occupations of a more regular life. But it may be doubtful, whether such a course is possible through any mere human agency; at least, it would be no light matter, thus to overturn habits and a mode of life, which have come down to them through nearly forty centuries unchanged.

SECTION IV.

FROM MOUNT SINAI TO 'AKABAH.

Thursday, March 29th, 1838. Afternoon. Afternoon. About noon our luggage and then ourselves were let down from the high window of the convent; and after a vast amount of scolding and clamour among the Arabs about the division of the loads, we mounted at 1 o'clock and bade adieu to the friendly monastery. Burckhardt has remarked, that every Arab who is present at the departure of a stranger from the convent, is entitled to a fee;' but we did not find this to be the case, although our intended departure was known throughout the mountains. A number of the Jebelîyeh indeed collected around us; but they were the old and sick and lame and blind, who came as beggars, and not to claim a right. We escaped their importunity by leaving Komeh behind us, to distribute a few Piastres among them after our departure. Just at setting off, I bought a stick of a boy for a trifle, to serve as a staff or to urge on my camel. It was a straight stick with shining bark, very hard and tough; and I learned afterwards, that our Arabs regarded it as cut from the veritable kind of tree from which the rod of Moses had been taken. It did me good service through the desert, and in all our subsequent wanderings in Judea and to Wady Mûsa; but did not stand proof at last against the head of a vicious mule on our way to Nazareth.

1) Page 491,

We reached the entrance of Wady esh-Sheikh in twenty-five minutes, and turned into it between the high cliffs of el-Furei'a on the left, and the Mountain of the Cross on the right, leaving Horeb behind us. The valley is here a quarter of a mile in width; and our course in it was E. N. E. At a quarter past two we were opposite the mouth of Wady es-Sebâ'îyeh, which here comes in as a broad valley from the S., having its head near the S. E. base of Jebel Mûsa, and thence sweeping around to the E. of the Mountain of the Cross. A little before reaching this point, a small Wady called Abu Mâdhy comes down from the mountain on the right; at the head of which is water. Wady esh-Sheikh now bends round to the N. N. E. and afterwards to the N. and spreads out into a broad plain tufted with herbs and shrubs affording good pasturage. At 2 o'clock we lost sight of Horeb. Jebel Mûsa and St. Catharine had nowhere been visible. We now had Jebel Furei'a on our left; on the top of which there is table-land with water, and pasturage for camels. After another hour we passed the mouth of the small Wady el-Mukhlefeh, which enters from the right, and came immediately (at 31 o'clock) to the tomb of Sheikh Sâlih, one of the most sacred spots for the Arabs in all the peninsula. It is merely a small rude hut of stones; in which the coffin of the Saint is surrounded by a partition of wood hung with cloth, around which are suspended handkerchiefs, camels' halters, and other offerings of the Bedawîn. The history of this Saint is uncertain; but our Arabs held him to be the progenitor of their tribe, the Sawâlihah; which is not improbable. Once a year, in the latter part of June, all the tribes of the Tawarah make a pilgrimage to this tomb, and encamp around it for three days. This is their greatest festival. We dis

1) Burckhardt, p. 489.

mounted and entered the building; at which our guides seemed rather gratified, and prided themselves on the interest we took in their traditions.

We here left Wady esh-Sheikh, which now bends more to the northward, and at an hour and a half from this place issues from the dark cliffs forming the outworks of the central granite region, at the point near which I have above supposed Rephidim to have been situated. Crossing some low hills running out from the eastern mountain, we came in half an hour on a course N. E. by N. to the well Abu Suweirah, in the lower part of the small Wady es-Suweirîyeh which comes down from the N. E. The well is small, but

never fails; and near by are two small enclosed gardens. Passing on a little further, we encamped at 4h 10′ in the narrow Wady.

The exchange we had made at the convent both as to men and camels, proved on the whole to be advantageous; except perhaps in the case of one old man, Heikal, who turned out to be the very personification of selfishness. His two camels were among the best; and he always contrived that they should have the lightest loads. Tuweileb was a man of more experience and authority than Beshârah; though less active. All were at once ready to lend a hand at pitching the tent, and making the necessary preparations for the evening repast. After dinner Tuweileb paid us a visit in our tent; and this practice he continued regularly all the time he was with us. He was always sure of a cup of coffee; and in these visits was more open and communicative than anywhere else, giving us freely all the information he possessed on the points to which we directed our inquiries.

The road we had now entered upon, is the usual one from the convent to 'Akabah, and the same followed by Burckhardt in A. D. 1816, in his unsuccess

ful attempt to reach the latter place. Times have now changed, after the lapse of more than twenty years; and we and others found no difficulty in doing what that enterprising traveller was unable to accomplish.

Friday, March 30th. The thermometer at sunrise stood at 38° F. the coldest morning I had experienced since entering Egypt in the beginning of January; and only once more, a few days later, did we have a like degree of cold. In the course of the day, however, as we passed through vallies shut in by rocks and desolate mountains, we found the heat caused by the reflection of the sun's rays to be very oppressive.

Starting at five minutes before 6 o'clock, and proceeding up the little valley N. E. by E. we came in twenty-five minutes to its head; from which we ascended for twenty minutes further by a rocky pass to the top of a ridge, which here forms the water-summit between the waters flowing into Wady esh-Sheikh and so to the Gulf of Suez, and those running to the Gulf of 'Akabah. From near the top of the pass, Jebel Kâtherîn bore S. S. W. W. We now turned E. by S. for half an hour along the top of a low ridge between two small Wadys; that on the left called 'örfan, which runs into Wady Sa'l; and that on the right el-Mukhlefeh, running to Wady ez-Zugherah. These two large Wadys, S'al and Zugherah,1 pass down at the opposite ends of the high black ridge elFera'; but run together before reaching the sea, which they enter at Dahab. At 7 10' we turned E. N. E. and crossing a tract of broken ground, descended by a branch of Wady Örfân. This latter unites with several others and takes the name of Wady Sa'l ten minutes after; although it is still not the main Wady of

1) Wady ez-Zugherah appears Wady Zackal, by which he deto be the valley called by Laborde

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scended to the eastern Gulf.