Wady Ghurandel — Wady Salmeen — Jebel Hammam — Wady Useit — Serbal — Wady Thal — Wady Shubeikah — Wady Taiyebah — Wady Budrah — Wady Sidreh — Wady Magharah — Wady Mukatteb

Wady Ghurandel. Monday, Jan. 21. — Awoke at five, and looked out through the flaps of the tent. The moon was shmiug in its strength, and the shadows of tx’ie Tarfas lay in patches along the sand. It soon set, however, and for half-an-hour there was darkness. Then the sun came up without a cloud over the low sand-cliffa There was no mingling of the two “great lights;” two hours ago it was all moonlight; an hour ago it was all starlight; now it is all sunshine I On we move, starting about eight. Passed along the valley. To the left stands an immense square block of stone, such as avo had seen on Saturday, called Hdjir-el-Glhhor, the great stone, being the outstanding remains of the stratum, which happening to be harder than the rest, has resisted the influences to which the softer parts have yielded. Soon turned to the left through a ruQged dofiie, and left Wady Ghurandel behind. The defile has no name so far as we could learn; but is notable for its level stony ground, and for the flat isolated peaks on each side, produced by the abrasion of the softer sections of the rock. The mornmcr -was hot; but in this narrow pass, a breeze met us which brought down the heat, though the sun had lost none of its brightness. JMoving eastward, we got uj) to higher ground, and came to a large piece of table-land. On each side rose hills of the boldest ruggedness, — on the left of a light brown, and on the right dark brown, — forming an amphitheatre of awful desolation. No verdure, no life, no springing seed, no budding leaf, no blithe blossom, no fragrant herb, no summer incense; — nothing to soften or to animate the scene. Woods, streams, and flowers, — what is earth without you! And luith you, what a land would this be! But its dead scorched nakedness is terrific, though sublime beyond conception. No sunshine could make it joyous, though the cloud and the blast would certainly make it more dismal ami appalling.

The heat was excessive, — reminding us of the words, “the sun beat upon the head of Jonah, that he fainted” (Jonah iv. 8). In about half an hour we descended into a lower level, — a sort of shallow basin, less rocky in itself, but girt with the same ruggedness,-

“Nolliing but ivcy infinittulc around.”

Down WG came lower still into a small valley, with a

130 THE SAYALIJIl.

bare, rough cone of white sandstone rising in the centre, and a smooth piece of white rock, almost level with the ground, on whose surface were cut the names and initials of travellers, ambitious of desert-fame. We stopped a few minutes to read the names, but not to carve our own. “We had already refused this honour on the top of the great pyramid, when an Arab boy produced a long knife for this purpose; and it was hardly worth our while to give our names to the sand or the Bedaween, when we had already declined placing them above Pharaoh’s haughty dust.

We then passed into Wady Salmin, a little before ten, where we found some stunted tar/as and a solitary saydleh, already noticed as probably the shittim-wood of Scripture, from which exudes the gum-Arabic used at home. We saw nothing, however, but the rousrh stem and the bare thorny branches. It hardly deserves the name of ‘•’ towering” which has been applied to it, yet it is by no means meagre or dwarfish. It is bushy and branching, spreading out considerably on all sides, and at the same time rising sometimes to a height of perhaps twenty feet or more. On the right rose up Jehel Eammdm, “the mountain of the warm-baths,” at whose base flow out the hot salt springs, like those of Tiberias; on the left Jehel Useit, savagely rugged. A little way on, another vast amphitheatre of sand; then, as we turned, Jehel HaiRradnn stood right before us, whose lofty bro’WTi slopes, curiously streaked with white and grey, — surmounted with fantastic peaks, — furrowed from head to foot with ravines, and pits, and hollows, — are quite beyond description.

Since we left Ghurandel, vegetation has been but scanty, — no tarfas like those of that Wady cheering the waste. This makes the rationalistic theory as to the manna the more unlikely and untenable. If manna were the exudation of the tarfa, certainly it would be found where that tree most abounds, as in Ghurandel. But it was not- till Israel were two or three days beyond this that the manna appeared. The region where that tree is scantiest was the region where manna was first found!

About half-past ten we crossed a dried-up water-course running west, and then came suddenly down on Wady Useit at eleven. It is a pleasant valley, though much inferior to Ghurandel, with about twenty palms, and ten or fourteen little wells, — if one might call them by that name.* We tasted the water, but it was salti.sh, — “murrah,” — and we noticed here, what we had found on some preceding days elsewhere, salt incrustations all along the edges of the furrowed or broken sand. The mountain panorama of this wady is very fine; it is a region of boundless desolation and hideous grandeur; the enormous notches in the hills, as if they had been

How Mr Stanley has made the following statement, I do not understand: — “No one who was guided by the wish to cliooso tho larger palragrovo could hesitate to select Useit,” (p. 27). I examined both with soino care, noting down everything at the moment, just as I saw it, — and 1 am far under tho mark when I say that tho palm-grovo of 0/iumiidel is ten times tho size of Uieit.

132 A MOUNTAIN PANOU-iiMA.

tossed uj) by the shovel of some huge giant, and then pinched and kneaded all over by his fingers into the most grotesque yet grand deformities, are features of this range of which only the photograph can give any idea. The artist’s pencil is at fault in the desert; and the engraver wholly fails to represent the uncouth and savage emaciation of these hunger-bitten hills, — the “looped and wuidowed raggedness” of their gaunt peaks and unearthly ravines. One could fancy them the scoriae from the lake of fire, — and in their dark recesses one could think they saw the very gates of hell.

We stood for some ininutcs under a palm, which comforted us with its shadow, — for the heat was great. A pleasant breeze, however, from the north-west came along behind us, bringing coolness and refreshment. Not far off was another of the acacia or sayaleli trees.

At half-past eleven we reached a wide plain two miles across, — flat, and covered with small stones. Sandridges rose on each side, and beyond these a precipitous range of whitish brown. Far before us to the eastward rose Sarhut-el-Jemel, with its towering gloomy peak, while more to the south is Jebel Serhdl, near to Wady Feirchi. All here is splendid desolation. At one we came to Wady Thai, a pretty spacious basin sprinkled with tarfas and a few meagre palms; at the head of it is the mountain Ras-Wady-Thdl. At two o’clock we came to Wady Shuheikeh, a dried water-course, winding in a southerly direction. It has many- branches and off -sets, and hence its name Shuheikeh or “the net,”

The tliermometcr was 92’; and the hot sun was beating on us, when suddenly we passed under “the shadow of a great rock.” It formed a precipitous wall on our right for about a hundred yards, and gave grateful shelter in this “weary land.” (Isa x::xii. 2.) But our camels seemed to love the heat, and staid not in the shade but moved on, and brought us out into the broad sunshine.

“We were traversing a scene of grandeur as varied as it was matchless. First we passed through what can be called nothing else than a long succession of stupendous quarries. Then the valley takes a noble sweep, and presents a similar succession of huge terraces, overhung with scowling precipices. Then we come right upon a vast towering semicircle of rocks that seem to bar our exit, till a sudden turn to the right brings us into a more open way. The yellow cliffs give freely out their echoes to the songs or shouts of our Arabs, who seem to take a childish joy in making each rock respond to their music or their laughter. This is by far the most tortuous and singular valley we have traversed. At one place the harder parts of the vast white slope, not abraded by the rain, come out in full relief, like a row of Egyptian gods sitting in state with their hands upon their monstrous knees. At another, scores of Gothic buttresses seem planted against the walls of some enormous cathedral. Then before us a fine large tarfa-tree rises out of the sand. Then a vast semicircle of sheer precipice, some hundreds of feet in height, and which might contain a city in its noble

134- THE HYSSOP-PLANT.

sweep, — with a few poor palms at the foot. Thea beyond this some twenty or thirty larger palms, above which rises a most singular peak, first tawny sandstone, then red, then white, then red again, then black, — till the summit pierces the blue sky with a dark yellow spire. It must l)e at least six hundred feet high. This is Wady Taiyiheh or “the good,” — so called from its tarfas, palms, and water, which latter, however, we did not taste nor see. This valley winds for about a i»ile; then the great white mountn in-wall gradually lowers itself, — notched and cracked all over as by some superhuman axe or hammer, — leaving solitary peaks in the valley, and ridges, like camels’ backs, abutting against it. A bright green plant or shrub inserts itself into the crevices, and adorns the yellow rock with its fringas or tassels of fair green. Lussufj] my guide called it; and probably it is the hyssop-plant, as the likeness of the words seem to indicate. If so, it illustrated the expression, ‘•’ the hyssop that groweth on the tuall.” (1 Kings iv. 33). In leaf it resembled the Portugal laurel; but in size it was much smaller. Israel would have access to i: as they passed through the desert; and would have sufiljient supply for the performance of the ceremonies appointed for the cleansing of leprosy. They were to take “cedar-wood and scarlet (wool or cloth) and hyssop” (Lev. xiv. 4, 6, 51, 52), and dip them in the blood of the slain bird. For such a purpose the lussuff would suit well. The shrub, however, which is called hyssop by the monks, is not the lussuff at all.

