SUNRISE AND SUNSET FROM MOUNT SINAI 



1273 



and sat out on a ledge of rock which 

 overhung the valley, hundreds of feet 

 -below. "Sin's" eternal enemy — the Day — 

 ^as coming, and I was about to witness 

 the battle of the gods. The faintest 

 ■streak of white was creeping into the 

 ■eastern sky ; it broadened slowly, and 

 crept around the horizon. Our moon- 

 cast shadows were growing fainter ; step 

 by step "Sin" was being driven back 

 from his own mountain. The little clouds 

 and the morning mists, those white and 

 fleecy sheep which Polyphemus herded 

 in his cavern of the night, lay out along 

 the mountain sides and down in the val- 

 leys to watch the contest. 



Some tiny clouds in the eastern sky 

 turned silver and then glowed wnth a 

 "white fire, while a band of pink spread 

 around the west. The mountains began 

 to stand forth, range beyond range, and 

 in the uncertain light they looked like 

 the waves of a great sea rolling in upon 

 Sinai, and pressed forward by billowing 

 -clouds behind. Like a faint thread, the 

 Jerusalem road crept out of the darkness 

 that yet lingered in the valley below, a 

 line of wavering white. The stars were 

 fading rapidly, the moon lost her gold 

 and turned to silver in the sky. Then 

 the rim of the sun gleamed over the bank 

 •of clouds, a new and clearer world of 

 shadows began to fall behind us and 

 about us, and the day had come. The 

 light filled the eastern valleys with a 

 silvery haze and blotted out the Gulf of 

 Akabah, but the Gulf of Suez came into 

 sight, with Jebel Atakah veiled in purple 

 and crowned with crimson. 



As the sun cleared the eastern clouds, 

 George dropped upon his knees, folded 

 his hands, and prayed with the sunlight 

 full upon his wrinkled face. What far- 

 •ofif inheritance, what ancestry of sun- 

 worshipers spoke in the act, I doubt if 

 "he knew^ and I wondered whether he 

 liimself understood the impulse that 

 l)rought him to his knees. 



On our way down the mountain we 

 ■came again to the ledge of rock that al- 

 most overhung our camp. I saw the 

 tents lying silent and far below ; one 

 ■camel was browsing near the pond, while 

 the smoke of the camp fire was rising in 

 the still air. As I looked one of our 

 party threw up the flap of her tent and 

 came out into the open. I shouted to 



her ; she waved her arm, but her reply 

 came back faint and unintelligible. 



I stood for a second longer and turned 

 to descend, when the mountain suddenly 

 awoke and thundered at me, "Hello !" it 

 roared, and then 



"Hello -ello -elo-lo-lo-lo-lo-lo." 



Faster and faster the echoes rolled on 

 until all syllables were lost in a roar that 

 died down into a muttering. It was as 

 if some one had given a gatling the voice 

 of a 1 2-inch cannon. 



But the amazing thing was the length 

 of time that had elapsed between my 

 shout and the mountain's first reply. I 

 sent the echoes flying again and again, 

 awakening the mountains to unaccus- 

 tomed life ; but time v/as passing, the 

 camp was all astir ; so, throwing caution 

 to the winds, I hastened down the steep 

 descent. 



After breakfast we left George and 

 the Bedouin to pack up the tents and be- 

 gan the descent to the convent. On our 

 way we found that a boulder had fallen 

 in the night. Some of the steps had been 

 crushed to powder ; others had been 

 driven from their settings, leaving gap- 

 ing holes. For a thousand feet we traced 

 that flying boulder by cracked, chipped, 

 or broken steps, and by bright scars on 

 the walls where fragments had caromed 

 off. Four or five hundred feet below, we 

 came upon a fragment of the rock that 

 may have weighed a ton ; it lay wedged 

 in the path and we had to climb over it. 

 Further down, the path was again blocked 

 by the fallen rocks. It seemed as if the 

 .boulder had literally exploded, so con- 

 stant were the scars it had left behind. 



The wind that Elijah heard, which 

 "rent the mountains and brake in pieces 

 the rocks," might easily become literal 

 fact in this gorge where run the pilgrim 

 steps, for boulders are constantly fall- 

 ing, even on still nights, and any tempest 

 of wind, tearing up between its narrow 

 walls, would send the boulders flying.. 



So we came back to the convent, and 

 another fortnight found us once more 

 in Cairo and civilization. But the mem- 

 ory of the pendant stars, of the bril- 

 liant moonlight among the rocks, of the 

 glories of the sunrise and the sunset over 

 the mountains of Sinai, abides and does 

 not fade. 



