To pacify them, expecting, no
doubt, to obtain much more from myself; but they now returned, and
obliged him to give them what he had offered them, pretending that it
was for his sake only that they had spared my life; nor would the monks
believe me when I assured them that I had been in no danger on this
occasion.
I passed the following four days in the convent, and in several gardens
and settlements of Djebalye at a little distance from it. I took this
opportunity to look over some of the records of the convent which are
written in Arabic, and I extracted several interesting documents
relative to the state of the Bedouins in former times, and their affrays
with the monks. In one, of the last century, is a
CONVENT OF MOUNT SINAI
[p.594] list of the Ghafeyrs of the convent, not belonging to the
Towara. These are,
El Rebabein [Arabic], a small tribe belonging to the great Djeheyne
tribe of the Hedjaz; a few families of the Rebabein have settled at
Moeleh on the Arabian coast, and in the small villages in the vicinity
of Tor. They serve as pilots in that part of the Red sea, and protect
the convent’s property about Tor.
