[p.561] line from Akaba to Suez, as far as cape Abou Mohammed, does not
exceed four thousand souls. In years of dearth, even this small number
is sometimes at a loss to find pasturage for their cattle.
The Towara are some of the poorest of the Bedouin tribes, which is to be
attributed principally to the scarcity of rain and the consequent want
of pasturage. Their herds are scanty, and they have few camels; neither
of their two Sheikhs, the richest individuals amongst them, possesses
more than eight; few tents have more than two; it often happens that two
or three persons are partners in one camel, and great numbers are
without any. There are no horses even among the Sheikhs, who constantly
ride on camels; but asses are common. Their means of subsistence are
derived from their pastures, the transport trade between Suez and Cairo,
the sale at the latter place of the charcoal which they burn in their
mountains, of the gum arabic which they collect, and of their dates and
other fruits. The produce of this trade is laid out by them at Cairo in
purchasing clothing and provisions, particularly corn, for the supply of
their families; and if any thing remains in hand, they buy with it a few
sheep and goats at Tor or at Sherm, to which latter place they are
brought by the Bedouins of the opposite coast of Arabia.
When Egypt was under the unsettled government of the Mamelouks the
Towara Bedouins, who were then independent, were very formidable, and
often at war with the Begs, as well as with the surrounding tribes. At
present they have lost much of the profits which they derived from their
traffic with Suez, and from the passage of caravans to Cairo; they are
kept in awe by Mohammed Ali, and have taken to more peaceful habits,
which, however, they are quite ready to abandon, on the first appearance
of any change in the government of Egypt. Even now, they pay no duty
whatever to
[p.562] the Pasha, who, on the contrary, makes their chief some annual
presents; but they are obliged to submit to the rate of carriage which
the Pasha chooses to fix for the transport of his goods. They live, of
course, according to their means; the small sum of fifteen or twenty
dollars pays the yearly expenses of many, perhaps of most of their
families, and the daily and almost unvarying food of the greater part of
them is bread, with a little butter or milk, for which salt alone is
substituted when the dry season is set in, and their cattle no longer
yield milk. The Mezeine appeared to me much hardier than the other
tribes, owing probably to their being exposed to greater privations in
the more barren district which they inhabit. They hold more intercourse
with the neighbouring Bedouins to the north than the other Towaras, and
in their language and manners approach more to the great eastern tribes
than to the other Bedouins of the peninsula.
All the tribes of the Towara complain of the sterility of their
wives;[They wish for children because their tribe is strengthened by it.
But Providence seems to have wisely proportioned the fertility of their
women to the barrenness of the country.] and though the Bedouin women in
general are less fruitful than the stationary Arabs, the Towara are even
below the other Bedouins in this respect, three children being a large
family among them.
To the true Bedouin tribes above enumerated are to be added the advenae
called Djebalye [Arabic], or the mountaineers. I have stated that when
Justinian built the convent, he sent a party of slaves, originally from
the shores of the Black sea, as menial servants to the priests. These
people came here with their wives, and were settled by the convent as
guardians of the orchards and date plantations throughout the peninsula.
Subsequently, when the Bedouins deprived the convent of many of its
possessions, these slaves turned
[p.563] Moslems, and adopted the habits of Bedouins. Their descendants
are the present Djebalye, who unanimously confess their descent from the
Christian slaves, whence they are often called by the other Bedouins
the children of Christians. They are not to be distinguished, however,
in features or manners, from other Bedouins, and they are now considered
a branch of the Towara, although the latter still maintain the
distinction, never giving their daughters in marriage to the Djebalye,
nor taking any of theirs; thus the Djebalye intermarry only among
themselves, and form a separate commmunity of about one hundred and
twenty armed men. They are a very robust and hardy race, and their girls
have the reputation of superior beauty over all others of the peninsula,
a circumstance which often gives rise to unhappy attachments, and
romantic love-tales, when their lovers happen to belong to other tribes.
The Djebalye still remain the servants of the convent; parties of three
attend in it by turns, and are the only Bedouins who are permitted to
enter within the walls; but they are never allowed to sleep in the
house, and pass the night in the garden. They provide fire-wood, collect
dried herbage for the mule which turns the mill, bring milk, eggs, &c.
and receive all the offals of the kitchen. Some of them encamp as
Bedouins in the mountains surrounding the peaks of Moses and St.
Catherine, but the greater part are settled in the gardens belonging to
the convent, in those mountains. They engage to deliver one-half the
fruit to the convent, but as these gardens produce the finest fruit in
the peninsula, they are so beset by Bedouin guests at the time of
gathering, that the convents share is usually consumed in hospitality.
The Djebalye have formed a strict alliance with the Korashy, that branch
of the Szowaleha which has no claims of protectorship upon the convent,
and by these means they have maintained from
[p.564] ancient times, a certain balance of power against the other
Szowaleha. They have no right to transport pilgrims to the convent, and
are, in general, considered as pseudo-Arabs, although they have become
Bedouins in every respect. They are divided into several smaller tribes,
some of whom have become settlers; thus the Tebna are settled in the
date valley of Feiran, in gardens nominally the property of the convent:
the Bezya in the convents gardens at Tor; and the Sattla in other
parts, forming a few families, whom the true Bedouins stigmatize with
the opprobrious name of Fellahs, or peasants. The monks told me that in
the last century there still remained several families of Christian
Bedouins who had not embraced Islamism; and that the last individual of
this description, an old woman, died in 1750, and was buried in the
garden of the convent. In this garden is the burial-ground of the monks,
and in several adjoining vaulted chambers their remains are collected
after the bodies have lain two years in the coffins underground. High
piles of hands, shin bones, and sculls are placed separately in the
different corners of these chambers, which the monks are with difficulty
persuaded to open to strangers. In a row of wooden chests are deposited
the bones of the Archbishops of the convent, which are regularly sent
hither, wherever the Archbishops may die. In another small chest are
shewn the sculls and some of the bones of two Indian princes, who are
said to have been shipwrecked on the coast of Tor, and having repaired
to the convent, to have lived for many years as hermits in two small
adjoining caves upon the mountain of Moses. In order to remain
inseparable in this world, they bound two of their legs together with an
iron chain, part of which, with a small piece of a coat of mail, which
they wore under their cloaks, is still preserved. No one could tell me
their names, nor the period at which they resided here. At the