Now almost as blameable as the
original authors of the imposture; for, such is the ignorance of the
oriental Christians, and the impossibility of their obtaining any
salutary instruction under the Turkish government, that were their faith
in such miracles completely shaken, their religion would soon be
entirely overthrown, and they would be left to wander in all the
darkness of Atheism. It is curious to observe the blindness with which
Christians as well as Turks believe in the pretended miracles of those
who are interested in deceiving them. There is hardly a town in Syria or
Egypt, where the Moslems have not a living saint, who works wonders,
which the whole population is ready to attest as eye-witnesses. When I
was at Damascus in 1812, some Christians returned thither from
Jerusalem, where they had been to celebrate Easter. Some striking
miracles said to have been performed by the Pope during his imprisonment
at Savona, and which had been industriously propagated by the
[p.581] Latin priests in Syria, seem to have suggested to them the
design of imitating his Holiness: the returning pilgrims unanimously
declared, that when the Spanish priest of the convent of the Holy
Sepulchre read the mass on Easter Sunday or Monday, upon the Mount of
Olives, the whole assembled congregation saw him rise, while behind the
altar, two or three feet in the air, and support himself in that
position for several minutes, in giving the people his blessing. If any
Christian of Damascus had expressed his doubts of the truth of this
story, the monks of the convent there would have branded him with the
epithet of Framasoun (Freemason), which among the Syrian Christians is
synonymous with Atheist, and he would for ever have lost his character
among his brethren.
A little farther down than the rock above described is shewn the seat of
Moses, where it is said that he often sat; it is a small and apparently
natural excavation in a granite rock, resembling a chair. Near this is
the “petrified pot or kettle of Moses” [Arabic], a name given to a
circular projecting knob in a rock, similar in size and shape to the lid
of a kettle. The Arabs have in vain endeavoured to break this rock,
which they suppose to contain great treasures.
As we proceeded from the rock of the miraculous supply of water along
the valley El Ledja, I saw upon several blocks of granite, whose smooth
sides were turned towards the path, inscriptions similar to those at
Naszeb; the following were the most legible:
1. Upon a small block: [not included]
2. [not included]
[p.582]
3. [not included] There are many effaced lines on this block.
4. Upon a rock near the stone of Moses:
