The Bedouins Say That It Never Dries Up,
And That Its Water, Even When Exposed To The Sun, Is As Cold As Ice.
Several Trees Grow Near It, Amongst Others The Zarour [Arabic], Now
Almost In Full Bloom.
Its fruit, of the size of a small cherry, with
much of the flavour of a strawberry, is, I believe, not a native of
Egypt, but is very common in Syria.
I bought a lamb of the Bedouins,
which we roasted among the rocks, and although there were only two women
and one girl present, and
[p.570] the steep side of the mountain hardly permitted a person to
stand up with firmness, and still less to wheel about, yet the greater
part of the night was spent in the Mesámer, or national song and dance,
to which several other neighbouring Djebalye were attracted. The air was
delightfully cool and pure. While in the lower country, and particularly
on the sea shore, I found the thermometer often at 102°—105°, and once
even at 110°; in the convent it never stood higher than 75°. The Semoum
wind never reaches these upper regions. In winter the whole of the upper
Sinai is deeply covered with snow, which chokes up many of the passes,
and often renders the mountains of Moses and St. Catherine inaccessible.
The climate is so different from that of Egypt, that fruits are nearly
two months later in ripening here than at Cairo; apricots, which begin
to be in season there in the last days of April, are not fit to eat in
Sinai till the middle of June.
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