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. sterling, or 4000
dollars, is the utmost of the annual expenditure.
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