for three of us, eighteen camels were procured, to convey us, provisions and tents, through the desert. to every camel was a master, who loads and unloads food and water.
the remainder of my travels will only be described as objects are found: no comments on their past or future.
having at ten o’clock, the first time in my life, mounted a camel, i found it hard work to hold to the old riggings on his back. we went out on the commons to the east of cairo, and turned the head of the camels towards suez, on the desert, and awaited their own movements. the youngest went out in all directions, as far as a quarter of a mile off; they would follow one another a few minutes, until they would lose confidence in the ability of the leader to perform his duty, and take the direction of another. after half an hour spent in this way, some of the young leaders would wait and look at the old camels and dromedaries until they would come along side, and wait quietly until the older would take the lead, and in five minutes the whole caravan from all directions would pull for his course, like the different branches of a flock of wild geese that had been disturbed by some unnatural disturbance; in twenty minutes all would be in a straight line for palestine. at five o’clock in the evening we camped for the night, and while supping before our tent doors, the english mail caravan came along from suez with the india mail, some 400 camels; they had left the red sea the day before, and were getting along very well. the english are great people to meet in a strange place, as they take pleasure in imparting all the news likely to add to ones comfort. they asked us about her majesty’s government, and also about french feelings. we offered them something to drink, which they refused, and bade us good day and went a couple of hundred yards farther and camped. next morning they were off before we waked up. the next day we arrived at the red sea, crossed over, and wended our way to mount sinai. we found, at the base of mount sinai, two bedouins, like lost men from their tribe, looking about as if they were hunting something in their lonesome vallies. they rode arab steeds instead of camels, as we did in the desert. i had always believed that the desert was an arid sandy plain, but i found it more hill than plain. occasionally we would see a couple of gazelles on the mountain crag, but always ready to run.
we stayed at the convent of st. catherine some days with the old monks, and bought some treasures of them in the way of manna, put up here for pilgrims in a little tin box, like mustard boxes, and also some canes of different kinds of shrubs growing round about here. it takes about an hour to wake the monks up from their studies, breakfast or sleep. they lowered a sort of a hamper basket for us to seat ourselves in, one at a time, and they pulled us up. next morning we prepared our luncheon for an ascent; about twelve o’clock we reached the top where moses held the stones. the guide showed us many little altars and curious places, said to be sacred places, to different ages of which he named. i could plainly see that his information was merely traditionary, without the least shadow of history for support. as we ascended, he showed a hole in the ground where the sons of levi buried their dead. i asked him how he knew this was the history of this hole, and he said that a powerful sheik told him this. he meant the chief of a tribe of bedouins. they are called sheiks. the sheik who gave this important information was a very powerful sheik, and consequently, his opinion carried great weight, though he could not read. he often settles questions more important than this to the arabs. the next day, while branching out from sinai and the red sea, we encountered a desperate tribe of bedouins, who demanded of us a bonus, in genuine coin, for permission to travel through this territory. we refused to pay, and the sheik declared that we should. our guide, whose name was como, said many years ago he traveled along the range with one dr. robinson who wrote a book, and was attacked by this rascally sheik before, and refused to pay then, and would refuse now. he bullied up to the sheik, and told him he would report him to the authorities of hebron, who would send his complaint to constantinople, to the sublime porte. the sheik was intimidated, and rode off in the desert towards petra. after thirty-five days in the desert, we came to hebron, the burial ground of abraham, isaac, and jacob. here we quarantined for three days. after traveling all these thousands of miles, the arabs would not let us enter the mosque built over these distinguished men’s bodies. our camel drivers could enter, they were arabs, and would not defile the mosque.
