Photographs by American Colony Photographers A SHEIK OF THE TOWARA BEDOUINS Note the snowy white turban in place of the flowing kaffiyeh and the chain attached to his pipe, which has on it a spear for cleaning the pipe bowl and a pair of tweezers, or small tongs, for lifting a live coal to his pipe. In Sinai to-day there are about 6,000 Arabs leading a precarious existence. Dr. Flinders Petrie, faced with the question of how 600,000 men ever lived in Sinu, explains that the word which has been translated ་། 17. hould Late.. CANNON IN THE MONASTERY OF ST. CATHERINE For miles around Mount Sinai, both mountaineers and Bedouin tribes. THE PILGRIM STAIRWAY UP THE HOLY MOUNTAIN There are about 3,000 stairs in the 2,500-foot climb from the Monastery of St. Catherine to the top of Jebel Musa, the Mount of Moses. The path winds in and out among the granite bowlders and, although four hours are allotted to the ascent, it can be made by the pilgrim steps in two hours of strenuous climbing (see page 735). Photograph by American Colony Photographers A TINDER-BOX LIBRARY FULL OF PRICELESS VOLUMES In 1844 Tischendorf rescued from a rubbish heap at the Monastery of AN OCCULT BLESSING WRITTEN IN GRAIN DRYING ON THE ROOF OF THE MONASTERY OF ST. CATHERINE Beyond the walls one looks up the Valley of Jethro toward the southeast. At the right is the ugly, corrugated iron roof protecting the ornate-almost garish-decorations of the Church of the Transfiguration, at the foot of Mount Sinai (see text, page 727). Photograph by American Colony Photographers HILL OF AARON: PETTY ALTAR FOR THE GOLDEN CALF On this little hill the tribal men and women, at Aaron's direction, tore off their earrings to furnish gold for an idol, about which they sang and danced in open rebellion against their absent patriarch. And when Moses came nigh "he saw the calf, and the dancing: and Moses' anger waxed hot, and he cast the tables out of his hands and brake them." And he took the calf and burnt it and ground it to powder and made the children of Israel drink of it. But 3,000 religious rebels fell before the swords of the sons of Levi. of the silent fortress and returned to the supper table and my friends. Some of the most precious religious documents now extant are housed in a tinder-box structure in the center of the monastery. Ever since Tischendorf rescued priceless pages of the Codex Sinaiticus from the kindling heap, scholars have worn a path to the old texts at Mount Sinai (see illustration, page 731). The monks make little use of this famous library. The key, which had been. sent by special messenger from Cairo so that we might inspect the books, refused to unlock the door. But a combination of others brought forth from obscure closets, and the removal of some sand from the tube of the one from Cairo finally solved the difficulty. Earlier visitors have described the monks of Sinai as dirty and drunken. Quite aside from their cordial hospitality, we found none who were not neat and not even by a casual breath did any monk betray a predilection for alcohol. But those unaccustomed locks on the library door and the fact that not one of the three catalogues of the Greek, Syriac and Arabic treasures has been compiled by monks, speak more loudly than words can of the decline of monastic alertness and scholarship since the Dark Ages. tears formed in the eyes of the Prior when I told of seeing the departed Codex in Leningrad. The prize of the collection is the Codex Syrsin, once cast aside for the vellum on which it was written, but now the oldest manuscript of the Bible in Syriac. The old text, in faded orange, was covered with the black lettering of a later manuscript, but patient skill has saved from its long effacement this secondcentury translation of the Book around which so much controversy and interest are centered. We went up Jebel Musa by a road built by Abbas Pasha, who planned to have a THE AWE-INSPIRING MASS OF THE MOUNT OF THE TEN COMMANDMENTS (SEE PAGE 723) In the distance, at the left, is the Monastery of St. Catherine, 5,000 feet above sea level. Jebel Musa's elevation is 7.519 feet. This view is from the traditional site of the Plain of the Tribes, "and there Israel camped before the mount" (Exodus XIX, 2). |