Hence It
Happens That No Archbishop Has Been Here Since The Year 1760, When The
Reys Kyrillos Resided, And I Believe Died, In The Convent.
I was
informed that the gate has remained walled up since the year 1709, but
that if an Archbishop were to come, it must be again opened to admit
him, and that all the Bedouin Sheiks then have a right to enter within
the walls.
Besides the convent at Cairo, which contains a prior and about fifty
monks, Mount Sinai has establishments and landed property in many other
parts of the east, especially in the Archipelago, and at Candia: it has
also a small church at Calcutta, and another at Surat.
The discipline of these monks, with regard to food and prayer, is very
severe. They are obliged to attend mass twice in the day and twice in
the night. The rule is that they shall taste no flesh whatever all the
year round; and in their great fast they not only abstain from butter,
and every kind of animal food and fish, but also from oil, and live four
days in the week on bread and boiled vegetables, of which one small dish
is all their dinner. They obtain their vegetables from a pleasant garden
adjoining the building, into which there is a subterraneous passage; the
soil is stony, but in this climate, wherever water is in plenty, the
very rocks will produce vegetation. The fruit is of the finest quality;
oranges, lemons, almonds, mulberries, apricots, peaches, pears, apples,
olives, Nebek trees, and a few cypresses overshade the beds in which
melons, beans, lettuces, onions, cucumbers, and all sorts of
[p.550] culinary and sweet-scented herbs are sown.
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