A MACAP M!ZED ROAD. 135

but a sweet-RCGiited plant of a much smaller size which they call Jadheh, which we often plucked among the sands and rocks.

Suddenly at an abrupt bend rises a promontory eight hundred feet high, all scooped, notched, and hammered as before, forming itself curiously into a semicircle, and dipping to the south-west, its slopes powdered with debris, and rough with the fallen splinters of the cliffs above. Under its mighty shadow we passed about four o’clock; and greatly were we refreshed by its shelter as well as struck by its wild echoes. The road now becomes good, as if it had been macadamized. Half a mile on, at another bend, up shoots another bold promontory, somewhat like its fellow, only it seems to rest itself upon yon long masses of outstanding rock. Suddenly at another turn, some dozen of tall white cones shoot up; next rises a dark row of grim peaks, presenting their precipitous fronts to us, and then dropping away in the distance to the setting sun.

The road here is so excellent and regular, that It seems as if made by the hand of man. Could it be Pharaoh’s highway to the quarries and mines of Magharuh? Very possibly: certainly, it was no Arab that engineered or formed a road like this. Here the sea bursts on us, less than a mile off. The moment we come within sight of the sea, each Arab runs uj) to his camel and rubs something into its nostrils with the I»ahns of his hand.s. It was saitl to be gunpowder and oil, — meant to prevent the camcils from becoming sick which they are reported to do wlion first coming iipoi the sea. The bluff rocks, not unUkc St Abb’s Hea( in form, but half red, half white, looked nobly dow] upon the blue deep. The peaks on the right, as wi turn southward, are the blackest I have ever seen, — ye looking blacker perhaps from being intermixed with i few streaks of white and yellow.

We reach the sea about half-past four; I bathe, anc sprain my ancle for the third time upon the stony yc soft sand of the beach. Reach our halting-place at half past five ; — the mouth of Wady-el-Marhlidh, the “valley of rest,” hard by the sea, and within sound of its soft ripple. Our dragoman tells us that the water there is good. The night comes down on us: — and such £ night! Full moon, cloudless sky, calm sea, and shadowj cliffs! We enjoy the scene around, — but still more the remembrance of the wondrous mairnificence throu”-h which we had all day been passing.

Wady-el-Markhah, Tuesday, Jan. 22... Went out between six and seven. The dawn-streaks were few and faint. The moon was still unclouded, though far down the west, clearing the sky of all lesser orbs save the morning-star, which whatever it might lose in lustre by the presence of its rival, seemed to gain in soft beauty by its reflection upon that placid sea! How profoundly still! Coolness, and balm, and twilight gentleness, — how lovely! One could almost forget that they were dwellers in this hot and stifling world.

Refreshed myself by bathing in the Red Sea. The water, within two or three feet from the shore, was much colder than farther out, and the sand felt cold. I remembered what Herodotus tells about the crocodile, — that it takes to the river at night for the sake of warmth, — the land cooling more rapidly than the water. While swimming about I watched the moon’s broad path across the sea, as it gradually narrowed and grew dim with the brightening dawn, till, as the sun came up, it passed away, though the moon itself still kept its place in the gky’. The silver floor thus partly overlaid and partly miagled with gold, looked strangely brilliant.

At eight we started. Our way led along the shore. Not a ripple on the sea, not a cloud in the flaming firmament! The coast-cliffs were wild and precipitous, — seamed and scarred, — split into spikes, and wasted into cones, as if by the joint action of rain and lightning.* The road lies over a broad platform of flat rock. In rounding one of the points we touched the water, so that the tide-ripples, for there were no others, washed round our camels’ feet. I had bathed in the morning moonlight; but my companions, more wisely preferring sunshine, now took to the sea, with s;)me two or three of our younger Bedaween, who enjoyed the sport of swiming anrl splashing amazingly. Soon we began to turn inwards in a south-easterly dirccfion, and to move away

Somo travellers have maintainetl that tho idea of tho pynimi’I was fugi’cslcd by tho conical hills which occur in Etryi’t ami the ilc3crt. But thi.u;,’!) this is possible, yet after all, tho pyramiils are tho natural form which any aolid 8tructuro must take that seeks both height and stability.

from the sea. The road from Ayilii r.iusa had i’ecedcJ from the sea, so that for nearly three days we had lost sight of it. Yesterday it suddenly brought us to the sea again, and our morninfj ride had been alonix its marjrin. All this strikingly shewed the minute accuracy of the Scripture narrative regarding Israel’s march, — “they removed from Elim, and encamped by the Red Sea,” (Numb, xxxiii. 10). To one that does not know the exact geography of this region this might seem unaccountable; but one who has been upon the spot knows that this is, if not the only practicable route, at least the best one.

From the Red Sea Israel proceeded to “the Wilderness of Sin,” (Numb, xxxiii. 11), anil in the narrative of this we have one of the many proofs of the difference between Horeb and Sinai. Israel had left Elim where they had water. They then came to the Ciid Sea, where we now were, and where also there was water. They then left the Red Sea, and after two stages, Dophkah and Alush, they came to Rephidhn, (Exod. xvii. 1; Numb, xxxii. 1-i), where there was no water. All these three places were not in the Wilderness of Sin, which they had now left behind, and which lay between the Red Sea and Dophkah (Numb, xxxiii. 11, 12). From the same passage it is clear that Rephidim lay between the desert of Sin and the desert of Sinai; and from Exod. xvii. 6, it is also plain that the smitten rock of Rephidim was in Hovel, at some considerable distance from Mount Sinai, — a day’s journey at least, if not more

The traditional rock of the sniithig, shewn by the monks at Sinai, could not be the rock which Moses smote; and Sinai the mountain is thus explicitly distinguished from Horeb the region, though it is quite possible that the desert of Sinai and the region of Horeb might be much the same, or at least adjoining, — the Horeb district lying westward of Mount Sinai, and the Sinai eastward, their inarch or border being the mountain or some of the wadys running by its flanks. The “deserts” of “the desert” seem to be very numerous, — just like the moors of Scotland; and like them named from any known spot near them. There is (1.) the wilderness of Beersheba at the extreme north, with the wildernesses of Paran and Zin to the west and south-west of it; (2.) the wilderness of Etham (Numb, xxxiii, 8); (3.) the wilderness of the Red Sea (Numb. xiv. 25); (4.) the wilderness of Shur (Exod. xv. 22); (5.) the wilderness of Sin (Numb, xxxiii. 11); and (6.) the wilderness of Sinai (Exod. xix. 12). Such are some of the iwovinces of the great desert. It is not at all unlikely that were more minute inquiry made by Arabic scholars, living for some time in these deserts, many of the lost names would be recovered, and the places identified. But travellers hurry-ing through can do little towards the accomplishment of this.

