[p.487] hospitality without expecting a reward; the feelings of
Bedouins, however, are very different from those of townsmen, and a
Bedouin will praise the guest who departs from him without making any
other remuneration than that of bestowing a blessing upon them and their
encampment, much more than him who thinks to redeem all obligations by
payment.
We returned from Wady Osh towards Wady Berah; but leaving the latter,
which here takes a direction towards Wady Feiran, we ascended by a
narrow valley called Wady Akhdhar [Arabic]. Here I again saw some
inscriptions on blocks of stone lying by the road side. A few hours to
the N.E. of Wady Osh is a mountain called Sheyger, where native cinnabar
is collected; it is called Rasokht [Arabic] by the Arabs, and is usually
found in small pieces about the size of a pigeons egg. It is very
seldom crystallized; but there are sometimes nodules on the surface; it
stains the fingers of a dark colour, and its fracture is in
perpendicular fibres. I did not hear that the Arabs traded at all in
this metal. In Wady Osh are rocks of gneiss mixed with granite. Gneiss
is found in many parts of the peninsula.
After one hour we came to a steep ascent, and descent, called El Szaleib
[Arabic], which occupied two hours. We then continued our descent into
the great valley called Wady el Sheikh [Arabic], one of the principal
valleys of the peninsula. The rocks of Szaleib consist throughout of
granite, on the upper strata of which run layers of red feldspath, some
of which has fallen down and covers the valley in broken fragments. The
Wady el Sheikh is broad, and has a very slight acclivity; it is much
frequented by Bedouins for its pasturage. Whenever rain falls in the
mountains, a stream of water flows through this Wady, and from thence
through Wady Feiran, into the sea. We rode in a S.E. direction along the
Wady el Sheikh for two hours, and then halted in it for the
[p.488] night, after an afternoons march of four hours. Several Arabs
of the encampment where we slept the preceding night had joined our
party, to go to the convent, for no other reason, I believe, than to get
a good dinner and supper on the road. This evening eight persons kneeled
down round a dish of rice, cooked with milk which I had brought from
Wady Osh, and the coffee-pot being kept on the fire, we sat in
conversation till near midnight.
May 1st.We continued in a S.E. direction, ascending slightly: the
valley then becomes narrower. At two hours we came to a thick wood of
tamarisk or Tarfa, and found many camels feeding upon their thorny
shoots. It is from this evergreen tamarisk, which grows abundantly in no
other part of the peninsula, that the manna is collected. We now
approached the central summits of Mount Sinai, which we had had in view
for several days. Abrupt cliffs of granite from six to eight hundred
feet in height, whose surface is blackened by the sun, surround the
avenues leading to the elevated platform, to which the name of Sinai is
specifically applied. These cliffs enclose the holy mountain on three
sides, leaving the E. and N.E. sides only, towards the gulf of Akaba,
more open to the view. On both sides of the wood of Tarfa trees extends
a range of low hills of a substance called by the Arabs Tafal [Arabic],
which I believe to be principally a detritus of the feldspar of granite,
but which, at first sight, has all the appearance of pipe-clay; it is
brittle, crumbles easily between the fingers, and leaves upon them its
colour, which is a pale yellow. The Arabs sell it at Cairo, where it is
in request for taking stains out of cloth, and where it serves the poor
instead of soap, for washing their hands; but it is chiefly used to rub
the skins of asses during summer, being supposed to refresh them, and to
defend them against the heat of the sun.