1847.] 



Visit to Mou7it Sinai. 



59 



Leipzig-. As I do not see any copy of this particular inscription ia 

 Burckhardt, and not having Mr. Grey's collection of 177 to refer to, 

 I have preserved the copy I took on the spot, another was taken 

 by my fellow traveller Mr. Shute at the time, and both were com- 

 pared and found exactly alike. 



The letters are from 2 to 6 inches long, and are now faint and 

 nearly obliterated. The stone is a coarse granite, of reddish felspar, 

 quartz, mica, and hornblende, the upper surface of which is exfoliat- 

 ing in thin flakes. 



There is little doubt that hundreds of these inscriptions have been 

 lost, and are daily vanishing under this natural process of obli- 

 teration, and if the researches of Professor Beer tend to show that 

 they may throw any light on history or add to literature, instead of 

 being merely the idle scratches of wandering pilgrims, no delay 

 should take place in collecting complete and accurate copies. Those 

 given by Pococke, Kircher and Niebuhr, are confessedly erroneous. 

 Those of Seetzen and Burckhardt are better, truly remarks Professor 

 Kobinson, who goes on to say,''' hitherto Professor Beer has found 

 no date in those inscriptions already deciphered ; but that on palseo- 

 graphic grounds and the character of the writing, he supposes the 

 greater part of them could not have been written earlier than the 

 4th century. The letters like crosses are also adduced by Professor 

 Robinson as proving them to be posterior to the Christian era and to 

 the work of pilgrims. These are cogent arguments in favor of the 

 modern origin, but how these crosses, strong resemblances to which 

 may be found in Egyptian hieroglyphics and in characters more 

 ancient than the Christian era got into the Sinaitic alphabet,^ by 



a Researches, vol. 1, p. 553. 

 6 Not one Jewish or Christian name has yet been found. In .some cases I have 

 observed crosses quite distinct from the inscriptions, which are evidently the recent 

 work of pilgrims. 