It is into the wilderness of Sin that we now turn — Ixindiiig inwards and eastwards. Before us rises a range of rugged black precipices, like a fortress to guard the entrance. But our oliliging sheikh is making his way

1 40 CAr.AVANS.

up to us, vnth a twig in his hand and a smile on his face. He has something to tell, or shew, or give. He presents the twig, with a sign that we should smell it. We do so, and find it strongly aromatic. Its name is Shut, — a low shrub very common in the desert, most acceptable to us as an article of fragrance, as it is to the camels as an article of food. The heat is barely tolerable; but a pleasant breeze is springing up from the east, to our great relief But here comes a caravan of some eight or nine camels, from Mount Sinai, carrying charcoal, perhaps, or fruits to Cairo. The hand-shaking between this party and ours is curious. There is no hearty grasp of the hand, but little more than placing the palms together. The energetic part is the kiss; but here this is awanting; probably they are only distantly acquainted.

The granite now begins to appear in pieces of a foot square or smaller. It increases as we get on, for we are moving towards the primitive rocks of the Sinaitic group. We enter a narrow defile, Nakb-el-Leghilm, — the lussuff hanging its fresh green leaves out of the crevice.s, and a small palm, with a few tarfis at the base. The cool sea-breeze follows us, windinir through the tall precipices. On the left, white peaks shoot up, on the right, dark; in fiont there is a black mass of wall, and towering high above it, close behind, .shoots up another sable mass of peaks. But here comes another caravan, of twenty camels at least. Such a shaking of hands! Foremost is our sheikh, who advarices to the old grey -bearded (I cannot say grey-headed, for who can see an Arab’s bare head?) Sheikh Bcsharah, from Siuai, probably the same who was Dr Eobinson’s guide. The sheikhs take each other by tho right hand; then, throwing the left round each other’s necks, they kiss five times on either cheek. They then inquire after the health of themselves and their friends. How like does this seem to the sons of Isaac, — “and Esau ran to meet him, and embraced him, and fell on his neck and kissed him,” (Gen. xxxiii. 4.) Here are the same four things: — they run to meet, they embrace, they fall on the neck, they kiss. So in the case of Laban, “when Laban heard the tidings of Jacob, his sister’s son, that he ran to meet him, and embraced him, and kissed him.” (Gen. xxix. 13.) Still more does the meeting of Sheikhs Suliman and Besharah remind us of Aaron and Moses, — ‘• he went and met him in the mount of God and kissed him,” — for this is the region in which the two brothers met, and their mode of salutation was the same. It was in token of intimacy and affection that David kissed Barzillai (2 Sam. xix. 39); and it was to indicate equality as well, and to win the people’s hearts, that Absalom kissed all that came to him, (2 Sam. XV. 5). When Joab kissed Amasa, he took him by the beard with his right hand, whereas in the case of these sheikhs here, their right hands clasp each other.

But now we arc in a large basin, girt in with yellow rocks and fronted by a towering mass of cliffs, black, red. and brown; all, as usual, excoriated and bare from top to bottom. There is hardly a shrub in this wady, not a fragment on the cliffs, even of the dull green of desert shrubs. The hills seem wearing down, more so than do the pyramids of Egypt. Fallen stum^Ds of palms and withered branches of that tree, mingled with gi’anite boulders, lie strewn through the basin. What with the soft nature of the rock and the want of vegetation, the torrents have had their will with these mountains, and they have used it in a way which one can have no idea of save by seeing it. Job must have been among scenes like these when he said —

“The mountain falling cometh to nought;
The rock is removed out of its place.
The waters wear the stones:

Thou washest away tlic produce of the dust of earth, And thou destroycst the hope of man.” — (Job xiv. 18, 19.)

At one o’clock we turn to the right and enter Wady Shelldl, with its black cliffs. The approach of another caravan of ten camels, from ]Iount Sinai, tells us that this is the highway of the desert. The rocks are getting harder, and basalt shews itself in several places. Hitherto we had passed through arid hills and plains of sandstone, which do not retain water; but as we advanced southwards the primitive rocks begin to shew themselves, which, as they detain the showers longer than the others, are better able to nourish at least some shreds of vegetation here and there. Here are some sayaleh-trees along the road and in the lower crevices, en which at present we see nothing but thorns; — leaf, blossom, and seed are not yet. Here comes our eversmiling sheikh with some rich prize which he has made his own, and which he means to share with us. It is a a jug- full of cold water, which he has just got from a ravine by the way. It is rather muddy, but the best desert-water we have as yet tasted. It was miit’r, he informed us, that is rain-water which had been detained in some hollow of the rocks. He wished us also to understand that it was tail), that is good. AVe had seen some half-a-dozen of our men spring’ away to the left at full speed, and dash into a rock-cleft; and we concluded that their eye had caught .sight of some gazellah “leaping upon the mountains, skipping upon the hills” (Song ii. 8). We now saw the object of their pursuit; — there was water there. It was not “living water;” it was only a pool filled with the rain (Psa. lxxxiv. 6); but that was no common boon in such a valley of Baca as this. How one longs to be able, in their own tongue, to say to that kind sheikh and his willing Bedaween, “Whoso drinketh of this water shall thirst again; but whoso drinketh of the water that I .shall give him shall never thirst; but the water that I shall give him shall be in him a well of water springing up into everlasting life” (John iv. 14).

Now we come to a low ridge composed of flat stones, as if newly quarried; then the debris of the basalt strews the ground in heaps; tlic-n we rise to a height which overlooks a vast array of jieaks and crags, black, green, red, and yellow, pUed upon and heaped beside each

144) A WILDERNESS.

other with giant-fragments of every shape and hue, tossed into the yd-vrmng interstices, or projected ovei unfathomable cavities, each one of would have swallowed uj) a mosque or a pyramid.

Here comes my camel-driver with a curious animal in his hand, which he has just killed as it was escaping to its hole in the sand. It is like a lizard, — about a foot long. He calls it Thuh, pronouncing the th very hard as in this, or rather almost as if it were written Dzdh It is not unlike a crocodile in shape.

It is now a little after two, and the heat, hithortc great, becomes more moderate. A thin veil of cloud has spread itself over the sky and tempered the sunshine, “the heat is brought down with the shadow of a cloud” (Isa. XXV. 5). The road is narrow, with red cliffs on the right, and a homd mass of charcoal-looking peaks on the left, stretching away for miles beneath us for we are now at a considerable height. I cannot describe that billowy sea of rock that seems to heave a our left. Here rises a tall wave in mountain strengtl and height, there foams a mass of broken water strewec with tawny snow, — there winds the noble curve of som( mighty wave just caught in the curl as it was about to break. It is awful desolation; — the misshapen fragments all melted, torn, broken, riven, splintered, cui into slices, tossed up and down like chaff! Perhap: some of our own home-ranges would seem as hideous i they were stripped of their grass-y or heathery robes we should then see their savajfe nakedness as we se( here; but yet I hardly think that anything could equal ;his.

It is worth while correcting the false impression which possesses many as to the desert, — as if it were one vast monotony of level sand. It is not so. There is, no Joubt, abundance of sand everywhere, sometimes softer, sometimes harder, sometimes larger in grain, and sometimes smaller. But the desert, and especially the Sinai- ■ic peninsula, is quite a mountainous region; altogether I contrast to Egypt, which in general is level and tame.

We are now passing through Wady-B:klrah, where we see a few stunted tarfas; but all else is dreariness, like ‘the valley of the shadow of death.” We are climbing the horrid defile that leads into the lower part of the ivady. It is called iSakh-el-Bvdrali, that is the pass of Biidrah. A succession of precipices meets the eye on sach side. Up to this time my aneroid has fallen two inches since we turned in from the sea. As we get lo. to the foot of the wady, five dark-red peaks, like the tombs of giants, rise to greet us, at least a thousand feet high. They overhang our path. Here there is notliiiig but dreariness and death, save the little lizards that are shooting from buhh to bush, and the large black ants that are running about and throwing up, in concave circle round lliLir hole, small heaps of sand, rt’liich they have dug from beneath, — ghiing the grains Uigether by some process of tlicir own, and then rolling up these balls of sand (which crumble at our touch) so as to form concave mounds or circlets in thousands ov>? the desert.

