they were invited in
the evening to the private apartments of the latter, where they were
plied so bountifully with brandy that they all retired tipsy to bed.
Several Bedouins had acquainted me that a thundering noise,
WADY OWASZ
[p.587] like repeated discharges of heavy artillery, is heard at times
in these mountains; and they all affirmed that it came from Om Shomar.
The monks corroborated the story, and even positively asserted that they
had heard the sound about mid-day, five years ago, describing it in the
same manner as the Bedouins. The same noise had been heard in more
remote times, and the Ikonómos, who has lived here forty years, told me
that he remembered to have heard the noise at four or five separate
periods. I enquired whether any shock of an earthquake had ever been
felt on such occasions, but was answered in the negative. Wishing to
ascertain the truth, I prepared to visit the mountain of Om Shomar.
As I had lost much of the confidence of the Bedouins by writing upon the
mountains, and could not intimidate them by shewing a passport from the
Pasha, I kept my intended journey secret, and concerting matters with
Hamd and two Djebalye, I was let down from the window of the convent a
little before midnight on the 23rd of May, and found my guides well
armed and in readiness below. We proceeded by Wady Sebaye, the same road
I had come from Sherm. In this Wady, tradition says, the Israelites
gained the victory over the Amalekites, which was obtained by the
holding up of the hands of Moses (Ex. xvii. 12.), but this battle was
fought in Raphidim, where the water gushed out from the rock, a
situation which appears to have been to the westward of the convent, on
the approach from the gulf of Suez.
I was much disappointed at being able to trace so very few of the
ancient Hebrew names of the Old Testament in the modern names of the
peninsula; but it is evident that, with the exception of Sinai and a few
others, they are all of Arabic derivation.
On a descent from the summit of Wady Sebaye, at an hour and a half from
the convent, we turned to the right from the road to Sherm, and entered
Wady Owasz [Arabic], in a direction
WADY RAHABA
[p.588] S. b. W. I found here a small chain of white and red sand-stone
hills in the midst of granite. The morning was so very cold that we were
obliged to stop and light a fire, round which we sat till sunrise; my
feet and hands were absolutely benumbed, for neither gloves or stockings
are in fashion among Bedouins. We continued in the valley, crossing
several hills, till at four hours and a half we reached Wady Rahaba
[Arabic], in the lower parts of which we had passed a very rainy night
on the 17th. Rahaba is one of the principal valleys on this side of the
peninsula; it is broad, and affords good pasturage. We halted under a
granite rock in the middle of it, close by about a dozen small
buildings, which are called by the Bedouins Makhsen (magazines), and
which serve them as a place of deposit for their provision, clothes,
money, &c. As Bedouins are continually moving about, they find it
inconvenient to carry with them what they do not constantly want; they
therefore leave whatever they have not immediate need of in these
magazines, to which they repair as occasion requires. Almost every
Bedouin in easy circumstances has one of them; I have met with them in
several parts of the mountains, always in clusters of ten or twenty
together. They are at most ten feet high, generally about ten or twelve
feet square, constructed with loose stones, covered with the trunks of
date trees, and closed with a wooden door and lock. These buildings are
altogether so slight, and the doors so insecure, that a stone would be
sufficient to break them open; no watchmen are left to guard them, and
they are in such solitary spots that they might easily be plundered in
the night, without the thief being ever discovered. But such is the good
faith of the Towara towards each other, that robberies of this kind are
almost unheard of; and their Sheikh Szaleh, whose magazine is well known
to contain fine dresses, shawls, and dollars, considers his property as
safe there as it would be in the best
OM SHOMAR
[p.589] secured building in a large town. The Towara are well entitled
to pride themselves on this trait in their character; for I found
nothing similar to it among other Bedouins.
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