It is somewhat singular that both the
monks and the Bedouins call it the cow’s head (Ras el Bakar), and not
the calf’s, confounding it, perhaps, with the “red heifer,” of which the
Old Testament and the Koran speak. It is a stone half-buried in the
ground, and bears some resemblance to the forehead of a cow. Some
travellers have explained this stone to be the mould in which Aaron cast
the calf, though it is not hollow but projecting; the Arabs and monks
however gravely assured me that it was the “cow’s” head itself. Beyond
this object, towards the convent, a hill is pointed out to the left,
called Djebel Haroun, because it is believed to be the spot where Aaron
assembled the seventy elders of Israel. Both this and the cow’s head
have evidently received these denominations from
CONVENT OF MOUNT SINAI
[p.584] the monks and Bedouins, in order that they may multiply the
objects of veneration and curiosity within the pilgrim’s tour round the
convent.
On my return to the convent I could not help expressing to several of
the monks my surprise at the metamorphosis of a calf into a cow, and of
an idol of gold into stone; but I found that they were too little read
in the books of Moses to understand even this simple question, and I
therefore did not press the subject.