We enter Wady-es-Sidreh, which begins at the foo of these five peaks, which, my camel-driver tells me, ar( called Jehel Walakhah. In this wady all is sepulchra desolation. We see small boulders of red granite, thei larger blocks of the same. But where can these hav( come from? This is a hollow for from the primitivi rocks, — walled in by immense cliffs of por2)hyy anc sandstone. Our sheikh calls this Sihah Sidreh, whicl I suppose means the burnt or arid place of Sidreh Were these crags but wooded, and were but a lake however small, in this hollow, what a scene I Thi Trossachs magnified sevenfold!

As it must have been somewhere in this neighbourhood that the manna was first given (Numb, xxxiii. 12 Exod. xvi. 1-4), it may be well to notice the theor which makes it a mere natural growth, — the produo of the tarfa-tree.

It is impossible that it could be so for such reasons a the following: — (1.) The tarfa exudes only small quantities of what is called manna. The Arabs could no exist upon it for a week. A whole Avady full of tarfai would not exude enough to support half-a-dozen travellers. Will those who adopt this theory put it to tb test by going to Wady Ghurandel without provisioru and trust to the tarfa for food? They will get watei there, and if their hypothesis be the correct one, they will find enough upon the tarfas to sustain them. I

MIRACLE OF ^IA^•^’A. 14r7

hese trees fed two or three millions, they will surely feed wo or three individuals, especially as Ghurandel seems Qore productive now than in past ages. The theory is .hsurd; and its absurdity is easily shewn. Suppose the lesert were planted with apple-trees, would these feed wo millions? Now a good-sized apple-tree will contain k hundred times more food than the largest tarfa of tl;p lesert. (2.) The tarfa only exudes at certain seasons, darch and April (Seetzen says June). When we passed hrough the desert there were no exudations. Every )ranch was bare and dry. Israel required manna contautly, in all seasons. Grant that they entered the lesert just at the iroper season, that would not supply hem for the rest of the year. The manna was not conined to any month or season, but was found at all times. 3.) The tarfa does not yield its exudations regularly, iven once a year. It sometimes omits four or five years, md cannot be reckoned on. But Israel was fed for ^orty years upon the manna, as it is written, “the chil-Iren of Israel did eat manna forty years” (Exod. xvi. Jo). Two millions of people fed for forty years upon the ‘xudations of the tarfa! He who believes this need tumble at no miracle. (4.) The exudations of the tarfa ‘.onie out from the branches of the tree, they do not ;o77ie down from the air or sky. But Israel’s manna is «veral times over said to full from heaven. “He comnanik’d the clouds from above, and opened the doors )f heaven, and rained doiuu rtianna upo)i theni to eat, ind gave them of the corn of heaven.” (Psa. Ixxvui. 24.)

EacTi of the narratives implies that it was somethin: which came do^^l like rain. “I will rain bread fror heaven for you.” (Exod. xvi, 4.) Is this Uke an exudetion? (5.) The tarfa-exudations are in composition ani consistency somewhat like honey. They are quite un lit for grinding, or pounding, or baking, or boilinc ^Yho could grind honey? Yet we read of the mann that the people “ground it in mills or beat it in a moi tar, and baked it in pans, and made cakes of it “(Xunil XL 8), nay boiled it (Exod. xvi. 23). We brought hom several little pots of the tarfa-manna, and we are willini to give a handsome reward to any German or Englisl rationalist who will undertake to grind it, or heat i in a mortar, or hahe it in a jpan. They would fini it easier to believe the miracle; for certainly it i less difficult to believe a miracle than to luork on( (6.) The taste of the ancient manna was” as the taste c fresh oil “(Numb. xL 8), No one who has tasted th tarfa-manna would compare it to oil. While we ar writing this a pot of it stands before us, and we have tasted it again for the twentieth time, but can fin no resemblance to oil in its flavour. It is like browi sugar mixed with water. (7.) The tarfa-manna doe not stink nor breed worms in a single night. Ou manna which we brought from the desert is as fres. and good this day as it was ten months ago, whe: we bought it from the monks. There is not a worE in it. Nor has it the slightest tendency to corrupl It is remarkable too that the ancient manna, thought would not keep over night on the week-days, yet did so on the Sabbath. This is surely something supernatural, (8.) The ancient manna evaporated as soon as the sun rose. (Exod. xvi. 21.) The tarfa-produee docs not evaporate. It gets soft in the sun, or when exposed to heat, but that is all. I am willing to let any sceptic expose my pot of manna to the sun, — the sun of Egypt or the sun of the desert, — as long as he likes, and see whether it will evaporate. (9.) The tarfa-manna does nut fall in double quantity on Fridays and cease to fall entirely on Saturday. This, however, was the case with the ancient manna. (Exod. xvi. 29.) On the sixth day, God “gave them the bread of two days,” and on the seventh day “there was none.” (Exod. xvi. 26.) Was this natural or supernatural? Did ]Ioses write the truth, or is his narrative a fiction? (10.) The tarfa-manna is medicine, not food. JSTo Arab would think of feeding on it. It is moreover purgative, and it would hardly do to feed a man upon purgative medicine, — and nothing else, — all the days of his life. If he grew fat upon it, or even lived under it, there would be as great a miracle as any that philosophers try to esca])e from. Will any rationalistic believer in the fattening virtues of the tarfa-exudation, make the experiment of living upon it alone for a few weeks? It woidd test his credulity. (H) The ancient manna was a thing quite unknown to the Israelites. “He fed thee with manna, which thou knewest not, neither did thy fathers know.” (Deut. viii. ,3.)” They wist not what it

150 MIIUCLE OF StANNA,

was.” (Exod. xvi. 15.) Surely they- would know what the exudation of a de.sert-tree was. Surely T>Iosos could have told them its proper name, for he had been forty years in this xery desert. Or if he did not know itj Jethro could have told them. And besides, the mixed multitude that came out of Egypt with them, knew the tarfa well, for it is an Egyptian tree, and must ofcen have tasted its manna. Nay, every Israelite in the camp knew the tarfa as well as he knew a palm, and had tasted tarfa-manna as often as he had done a date. Will any neologist say that an Israelite or an Egyptian could possibly have been ignorant of the tarfa or its produce? Every day that we were in Egypt, we saw rows of tarfas on every side of us, and had we been there in !RIarch and April, should doubtless have seen them exuding. Nothing can be more unlikely than that Israel did not know these trees and their fruit. Both “they and their fathers” knew them perfectly. Though I do not believe that it was a tarfa-grove that Abraham planted at Beersheba, as Mr Stanley thinks, yet I do not doubt that Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob had seen the tree and tasted its fruit, both in Egypt and in the desert. (12.) It is an established jjliysiological fact that no one can feed lons on one single substance with impunity. If one had only wheat to eat he could not live; for even it does not contain all the elements needful for the nourishment of the body. Much more is this true of fruit, — and especially so of fruit which is not in itself at all nourishing, which is rather medicinal than nutrimental. So that if Israel had lived upon the manna of the tarfa-tree, two miracles would have been necessary, one to render the tarfas about ten thousand times more productive than they are (and this all the year through), and then another to keep the children of Israel in bodily health while living on that one article. AVithout the first miracle they could not have been fed at all, and without the second they would have died in a few weeks. If Israel’s manna were really a new created thing from God, there is no difficulty either to its amount or its quality. The God who made it and sent it would see that it was right. Just one miracle was needed, no more, — a great one I admit and a continuous one; — but what is that to the God who made all the processes of nature, and who can work without them as easily as with them? Is it not better, — nay much more philosophical and rational, — to admit that on this occasion he took another way of producing food than we know anything of, than to hold all the ab.surdities which we have enumerated above, and to believe that the God of truth has written a narrative for his creatures in such treacherous language as to make them suppose that he was working a miracle when he was doing nothing, — that he was showering down food from heaven in abundance (” angel’s food,” “the corn o heaven,” Ps. lxxviii. 2 1), when he was making them feed upon worse than prison-fare, and sustaining them on what was never intended to l)e the nutriment of man or beast? Credulity beyond all credulities! Denial of God’s character as the God of truth and love! Mahgning of his Scriptures as not meaning what they seem! Why this dread and dishke of a miracle? Why this wish either to evade it or to reduce it to its minimum? Is it so terrible a thing that God should come nih to bless us? Is the naked arm of God a thing so dreadful to behold, that rather than admit of its having been seen by the sons of men, God’s true words must be made void, and all manner of human fancies substituted for the simple facts which the plainly interjDreted narrative makes known?

