Arabs, who, seeing me in
an Arab dress, and speaking their language, yet having the same pursuits
as the Frank travellers whom they had seen here, were quite at a loss
what to make of me. The suspicion was immediately excited, that I had
ascended this mountain to practise some enchantment, and it was much
increased by my further proceedings. The Bedouins supposed that I had
come to carry off the rain, and my return to Cairo was, in consequence,
much less agreeable than my journey from thence; indeed I might have
been subjected to
EL LEDJA
[p.578] some unpleasant occurrences had not the faithful Hamd been by my
side, who in the route back was of more service to me than all the
Firmahns of the Pasha could have been.
We returned from Mount St. Catherine to the place where we had passed
the night, and breakfasted with the Djebalye, for which payment was
asked, and readily given. The conveying of pilgrims is one of the few
modes of subsistence which these poor people possess, and at a place
where strangers are continually passing, gratuitous hospitality is not
to be expected from them, though they might be ready to afford it to the
helpless traveller. The two days excursion to the holy places cost me
about forty piastres, or five dollars.
Before mid-day we had again reached the convent El Erbayn, in the garden
of which I passed a most agreeable afternoon. The verdure was so
brilliant and the blossoms of the orange trees diffused so fine a
perfume that I was transported in imagination from the barren cliffs of
the wilderness to the luxurious groves of Antioch. It is surprising that
the Europeans resident at Cairo do not prefer spending the season of the
plague in these pleasant gardens, and this delightful climate, to
remaining close prisoners in the infected city.
We returned in the evening to the convent, by following to the northward
the valley in which the Erbayn stands. This valley is very narrow, and
extremely stony, many large blocks having rolled from the mountains into
it; it is called El Ledja [Arabic], a name given to a similar rocky
district, described by me, in the Haouran. At twenty minutes walk from
the Erbayn we passed a block of granite, said to be the rock out of
which the water issued when struck by the rod of Moses. It lies quite
insulated by the side of the path, which is about ten feet higher than
the lowest bottom of the valley. The rock is about twelve feet in
height, of an irregular shape approaching to a cube. There are some
apertures upon its surface, through which the water is said to have
burst out; they are
[p.579] about twenty in number, and lie nearly in a straight line round
the three sides of the stone.
