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six months; during which time the Arabs would have the right to come at will and eat and drink; and many thousand dollars would not cover the expense.

The archbishop is elected by a council of the monks, which manages in common the affairs of this convent and the branch at Cairo. This prelate is always selected from the priests of the monastery; and having then been consecrated as bishop by the Patriarch of Jerusalem, (in consequence of the ancient connection,) he becomes one of the four independent archbishops of the Greek church; the others being at Cyprus, Moscow, and Ochrida in Roumely. Were he present, he would have but a single voice in the management of the affairs of the convent, as a member of the council. While residing at a distance, he has no authority or connection with it, except to receive money and presents from its revenues.-The prior or superior, both here and at Cairo, is elected in like manner by the council. The present Superior at Sinai, Father Neophytus, was originally from Cyprus, and had been here eighteen years.

The monks of Sinai lead a very simple and also a quiet life, since they have come to be on good terms with their Arab neighbours. Five centuries ago Rudolf de Suchem describes their life in terms which are equally applicable to them at the present day. "They follow very strict rules; live chaste and modestly; are obedient to their archbishop and prelates; drink not wine but on high festivals; eat never flesh ; but live on herbs, pease, beans, and lentiles, which they prepare with water, salt, and vinegar; eat together in a refectory without a table-cloth; perform their offices in the church with great devotion day and night; and are very diligent in all things; so that they fall little short of the rules of St. Antony." To this day 1) Reissbuch, Ed. 2, p. 839. 25

VOL. I.

the same rules continue; they eat no flesh and drink no wine; but their rules were made before the invention of distilled liquors, and therefore do not exclude date-brandy. Yet they all seem healthy and vigorous; and those who remain here, retain their faculties to a great age. The lay brother who waited on us, had seen more than eighty years; one of the priests was said to be over ninety; and one had died the year before at the age of one hundred and six. A great portion of their time is nominally occupied in religious exercises. They have (or should have) regularly the ordinary prayers of the Greek ritual seven times in every twenty-four hours. Every morning there is a mass about 7 o'clock; and on Saturdays two, one at 3 A. M. and the other at the usual hour. During Lent the exercises on certain days are much increased; on the Wednesday which we spent there, the monks were at prayers all the morning until 12 o'clock; and again during the night from 10 till 4 o'clock.

The pilgrims have of late years greatly fallen off; so that not more than from twenty to sixty now visit the convent annually. These, according to the Superior, are chiefly Greeks, Russians and English; a few Armenians and Copts; and only now and then a Mussulman. The good father probably regards all visitors as pilgrims. Yet so late as the last century, regular caravans of pilgrims are said to have come hither from Cairo and from Jerusalem; and a document preserved in the convent, mentions the arrival in one day of eight hundred Armenians from Jerusalem, and at another time, of five hundred Copts from Cairo.'

Besides the branch at Cairo, the convent has many Metochia or farms, in Cyprus, Crete, and elsewhere. The Greek parish in Tûr is also a dependency; but

1) Burckhardt, p. 552.

not that of Suez. The convent has one priest in Bengal, and two in Golconda, in India. The gardens and olive-groves in the vicinity all belong to it; as also extensive groves of palm-trees near Tûr; but its chief revenues are derived from the distant Metochia. The gardens and orchards in the peninsula are not now robbed by the Arabs; but owing to the great drought of the two preceding years, they were less productive. In a few weeks the convent would have consumed all the productions of its own gardens, and expected to become dependent on Egypt for every thing. Their grains and legumes they always get from Egypt. Of these they were now consuming at the rate of about one thousand Ardebs1 a year, or nearly double the common rate, in consequence of the drought and scarcity, which rendered the Arabs much more dependent than usual upon the convent for bread. The dategardens near Tûr commonly bring them in about three hundred Ardebs of fruit; and if properly managed, might yield five hundred.

The inmates of the convent have now for many years lived for the most part in peace and amity with the Bedawîn around them. Occasional interruptions of the harmony indeed occur;2 but of late, and especially since the time of scarcity and famine, the consideration and influence of the monks among the Arabs would seem to be greatly on the increase. This is further enhanced by the awe in which the latter stand of the Pasha of Egypt; and the certainty, that any

1) The Ardeb is equivalent very nearly to five bushels English. Lane's Mod. Egypt. II. p. 371.

2) So late as A. D. 1828, during Laborde's visit, a pilgrim was wounded in the thigh by a ball aimed at a monk by a Bedawy from the rocks above the convent.

Voyage, etc. p. 67. Engl. p. 243. A monk who accompanied the Prefect of the Franciscans to the top of Sinai in 1722, was seized and beaten by the Arabs. The older travellers are full of similar accounts, and speak of the Arabs only as monsters.

injustice practised by them against the convent, would in the end recoil upon their own heads.

Among the tribes or clans of the Tawarah, three are by long custom and perhaps compact, Ghafirs or protectors of the convent; and hold themselves responsible for its safety and that of every thing which belongs to it. These are the Dhuheiry, 'Awârimeh, and 'Aleikât. In return, the individuals of these clans are entitled to a portion of bread whenever they visit the convent. They formerly received also a cooked dish on such occasions; besides five and a half dollars each in money annually, and a dress for each male; but all these are no longer given. When in Cairo, they are likewise entitled to receive from the branch convent there, two small loaves every morning and a cooked dish every day at noon; and formerly they had in addition four loaves every evening, which however had been stopped the present year. Besides all this, they have the exclusive privilege of conveying travellers and pilgrims to and from the convent.

It may well be supposed that to satisfy all these claims in addition to the partial support of their own serfs, must draw largely upon the temporal resources of the convent. Yet the monks find it advisable to stop these many Arab mouths with bread, rather than expose themselves to their noisy clamour, and perhaps to the danger of sudden reprisals. The bakehouse of the convent is of course upon a large scale. At the time of our visit, they complained of not being able to obtain camels to bring their supplies of grain from Tûr; and from this cause, perhaps, the best bread we saw was coarse and mingled with barley. That distributed to the Arabs is always of a very inferior quality. Their date-brandy was said to be no longer distilled in the convent, as was formerly the

case.

ARABS OF THE PENINSULA.

The following account of the Bedawîn who inhabit the peninsula of Sinai, was derived chiefly from themselves; and if it be less complete than that of Burckhardt, it may yet serve to fill out the notices given by that traveller.1

The tribes reckoned to the proper Tawarah, the Bedawîn of Jebel Tûr or Sinai, are the following:

I. The Sawâlihah, the largest and most important of all the divisions of these Arabs, and comprising several branches which themselves constitute tribes; viz. 1. The Dhuheiry; of whom again a subdivision or clan are the Aulâd Sa'id or Sa'îdîyeh, to whom our guides belonged. The Aulâd Sa'îd occupy the best vallies among the mountains, are respected, and seem to have most connection with the convent. Their present Sheikh Husein has been mentioned above. 2. The 'Awârimeh. 3. The Kurrâshy, whose head Sheikh Sâlih has long been the principal Sheikh of the Tawarah in all foreign relations, being the person to whom the Pasha addresses his orders relative to the peninsula.-The Sawâlihah for the most part occupy the country W. and N. W. of the convent. The The pasturing places of the tribe are in general common to all its branches; but the vallies where date-trees grow and tillage exists, are said to be the property of individuals. They consider themselves as the oldest and chief inhabitants of the peninsula. All the branches regard each other as cousins, and intermarry. Their tradition is, that their fathers came hither from the borders of Egypt about the time of the Muhammedan conquest. The Kurrâshy, however, are said to be descendants of a few families, who early came among

1) Travels, etc. p. 557, seq.

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