Mr Stanley twice alludes to the manna (pp. 22 and 28); but whether he believes in its miraculous production I am far from being sure. The note at p. 28 would almost imply that he did, or at least that he was quite aware of the difficulties of not believing it; but the statement at p. 22 indicates his willingness to have recourse to the tarfa for the supply of Israel’s desert food. “The tarfa, or tamarisk, is not mentioned by name in the history of the Exodus; yet if the tradition of the Greek Church and of the Arabs be adoj)ted, it is inseparably connected with the wanderings, by the manna which di.stils from it.” How much or how little this statement implies, I do not know. The weight of Greek tradition may be pretty accurately a,scertained by the nature and credibility of the legends which they have clustered round J^Lount Sinai, such as the story of the rock indented by the body of Moses. Arab tradition may be taken for what it is worth; which in matters of Scripture history is absolutely nothing. The authority of Josephus might have been of somewhat more vahie, if it at all indicated ancient Jewish tradition; but there is no need for reckoning the value of his testimony, as he does not make the statement imputed to him. He alludes to the manna three times (Antiq. III. 1, 6... III. 5, 3... IV. 3, 2.), and in all these jDlaces indicates his belief of its coming direct from heaven. Only in the first of these places he speaks of its still (even in his days) falling down in rain, but makes no mention of its connection with any tree, nor does he name the tamarisk. It does not appear that the manna he refers to was the same as the tarfa-distillation; at least, his allusion is so vague that it might as well mean what is usually called “honey-dew.” That Josephus believed this identity is very doubtful indeed; as any may see who will read the passage (Antiq. III. 1-6, and not III. 2, as Mr Stanley gives it), and it would have been better had Mr Stanley not written so decidedly about Joseph us ’s belief, and on the strength of it called the non-miraculous hypothesis the “ancient view.” Josephus is not responsible for this view, — and as to its being Greek tradition, — this would require proof, as the Greek fathers are ignorant of it. Siiuiitic tradition it may be, not Greek; and a profit;d)lo tradition it has been to the convent of St Katiiarin. As to the anticjuity of the tradition, that ought not to weigh much, — still if it dues, we have the testimony of one who wrote before Josephus, Philo

154 MIRACLE OF MANNxV-Judccus, who, mystic as lie -wa?, understands quite literally the miracle of the manna,* narrating it at considerable length, -without any hint that it was either tamarisk-exudation or Arabian honey-dew. -f-The writers of the Old and New Testament evidently believed in the miraculous and celestial origin of the manna. Their words in many places are too explicit to leave any doubt as to this. Nor are we aware that any sceptic has denied that such was their belief. What weight, then, are Ave to attach to their belief? Ought it to influence us, or ought it not? Is it authoritative, or is it not? Is Lepsius entitled to say, such was their belief, but it need not be TYiinc? They were deceived, they exaggerated, they indulged in orientalism. He might say so, if the Scriptures are not of God, and if “holy men of old” did not “speak as they were moved by the Holy Ghost.” But if Moses and David wrote the mind of God, and expressed his meaning aright, then it is clear that their belief ought to rule ours. If they have said that the manna was suiDcrnatural and

*See his Life of JIoscs, Book I, sect. 36, 37- See also Wisdom of Solomon, supposed to be written by Philo, xvi. 20.

+ Keble, refen-ing to the manna, speaks of

“the moist pearls now bestrowing
Tliymy slope and rusliy vale.”

Li/ra Innocentium, p. 222, “Song of the Manna Gatherers.” “Thymy slope and rushy vale” are greater inaccuracies than even a poet can be allowed. “Thyme” and “mshes” do not clothe the desert. If the line had run “tarfa slope and rittem vale,” it would have been true, though perhaps not poetical. It would have been better had Mr Stanley not vouched so strongly for Mr Keble’s accuracy.

divinC; then Goil has said it; and what is Greek tradition, or Arabian fables, or philosophical incredulity, in comparison with their clear words?” What is the chaff to the wheat V What is man’s fond invention in comparison with God’s authentic record?

But we have reached the entrance of Wady Maghavah, or the Wady of the Cave, for here are Pharaoh’s quarries and copper-mines, older than the days of Joseph. We send on our baggage-camels, and turn the heads of our dromedaries to the left. In less than a quarter of an hour we notice inscriptions on the sandstone rock. They are Egyptian hieroglyphics.

Into the history of these I need not enter. They are amongst the oldest rock- writings in the world, as old at least as the Pharaohs, if not older, yet they are wonderfully sharp in outline and perfectly readable to this day. Of them it is that Lepsius says, “We found a stately row of rock-inscriptions, close by the side of the extensive caverns, which are of greater antiquity even than those of Sar’but el-Khadem. Some of them contain the oldest effigies of kings in existence, without excepting the -whole of Egypt and the pyramids of Ghizeb.” Mr Bartlett visited the spot, and has, at great length, described the difficidty which he luul in finding these inscriptions. We had no such difficulty, nor had we occasion to lose temper at our Arabs for tlifir ignorance, as they conducted us at once to the ])lace. Our inspection was brief; but we felt a strange awe when standing in this lonely plain and looking upon these most ancient of all ancient monuments, — to think that this region once was peopled with Pharaoh’s miners, and had been the scene of busy toihng hfefor ages.

It is worth the reader’s while to remember that this whole region, for many a mile around, was one vast mine, and is said to have been called in hierogl3qDhics, Mafkat, “the copper land.” In this district are found large masses of copper mixed with iron-ore, and the ruined temple of Sar’but el-Khadera is said to be built upon vast mounds of ore. In fact here was one of the early Egytian colonies, which by the labour of their hands helped to supply Egypt with its wealth.*

But we must not remain at the inscriptions. We 2:)roceed to the quarries or mines themselves, following the guidance of our Arabs; and while one of our men remains below to watch our dromedaries, another acts as our guide. Following him, we scramble up an immense slope of debris, some of which is natural and some artificial. We reach the old quarry of Egypt, after some slips and falls. It has been an immense shelving cavity, or rather a series of cavities or chambers, formed by excavating about nine-tenths of the rock and leaving the remaining tenth as pillars to support the mountain-roof There is nothing very striking to the eye here, but it is a curious spot, as being the oldest known quarrj’ and coiper-mine in the world.

* Very likely Job knew this region and referred to it, chap, xxviii. 1-6. He speaks of the veia for silver, the place for gold, — the digging out tho iron, tho melting of the copper, &c.

THE WrJTTEN VALLEY. 157

We pick up some specimens of the copper-ore, — of whicla Job, who knew the wilderness, spoke when lie said, “iron is taken out of the earth, and brass (copper) is molten out of the stone?” (Job xxviil 2).

But the sun is setting, so we must not tarry. We scramble down, I with a sprained ankle, and wind our way out of this valley into Wady Mukatteh, the rusty peaks on every’ side brightening in the radiance of the descending sun. Salim, my camel-man, is ilucking a small herb, giving it carefully to his camel. He calls it Rib’ ski. About six, as the last rays of day were dying on the cliffs, we moved into the Written Valley, — Mount 8erba,l in the distance, still” refusing to part with the sunlight from its towering sjjires. The valley at the mouth seems not above half a mile wide. On our left are peaks 1500 feet high, — red-brown in hue, and seamed from top to bottom with black stripes as if painted by the art of man. At their foot we see the smoke of a Bedaween encampment, — a poor remembrancer of the wreaths of twili’dit smoke ascendinij: from the villajres of our own far land. Our Arabs sing as they go. They sing to their camels to cheer them and quicken their steps. They sing to each other in responsive songs. The sun is gone from vale and mountain; but the western sky retains a silky .softness of jiurple, which I never saw save in the desert. I cannot describe it, save by saying that it looks like a veil of shot-silk of light mild purple. It is singidarly beautiful.

