At two hours we came to a thick wood of
tamarisk or Tarfa, and found many camels feeding upon their thorny
shoots.
It is from this evergreen tamarisk, which grows abundantly in no
other part of the peninsula, that the manna is collected. We now
approached the central summits of Mount Sinai, which we had had in view
for several days. Abrupt cliffs of granite from six to eight hundred
feet in height, whose surface is blackened by the sun, surround the
avenues leading to the elevated platform, to which the name of Sinai is
specifically applied. These cliffs enclose the holy mountain on three
sides, leaving the E. and N.E. sides only, towards the gulf of Akaba,
more open to the view. On both sides of the wood of Tarfa trees extends
a range of low hills of a substance called by the Arabs Tafal [Arabic],
which I believe to be principally a detritus of the feldspar of granite,
but which, at first sight, has all the appearance of pipe-clay; it is
brittle, crumbles easily between the fingers, and leaves upon them its
colour, which is a pale yellow. The Arabs sell it at Cairo, where it is
in request for taking stains out of cloth, and where it serves the poor
instead of soap, for washing their hands; but it is chiefly used to rub
the skins of asses during summer, being supposed to refresh them, and to
defend them against the heat of the sun.
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