Of The
Oulad Said Each Individual Receives An Annual Gift Of A Dollar, And The
Ghafeir Of This Branch Of The Szowaleha Is The Convent’S Chief Man Of
Business In The Desert.
If a Sheikh or head man calls at the convent, he
receives, in addition to his bread, some coffee beans, sugar, soap,
sometimes a handkerchief, a little medicine, &c. &c.
Under such circumstances it may easily be conceived that disputes
continually happen. If a Sheikh from the protecting tribes comes to the
convent to demand coffee, sugar, or clothing, and is not well satisfied
with what he receives, he immediately becomes the enemy of the monks,
lays waste some of their gardens, and must at last be gained over by a
present. The independent state of the Bedouins of Sinai had long
prevented the monks from endeavouring to obtain protection from the
government of Egypt, whose power in the peninsula being trifling, they
would only by complaining have exasperated the Bedouins against them;
their differences therefore had hitherto been accommodated by the
mediation of other Sheikhs. It was not till 1816 that they solicited the
protection of Mohammed Ali; this will secure them for the present
against their neighbours; but it will, probably, as I told the monks, be
detrimental to them in the end. Ten or twenty dollars were sufficient to
pacify the fiercest Bedouin, but a Turkish governor will demand a
thousand for any effectual protection.
The Arabs, when discontented, have sometimes seized a monk in the
mountains and given him a severe beating, or have thrown stones or fired
their musquets into the convent from the neighbouring heights; about
twenty years ago a monk was killed by
[p.556] them. The monks, in their turn, have fired occasionally upon the
Bedouins, for they have a well furnished armory, and two small cannon,
but they take great care never to kill any one. And though they dislike
such turbulent neighbours, and describe them to strangers as very
devils, yet they have sense enough to perceive the advantages which they
derive from the better traits in the Bedouin character, such as their
general good faith, and their placability. “If our convent,” as they
have observed to me, “had been subject to the revolutions and
oppressions of Egypt or Syria, it would long ago have been abandoned;
but Providence has preserved us by giving us Bedouins for neighbours.”
Notwithstanding the greediness of the Bedouins, I have reason to believe
that the expenses of the convent are very moderate. Each monk is
supplied annually with two coarse woollen cloaks, and no splendour is
any where displayed except in the furniture of the great church, and
that of the Archbishop’s room. The supplies are drawn from Egypt; but
the communication by caravans with Cairo is far from being regular, and
the Ikonómos assured me that at the time I was there the house did not
contain more than one month’s provision.
The yearly consumption of corn is about one hundred and sixty Erdebs, or
two thousand five hundred bushels, which is sufficient to cover all the
demands of the Bedouins, and I believe that £1000.
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