But the shadows are coming down, and darkness is

158 THE WRITTHN VALLEY”.

taking away the sharp, vivid outline of the peaks around and before us. Serhdl fades at last. The moon rises in splendour, and as we pass along, our Arabs point to the inscriptions on our right, just visible in the moonlight. We do not stay to examine them, as we mean to devote to-morrow to this purpose. We reach our te»ts about seven. After dinner we wander over the sands and among the rocks by moonlight; but it is too dark to examine the inscriiDtions. We dare not go too far lest we lose ourselves. The white gleam of our tents in the moonshine is quite as sufficient a guide to us as the Ai’ab fires, which are now burning low. All around is calm. “I will both lay me down in peace and sleep, for thou, Lord, only makest me dwell in safety.” (Psa. iv. 8.)

Wady Mulcattch, Wednesday, Jan. 23. — Up before seven. Went out to survey the valley. About sixty yards from our tents I came upon an inscription, which was quite within reach, and sloped so considerably that I could rest my note-book on it. The letters at first sight are not unlike Hebrew. A closer inspection undeceives you, — at least so far as to shew you that the words do not belong to the vocabulary of that language. The letters are about two inches and a half long, not very deep, evidently cut by some rude instrument. The rock itself on which this inscription is engraved is about nine feet long by four broad, and at the foot there is the picture of a camel. On a small piece of adjoining rock, one foot and a half broad by three feet long, there

THE WRITTEN VAr.LEY. 159

is a sort of Arabic inscription, quite different from the other, in very small letters, a quarter of an inch in breadth and half an inch in length. Immediately adjoining this another ledge jirojects, six feet long and four broad, with an inscription in the usual ‘•’ Mukatteb” characters, but considerably defaced. The prevailing characters are such as the following, 2, 1, ^, <^; the last of these occurring very frequently. It is very difficult to copy them, and I was so afraid of misrepresenting them that I gave up the attempt. The engravings of Pococke and of Forster are, generally speaking, faithful; but they convey too high an idea of the inscriptions, not properly representing their rudeness and irregularity. They are not indistinct scratches by any means, but they are not such deep and noble chisellings as some of Forster’s engravings make them appear.

On several places at this part there are figures such as the following, ,^, P- Still farther to the right, the same kind of inscriptions runs on for a considerable distance; but the rocks are not above ten feet high. Once and again the Arabic characters occur. Perhaps, however, they may not be Arabic, but the cursive forms of the larger letters, and in some places they certainly look like this. A little way farther is a projecting face of rock aboift twenty feet high, with a very legible inscription in the usual characters. Farther still there is one in a more hollow rock, at the top of which is the figiirc of a man with upstretched hands. The inscription is very distinct, and is surrounded by a ring like the hieroglyphical cartouches of Egypt. The letters are about two inches long. Next comes a mass of broken rocks, lying in all directions, and on one part of it another figure of a man with outstretched hands; camels also, and an ass with a rider. Those on this rock are larger in size. One startled me by its likeness to the Hebrew, “^22 S’^RD- The rock was about ten feet broad, by twenty long. On the high and receding front of one of the rocks a little farther along, I saw similar characters. At this point there is a break in th/g continuousness of the cliff, and a small ravine runs up at right angles. I traced it a considerable way, but found no inscriptions on either side. It was a striking enough ravine, and with some wood and water would hale made quite “a highland glen.” Just at the entrance to it, on the west side, there is an immense rock, partly written on; and still the same mysterious characters occur 9liJ,hy Passing the ravine, there is a most vivid picture of a man leading a camel, staff in hand; then another camel at the other end of the inscription, which runs thus, ,y^2X’’ The word IS ’ occurs more than once here. The camel is about six or eiofht inches in height. Farther on there is another immense block, with inscriptions; then another ravine in which I could detect nothiog; but beyond this another large mass of rock quite written over. All this occurred in a space of about a hundred and ninety yards. I then turned in the ojjposite direction, beyond om- tents to the south, and found a large rock lying on the ground, written over, like he others; then another in a slanting jDOsition, with ;amels and riders. These were by themselves. I then ■eturued to our tents between eight and nine. After jreakfast and prayers, we all set out together, Mr ^Vright with his photographic apparatus, and the rest )f us to assist. We took our stand at first near the spot rvhich I had first visited in the morning; and while preparations were making, I took Mr Wright’s telescope md made a survey of the lofty hills opposite, which are ibout two miles across, and which send down their ‘ough slopes quite into the valley. But I could discover nothing save curious seams and fractures running ip and down the bare steeps. For the hills we saw, ;hough nobly rugged and lofty, were wholly bare and ,vild. In shajje and height they are not unlike some )f our Highland ridge.”, but the green robe has been aurnt off their swarthy sides. Take Glencoe as their nearest image. Strip off the heather from its slopes, jurn up every blade of grass on which these goats are feeding, wash down every particle of soil from the rocks, split and seam the cliffs from head to foot, dry up the ;lear streamlet that wa.shes their base and gives life to :he awful grandeur; — then you may have some idea of the.se savage mountains.

Some excellent photograyhs were obtained; but it is Qot ea.sy to take them of such size as clearly to bring 3ut the inscriipiion.s. I walked down the whole left jide of the valley till the writings ceased, Avliicli they liil in about a mile and a half I then crossed over to

1G2 THE ^YIlITTEN VALLEY.

the other side, aLout half a mile, and came up. Found the inscriptions on both sides very much alike. In one place I saw Greek,* in another English words, and in another something that looked very like Syriac. But those are very few, — quite different in style of cutting from the others, and evidently more modern. About three o’clock we took our dromedaries and rode up the valley for a considerable way, perhaps a mile and half. We found many more inscriptions on all sides, and a good many pictures of animals, especially camels and wild goats. These were very trifling, — done for mere amusement, — representing goats in all manner of ludicrous positions. We returned to oar tents about five, having spent the whole day in examining this wady, but quite unable to come to any conclusion as to the meaning or authorship of the inscriptions. Professor Beer’s theory seems untenable, Mr Forster’s unproved, though by no means so improbable as some would have it. It has been argued that the rocks being sandstone, and the inscriptions very shallow, three thousand years would have effaced them. This is ignorance. The rocks are certainly very friable, and in our country would soon lose their cuttings, however deep, even in a century. But the diy air of the desert preserves each

It is the occurrence of these interspersed Greek words which prove the other inscriptions not to be of Greek origin or the work of Greek pilgrims. That Greek pilgrims wrote the Greek words is very likely. But how does this prove (as some have said) that they wrote what was not Greek?

scratch upon the softest rock. BesiJ.es, we know that these writings have at least existed since the sixth century, when Ci)&rnas saw them and reported them as Israehtish; and if twelve centmies have failed to erase them, three times that would be equally powerless. And then the well-known Egyptian inscription at Magharali is on the same soft sandstone, yet it has stood wellnigh four thousand years. The argument founded on the effacing power of time would be resistless in our own country, but it is good for nothing in Egypt or the desert. No frost siDlits the rock, no lingering damp crumbles it down. No moss nor lichen strikes its roots into these broad blocks to efface the slightest line once drawn upon them, and even those parts which the sun never reaches are as dry as the summit of the cliff. !Masses may occasionally come down from the heights, but minute disintegration, such as occurs in this climate, seems unknown. The sandstone of Wady Mukatteb seems as little affected by age as the granite of Syene.

The inscriptions are not imposing in their appearance. They are shallow, irregular, and straggling. The hand of no artist is upon these rocks, nor has the tool of any expert workman in stone been lifted up upon them. They are by no means so lofty in position as we were led to believe. Indeed, except at one part, towards the south-cast, where the valley widens and the cliffs ri.sc into mountains, the riilges which wall in the wady con.sist of low crags, not much above a hundred or two hundred feet in height, — some sloping, others per-

1G4) AGE OF INSCRIPTIONS.

pendicular, — some broad and flat, others round and rugged. A large number we could easily reach with the hand, and the rest with a ladtler of very moderate length. Certainly no ropes nor scaffolding could be necessary in any that we saw. Their number is very great. No one who has seen them would say, as Dr Robinson has done, that they occur “at such points as woidd form couvenient resting-places for travellers or pilgrims during the noonday sun” (Biblical Researches, vol. i. p. 188). From nine in the morning till three or four in the afternoon the sun never left them. They lie fully exposed to his rays. They are not hieroglyphical. They are alphabetical. The camels, goats, &c. are not meant for hieroglyphics, — nor indeed perhaps for anything save amusement.

Such were the remarks occurring at the moment, as we explored the valley. I add one or two pages more, the result of after-consideration, even at the risk of appearing to traverse the ground twice over.

These inscriptions are undoubtedly of a great age. The fact of the characters being unknown, of itself proves this; for there is no instance of a language or an alphabet being totally lost during the last eighteen hundred years. This is a serious difficulty in the way of those who ascribe them to the pilgrims of the early centuries. For as these pilgrims were, with few exceptions, Greek, or Egyptians speaking Greek, it seems incredible that they should have left inscriptions in a language not their own, — a language whose every trace las perished, save what is to be gleaned from these old •ocks.

Any one looking at them would at once pronounce ;hem very old. They are not merely rudely graven, Rlt they give strong indication of their being the let- :ers of a rude alphabet. Such is decidedly the impression which remains upon my own mind, after examining :hem with care, and setting them side by side with all ;he various alphabets that I could lay hold of.

In looking at them, one is no doubt led to ask, how t is possible that such shallow cuttings, — such mere scratches, as some of them are, could endure so well the ;ear and wear of centuries? There is no one that I saw ;ut to half the depth of the letters on our poorest tombitone, how then could they keep their edges, or indeed be preserved from total erasure, say for a thousand years, seeing three centuries suffice to obliterate the records of )ur churchyards?

This is, however, no difficulty at all, when the state Df the case is looked into. Some of these inscriptions, for instance, are on granite, though most are on sand-Hone, yet the latter are in as good a state of preservation as the former, so that the hardness of the stone docs not seem to be an element in the question of the mtiquity of the graving; and as the granite inscriptions of Egypt, even in their minutest and most casual scratches, have stood perhaps four thousand years, no argument against the anticpiity of such oriental carvings can be founded on their liability to erasure. Indeed, nothing of this kind, either in Egj-pt or the desert, can be erased, save by violence. It is the united action of frost and damp that crumbles oui northern rocks and effaces our inscriptions. These influences do not exist in the desert, or at least to so smal an extent as to be imperceptible in their results. N( doubt there is occasionally, though rarely, frost durinc the night. But it is slight, and then it is in atmosphen thoroughly dry, and among rocks, not saturated Avitl perpetual moisture. The winter torrents, it is true, rusl down with wasting fury, but they pass off speedily, anc leave the air as dry as before. Scratch your name witl your penknife upon the sandstone of Wady Mukatteb and it will remain for centuries, as perfect as on the daj you carved it.

Ye know from the testimony of Cosmas in the sixtl century, that these inscriptions have already lastec twelve centuries, which is quite a sufficient length o time to test their durability. We know, moreover, tha in the adjoining wady there are Egyptian inscriptions in hieroglyphics, on similar sandstone, which are, beyon( doubt, of the age of the Pharaohs; so that if a hieroglyphical inscription in Wady iMagharah has stood th waste of four thousand years, there is no physical rea son why an alphabetical one in Wady Mukatteb shoul( not be equally enduring.

These remarks, however, merely dispose of some supposed difficulties, and determine nothing as to the ag if the inscriptions. They may he very ancient, but that loes not prove that they actually are so.

The Christian origin of these writings seems to me ‘ery doubtful. That Christian pilgrims should write in, character known to no Christian nation from the sixth entury to this, is a very improbable thing, especially djen we remembei that the languages which these pilrims spoke are Icnoivn languages. That there were lilgrims to Feiran and Sinai in these early ages is true, fut those alone from Egypt would pass through Wady Jukatteb, and their time of sojourn in any spot by the iay would be too short to admit of their being the nthors of these inscriptions, even had their numbers aade this possible. Only a body of men resident here jr weeks at least, if not months, could have been the uthors of these writings. And what band of joilgrims rould think of settling down at Mukatteb, where there 3 not a drop of water? Had the inscriptions been in ihurandel or Feinin, the pi’grim theory might have ave been ilausible, for in both of these places they night have remained for some time, but in Mukatteb his was impossible. That thousands of monks and herlits resided in Feiran and its neighbourhood, and that lilgrims resorted to their convents there, is admitted; lxt the admission destroys the conclusion founded on it. i’or we naturally a.sk, how was it that these men coninod their writing almost entirely to Wady ]Iukatteb? Vhy are there so many inscriptions in the latter valley there they could not have subsisted above a few days, and why are there none in Wady Feu’an “where w know that they dwelt for years, — nay ages? And ho: comes it that those other spots also, where we know the did reside, have the fewest inscriptions, while Wad Mukatteb has the most, of which we may say this 0 least, that we know not whether they so much as passe through it at all.

The figure of a cross, which occurs once and again,: no proof of the inscriptions being written by Christian For the same figure is to be found on Egyptian obehsk and is in the form of one of the articles held in the han of one of the gods of Egypt, — Osiris, if I remeinb( aright; and, moreover, it is precisely the figure of tl Tau in several ancient alphabets, such as the Phoen cian, the old Hebrew, the old Greek, and the Copti In looking at the inscriptions themselves, it is son time before you notice that the figure is really a cross it looks in some cases so like a part of the word.

In one part of the wady there are some things whic one does not like to associate with Christian pilgrim The figures of goats, &c. are not merely ludicrous, bi in one or two places quite obscene. This occurs ne; the south end of the valley, on some rocks which a particularly crowded with representations of animals, i all manner of positions. To say the least of thes they are absurd and laughable, — drawn evidently 1 some idlers for mere amusement; and some of the not fit to be presented to the public. They are such those with which our foolish young men disfigure tl vails of some of our j)ublio buildings, and which Alexmder Cruden, with his sponge, delighted to efface.

The question of their Israelitish origin is more diffi- ;ult. That they might have been executed by the Hebrews while in the desert, is not by any means an unikely thing; nay, at first mention, it seems most projable. But there are some objections to this, which, ap-Dear to me very formidable.

The first objection is as to the character and the laujuage. Ingenious as is Mr Forster’s theory, it does not •eraove this difficulty, or at least does so by a hypothe- pis, of which one would like to see fuller demonstration. We should have expected the characters to approximate it least, either to the Coptic or the Hebrew, which they lo not. I admit that in one or two words there is a Treat likeness to the Hebrew; but in all others, total anhkeness, which led me to conclude that the language must be one which, while it entirely differed from the Fiebrew, had certain affinities with it in some of its letters, and possibly in some of its words.

It is very likely, nay almost certain, that Israel passed throiigli this wady, but that they sojourned in it beyond 1 day or so is improbable.* From their first station

This suggests another remark. Israel could hardly have been both at Wadi, MidaUcb and at Scrldl on their way to Sinai, and it ia difficult to concoivo how they could have been at oithor ol’ those places, ofter leaving tliiit mountain. Yot the same inscrijitions occur in both these places, so that the Kaiiiu people must havu dwelt in both for some time. Weeks, at the leaat, would bo required.

beyond Elim, viz., “the Red Sea,” they proceeded right on to Sinai, through Dophkah, Alush, and Rephidim, Doplikah or Alush must have been nearWady Mukatteb; but Rephidim must have been two or three days beyond it. The sacred history shews us that Israel hastened on to Rephidim and Sinai, without halting so long by the way as to allow them time to write such multitudes ol inscrivttions as we find. Besides, it is clear that they must have pushed on without delay to their great destination, for there was no water by the way, and in th( Mukatteb district, least of all, They could not have remained in the wady above a day unless they had meani of briu’dng it from a distance, such as Pharaoh’s miner at Magharah doubtless had. This they had not, am hence I do not see how they could have remained a Mukatteb any longer than was ab.solutely necessary forest. They did not get the miraculous supply of wate from the rock for some days after. Thus they could no have stayed here above a day on their way to Sinai and as to their revisiting this afterwards when they lei the mount, this is a very great improbability indeed, as tb o-eography of the region shews, besides being in no wa countenanced by the narrative of Moses. It is quil possible that the manna and the quails may have bee given about the time when they were passing throug the Mukatteb region; but most certainly the water wi not, till they had entirely quitted it, so that it is difl cult to see how they could have tarried here at all, ar still more difficult to understand how they could dra tlic figure of the rock in Horeb, — a rock which they did Qot know till some days after they had quitted Mukatteb.

There is a figure of a man with outstretched and uplifted hands on one of the rocks; and when I saw it, I WHS struck with the resemblance to what one conceives must have been the attitude of Moses when he pleaded igainst Amalek; and Mr Forster points out this. But :hen at this time the conflict with Amalek had not ;aken place, so that this peculiar figure must refer to iometbing else. The same remark applies to the figure )f the serpent; for the attack of the fiery serpents and [srael’s healing by the brazen serpent, did not occur till learly forty years after they had loft Mulvatteb.

The remarks already made as to the ludicrous and mproper representations on some of the rocks apply trongly in the case of Israel. I do not enjoy the bought of such pictures having been drawn by the lebrews; but this of course is no proof.

As I surveyed the region and marked the inscriptions, he question came up continually, who could have been he authors? I tried to connect this wady with Maglarah, and to suppose that Pharaoh’s miners there had lone the work. But the threefold difficulty occurred. — 1.) Why are there hieroglyphics in ]Iagharah and not me in Mukatteb? (2.) Why is there not one letter or I’ord in the one place the same as those in tin; other. :i) Why should th(; workman have taken up their abode o far frum the place of their operations, and so much irthor from the Red Sea and from water than they needed to Lave done? The Mukatteb inscriptions could not be the work of the Egyptian miners of Magharah.

There is a passage, however, in Dr Wilson’s worli which has struck nie greatly, and which I have pondered again and again, in connection th the questioi before us. He himself does not make the use of it whicl I have sometimes thought might be done. But thi; does not alter the value of his statement. He tells tha after “taking a peep through the telescope at the higl range of red granite mountains lying to the east,” h( proceeded to visit them, having been struck vsrith wha appeared to be” dark metallic veins or basaltic dykes.’ In two hours he reached them after much toil, and hi description is as follows: —

“On a hill in front of them, which we had to surmount before we could get to their base, we were sui prised to see immense quantities of debris and slaf with fragments of stone mortars and furnaces, whicl we doubted not, had been used in the remotest antiquit for the pounding and smelting of ore. When we actuall reached the mountains, we found that they had bee peeled and excavated to a great extent, where the voir and dykes had occurred; and that only their coarse contents had in some places been spared. Numeroi grooves and channels seemed to be cut in the extractio of the ore, from the very top to the bottom of the moui tains, even where they were most perpendicular, an the mountains are completely sj)oiled and stripped ( then- treasures. How they were wrought, whether I the aid of scaffoldings reaching from the bottom, or by supports let down from above by ropes or chains, it is Impossible to say. Great must have been the exposure md the waste of human life in the working of them.” *

Others have since visited the spot, and their statements quite confirm Dr Wilson’s statements. Tools have been found, chisel-marks have been seen, tracks bare been traced, routes marked from hill to hill. Inscriptions are frequent, as well as representations of animals and trees. All this shews that mining operations have been once carried on here to a very largo extent, and as the Egyptian hieroglyphics are awanting, it is likely that the nation carrying them on was not Egypt, while the characters send us back to a period long before the Christian era.

Now, whether these vast mines were worked by some Qation from the south or from the north, it matters not. Whoever wrought them would find in Wady Mukatteb tlic nearest and most suitable place for the residence of the workmen, or at least the most convenient depot for the proceeds of the mines, whether they were to bo transported by the Red Sea into Egypt, or Abyssinia, or northward into Idumea or Phoenicia.

The ab-sence of hieroglyphics and t!,i’ nature of the character lead us to reject the supposition of the inscriptions being the work of Egypi’utn miners. But the groat similarity of the Mukatteb letters to several in the Phcjunician alphabet, would suggest the idea that perhaps

Lands oJ” the Bible, vol. i. j-p. 187, 183.

17^ RESEMBLANCE TO THE PHCENICIAN.

the authorsLip of these carvings may be traced to Phoenicia. If our readers will run their eyes along any comparative table of alphabets, while he keeps the inscriptions before him, he will be surprised at the similarities which he will detect.* If he turn to pages sixth and seventh of the second of the books named below, he will see two columns containing letters similar to the inscriptions. One is the Phoenician, and the other is the old llchrcw. Mr Forster may take this latter coincidence as a confirmation of his views; and I do not deny that it is so. But one remark must be added, which is not favouiable to him. “While some of the old Hebrew letters do corresjioud with the ]Iukatteb ones, there are more of the Phoenician ones that do so; nay, many of the Mukatteb letters are not to be found in that column of the old Hebrew alphabet, while they ore to be found in the Plioenician column. Beth, Daleth, Caph, Mem, Eesh, Tau, are similar to both alyhabets, and are to be read on the Mukatteb rocks; whde Schiu and Koph at least, if not others, occur only in the Phanician, in the form in which they occur in the Mukatteb. There are some doubtful letters which I do not refer to, and several, in the form of which, I can trace no resemblance between the Phoenician alphabet and the Mukatteb inscriptions.

I would not have the reader suppose that there are

* See for instance the table at the end of Dr Wilson’s volumes, or the “Alpbabete Orientalischcr und occidental ischer sprachen,” by Ballhom. Leipzig, 1853.

no difficulties in the ^Yay of this supposition, or that I am one of its advocates. I see objections; but then the very strong difficulties which were in the way of former theories, do not come up here. This is all I can say. The subject asks much more investigation and less dogmatism than have hitherto been bestowed upon it. “Whether it will repay the toil, one cannot say. But certainly when vast labour has not been grudged in much less promising fields, it ought not to be withheld in this. I am satisfied that the field has not yet been ex- ])lored, and that it is in these mountains, which Dr Wilson so hastily surveyed, that the key to the whole puzzle will bo found. I ought to add, that the above remarks are founded upon, and were suggested by, the passage quoted from this able traveller, and not from what I saw or heard upon the spot. I regret deeply that I did not penetrate into these mountain mines of which he has given us too brief a description.*

What “vve saw in this valley is only part of a great series of inscriptions, which the traveller lights upon in various parts of the desert. On all that may lie in our

Tho fact of tlieso inscriptions not orcurring in Gliurandcl or Foiraii, where the Israelites and Christian pilgrims might remain for sonic time, anil only occnrring in places where they could not remain above a day, is an important one. Tho fact of these writings being found in Muicattcb, which could attract only miners and such like, is equally important. At the snmo time, I rcfret that Dr Robinson, in tho now edition of his Re- 8ciirchc«, should treat Mr Forstcr’s theory as so visionary as to bo unworthy of notice, while, at tho same time, ho suggests ono much raoro visionary and untciiiiblo.

way, we mean to keep a watchful 0y6, notiug down time and place.

Meanwhile we recall the words df the patriarch, whose dwelling was not very far from these valleys: —

Oh thflt my words were now written,

Oh that they were engraven on a tablet,

With a pen of iron and with lead,

That for ever on the rock they might be carved!

There is perhaps no book in the Bible which bettei admits of illustration from desert-scenes and desert-customs than that of Job; and to one who has dwelt evea for a few weeks amidst these, this book acquires a double interest and attraction. Two or three times in the course of every chapter he lights upon words, figures, allusions, which seem robbed of half their poim and power when interpreted in connection with European, or even with Syrian way.s, and laws, and scenery. From the first chapter to the last the Book of Job is the book of the desert, as truly as Ecclesiastes is the book of the palace. Proverbs the book of the city, Canticles the book of the garden, Romans the book of the forum, Hebrews the book of the altar, and the Apocalypse the book of the templa