248 THE MOHAMMEDAN PILGRIMAGE, 



tured, without impugning the truth of Sacred History, 

 to question the antiquity and identity of this sur- 

 prising block, and consider it one of the deceptions 

 invented by the brothers of the convent, who have 

 a personal interest in encouraging this superstition. 

 Every observer, Burckhardt has remarked, must be 

 convinced, on the slightest examination, that most 

 of the crevices are the work of art, — three or four 

 of them perhaps are natural, — and these may have 

 given rise to the tradition. That the incrustation 

 is the effect of moisture may be quite true ; for the 

 adjoining rocks, where water is still dripping, are 

 marked in the same manner ; so that if a fragment 

 of the cliff were to fall down, it might be dilficult in 

 a few.years to make a distinction between the two. 

 What renders the locality of this venerated stone 

 more suspicious, is the fact that this part of the 

 desert abounds with perennial springs, which seems 

 to prove decidedly that it cannot be the ^Darched 

 vale of Rephidim, " wjiere there was no water for 

 the people to drink." While, therefore, the^iiracle 

 of Moses remains untouched, we may be permitted 

 to doubt the accuracy of the monks and Bedouins, 

 who are naturally pleased to see strangers struck 

 with religious surprise at the same objects which 

 they themselves revere, perhaps with all the sincer- 

 ity of a conscientious belief. 



Not far from Sinai a valley was discovered about 

 the beginning of the eighteenth century, which 

 created a considerable sensation in Europe from the 

 rocks being covered with inscriptions in unknown 

 characters and uncouth figures; this was the famous 

 Gehel Mokkateh, or Written Mountain. Learned soci- 

 eties and several governments encouraged travel- 

 lers to examine them ; and Mr. Clayton, bishop of 

 Clogher, offered 500/. to defray the expenses of the 

 journey, provided any man of letters would undertake 

 to copy them. Expectations were entertained that 

 these inscriptions might furnish some testimony 



