munity provided us with various articles which we needed on our further journey; as bread, dried fruits, almonds, candles, and the like; but would set no price upon them. These we could estimate; but to do the proper thing' as to our lodgings and entertainment, and a fit 'remembrance' to all the inmates, from the Superior down to the servants, was a matter requiring more nicety and tact. With the aid of our Komeh, who was skilled in these matters, we made out to get through the business to the apparent satisfaction of all parties, except the good Superior. He had exerted himself perhaps unusually to pay us friendly attentions; and possibly he expected from us too much in return. His manner was still and resigned; but his countenance was fallen and beclouded. A civil speech, however, with the dextrous application of a couple of dollars in addition, wrought a sudden change; the cloud cleared away, his eyes lighted up, and his whole countenance assumed an expression of more than wonted benignity. During our journey to the convent, it had been a part of our plan, or rather our wish, to make an excursion to Jebel Serbâl, in order to examine for ourselves, whether this mountain has any claim to be regarded as the Sinai of Scripture; as Burckhardt suggests was perhaps anciently the case.' But after we reached the convent, and perceived the adaptedness of that region to the circumstances of the historical narrative, this wish became less strong; and afterwards the want of time, and the information given us by Sheikh Husein and Tuweileb respecting the district of Serbâl, led us to abandon the idea of visiting it. Tuweileb had spent several weeks around the mountain the preceding season; and both assured us, that nowhere in the vicinity of it, is there any valley or open spot like the plain er 1) Travels, etc. page 609. Râhah, or even like Wady esh-Sheikh. From the N. E. side of Serbâl the Wadys run down to Wady Feirân; but they are comparatively narrow and rocky. On its S. W. side, still narrower Wadys run out to the great plain el-Kâ'a, at the distance of an hour or more. There is water in plenty on both sides of the mountain; and a path, laid in part with steps, leads along the eastern and southern sides to the summit. The route from the convent to Serbâl goes down Wady Sheikh; or else by the Nukb Hâwy and down Wady Solâf. The distance from the convent to Feirân near the foot of Serbâl by this latter route, is nine or ten hours. The mountain itself is a long ridge with five principal peaks. Burckhardt ascended the easternmost, which with the one adjacent he supposed to be the highest. Rüppell in 1831 ascended the second from the West, by a path along the northern side of the mountain; he regards this as the highest, and took observations upon it to ascertain its elevation. From these its height was found to be 6342 Paris feet above the sea; or 976 feet higher than the convent el-Arba'în.' Hence it turns out that Serbâl is more than 1700 feet lower than St. Catharine; although as it rises alone and magnificently from the midst of far inferior ridges, its apparent elevation is not much less than that of the former mountain. On both the summits ascended by Burckhardt and Rüppell, these travellers found inscriptions in the usual unknown character; and also in the vallies leading to the mountain. In a Wady on the S. W. side of the ridge, near its eastern end, are the remains of a large and well-built convent, from which a path is said to lead up the mountain. These circumstances would seem to indicate, that Serbâl was anciently a place of 1) Rüppell's Reise in Abyssinien, I. pp. 128, 124. pilgrimage; but whether because it was perhaps regarded as the Sinai of Scripture, or more probably only in connection with this convent and the episcopal see of Faran, it is now difficult to determine.' The weather during our residence at the convent, as indeed during all our journey through the peninsula, was very fine; with the slight exception already mentioned on Jebel Mûsa. At the convent, the thermometer ranged only between 47° and 67° F. But the winter nights are said here to be cold; water freezes as late as February; and snow often falls upon the mountains. But the air is exceedingly pure, and the climate healthy; as is testified by the great age and vigour of many of the monks. And if in general few of the Arabs attain to so great an age, the cause is doubtless to be sought in the scantiness of their fare and their exposure to privations; and not in any injurious influence of the climate. In closing this Section of our Journal, I throw together here all that remains to be said upon the Sinai of the Old Testament, Sinai in the early Christian ages, the present Convent, and also upon the Arab inhabitants of the Peninsula. SINAI OF THE OLD TESTAMENT. We came to Sinai with some incredulity, wishing to investigate the point, whether there was any probable ground beyond monkish tradition, for fixing upon the present supposed site. The details of the preceding pages will have made the reader acquainted with 1) See generally, Burckhardt's Travels, etc. p. 606, seq. Rüp pell's Reise in Abyssinien, I. p. 125, seq. the grounds which led us to the conviction, that the plain er-Râhah above described is the probable spot where the congregation of Israel were assembled, and that the mountain impending over it, the present Horeb, was the scene of the awful phenomena in which the law was given. We were satisfied after much examination and inquiry, that in no other quarter of the peninsula, and certainly not around any of the higher peaks, is there a spot corresponding in any degree so fully as this to the historical account, and to the circumstances of the case. I have entered above more fully into the details, because former travellers have touched upon this point so slightly; and because, even to the present day, it is a current opinion among scholars, that no open space exists among these mountains. We too were surprised as well as gratified to find here, in the inmost recesses of these dark granite cliffs, this fine plain spread out before the mountain ; and I know not when I have felt a thrill of stronger emotion, than when in first crossing the plain, the dark precipices of Horeb rising in solemn grandeur before us, we became aware of the entire adaptedness of the scene to the purposes for which it was chosen by the great Hebrew legislator. Moses doubtless, during the forty years in which he kept the flocks of Jethro, had often wandered over these mountains, and was well acquainted with their vallies and deep recesses, like the Arabs of the present day. At any rate, he knew and had visited the spot to which he was to conduct his people, this adytum in the midst of the great circular granite region, with only a single feasible entrance; a secret holy place, shut out from the world amid lone and desolate mountains. The Israelites probably approached Sinai by the 1) Compare Winer's Bibl. Realwörterb. art. Sinai, II. p. 550. 2) Ex. iii. 1. Wady Feirân; and entered the plain through the upper part of Wady esh-Sheikh. At least there is no conceivable reason, why they should have passed to the South of Mount Serbâl, and taken the circuitous and more difficult route near Tûr, and through the Wady Hibrân, as has often been supposed. From the desert of Sin, which I have above taken to be the great plain along the shore, to Sinai, three stations are marked, Dophkah, Alush, and Rephidim,' equivalent to four days' journey for such a host; and this accords well with the distance of twenty-six to twenty-eight hours as usually travelled by camels.2 The names of Horeb and Sinai. are used interchangeably in the Pentateuch, to denote the mountain on which the law was given; and this circumstance has naturally occasioned difficulty to commentators. The most obvious and common explanation is, to regard one (Sinai) as the general name for the whole cluster, and the other (Horeb) as designating a particular mountain; much as the same names are employed by the Christians at the present day. So too the Arabs now apply the name Jebel et-Tûr to the whole central granite region; while the different mountains of which it is composed, are called Jebel Kâtherîn, Jebel Mûsa, etc. On looking at the subject during our sojourn at the convent, I was led to a similar conclusion; applying the names however differently, and regarding Horeb as the general name, and Sinai as the particular one. Two circumstances seem to favour this conclusion. One is, that before and during the march of the Israelites from Egypt to the place where the law was given, the latter is called only 1) Num. xxxiii. 12-15. 2) Burckhardt's Travels, etc. pp. 598, 602, 618, 621, 622. 3) Gesenius' Notes to Burck- 23 hardt's Travels, p. 1078. Rosenmüller Bibl. Geogr. III. p. 115. Winer's Bibl. Realwörterb. art. Horeb. |