[p.578] some unpleasant occurrences had not the faithful Hamd been by my
side, who in the route back was of more service to me than all the
Firmahns of the Pasha could have been.
We returned from Mount St. Catherine to the place where we had passed
the night, and breakfasted with the Djebalye, for which payment was
asked, and readily given. The conveying of pilgrims is one of the few
modes of subsistence which these poor people possess, and at a place
where strangers are continually passing, gratuitous hospitality is not
to be expected from them, though they might be ready to afford it to the
helpless traveller. The two days excursion to the holy places cost me
about forty piastres, or five dollars.
Before mid-day we had again reached the convent El Erbayn, in the garden
of which I passed a most agreeable afternoon. The verdure was so
brilliant and the blossoms of the orange trees diffused so fine a
perfume that I was transported in imagination from the barren cliffs of
the wilderness to the luxurious groves of Antioch. It is surprising that
the Europeans resident at Cairo do not prefer spending the season of the
plague in these pleasant gardens, and this delightful climate, to
remaining close prisoners in the infected city.
We returned in the evening to the convent, by following to the northward
the valley in which the Erbayn stands. This valley is very narrow, and
extremely stony, many large blocks having rolled from the mountains into
it; it is called El Ledja [Arabic], a name given to a similar rocky
district, described by me, in the Haouran. At twenty minutes walk from
the Erbayn we passed a block of granite, said to be the rock out of
which the water issued when struck by the rod of Moses. It lies quite
insulated by the side of the path, which is about ten feet higher than
the lowest bottom of the valley. The rock is about twelve feet in
height, of an irregular shape approaching to a cube. There are some
apertures upon its surface, through which the water is said to have
burst out; they are
[p.579] about twenty in number, and lie nearly in a straight line round
the three sides of the stone. They are for the most part ten or twelve
inches long, two or three inches broad, and from one to two inches deep,
but a few of them are as deep as four inches. Every observer must be
convinced, on the slightest examination, that most of these fissures are
the work of art, but three or four perhaps are natural, and these may
have first drawn the attention of the monks to the stone, and have
induced them to call it the rock of the miraculous supply of water.
Besides the marks of art evident in the holes themselves, the spaces
between them have been chiselled, so as to make it appear as if the
stone had been worn in those parts by the action of the water; though it
cannot be doubted, that if water had flowed from the fissures it must
generally have taken quite a different direction. One traveller saw on
this stone twelve openings, answering to the number of the tribes of
Israel; [Breydenbach.] another [Sicard, Mémoires des Missions.]
describes the holes as a foot deep. They were probably told so by the
monks, and believed what they heard rather than what they saw.
About one hundred and fifty paces farther on in the valley lies another
piece of rock, upon which it seems that the work of deception was first
begun, there being four or five apertures cut in it, similar to those on
the other block, but in a less finished state; as it is somewhat smaller
than the former, and lies in a less conspicuous part of the valley,
removed from the public path, the monks probably thought proper in
process of time to assign the miracle to the other. As the rock of Moses
has been described by travellers of the fifteenth century, the deception
must have originated among the monks of an earlier period. As to the
present inhabitants of the convent and of the peninsula, they must be
acquitted of any fraud respecting it, for they conscientiously believe
that it is the very rock from whence the water gushed forth. In this
part of
[p.580] the peninsula the Israelites could not have suffered from
thirst: the upper Sinai is full of wells and springs, the greater part
of which are perennial; and on whichever side the pretended rock of
Moses is approached, copious sources are found within a quarter of an
hour of it. The rock is greatly venerated by the Bedouins, who put grass
into the fissures, as offerings to the memory of Moses, in the same
manner as they place grass upon the tombs of their saints, because grass
is to them the most precious gift of nature, and that upon which their
existence chiefly depends. They also bring hither their female camels,
for they believe that by making the animal couch down before the rock,
while they recite some prayers, and by putting fresh grass into the
fissures of the stone, the camels will become fertile, and yield an
abundance of milk. The superstition is encouraged by the monks, who
rejoice to see the infidel Bedouins venerating the same object with
themselves.
Those who should attempt to weaken the faith of the monks and their
visitors respecting this rock, would be now almost as blameable as the
original authors of the imposture; for, such is the ignorance of the
oriental Christians, and the impossibility of their obtaining any
salutary instruction under the Turkish government, that were their faith
in such miracles completely shaken, their religion would soon be
entirely overthrown, and they would be left to wander in all the
darkness of Atheism. It is curious to observe the blindness with which
Christians as well as Turks believe in the pretended miracles of those
who are interested in deceiving them. There is hardly a town in Syria or
Egypt, where the Moslems have not a living saint, who works wonders,
which the whole population is ready to attest as eye-witnesses. When I
was at Damascus in 1812, some Christians returned thither from
Jerusalem, where they had been to celebrate Easter. Some striking
miracles said to have been performed by the Pope during his imprisonment
at Savona, and which had been industriously propagated by the
[p.581] Latin priests in Syria, seem to have suggested to them the
design of imitating his Holiness: the returning pilgrims unanimously
declared, that when the Spanish priest of the convent of the Holy
Sepulchre read the mass on Easter Sunday or Monday, upon the Mount of
Olives, the whole assembled congregation saw him rise, while behind the
altar, two or three feet in the air, and support himself in that
position for several minutes, in giving the people his blessing. If any
Christian of Damascus had expressed his doubts of the truth of this
story, the monks of the convent there would have branded him with the
epithet of Framasoun (Freemason), which among the Syrian Christians is
synonymous with Atheist, and he would for ever have lost his character
among his brethren.
A little farther down than the rock above described is shewn the seat of
Moses, where it is said that he often sat; it is a small and apparently
natural excavation in a granite rock, resembling a chair. Near this is
the petrified pot or kettle of Moses [Arabic], a name given to a
circular projecting knob in a rock, similar in size and shape to the lid
of a kettle. The Arabs have in vain endeavoured to break this rock,
which they suppose to contain great treasures.
As we proceeded from the rock of the miraculous supply of water along
the valley El Ledja, I saw upon several blocks of granite, whose smooth
sides were turned towards the path, inscriptions similar to those at
Naszeb; the following were the most legible: