62 



Visit to Alount Sinai. 



[No. S3, 



convent garden in the valley of Shueib or Ed Dair. At the mouth 

 of another valley running along the opposite flank, are the cypress 

 trees, and garden spots marking the old gardens of the convent. 

 This is the entrance to the valley of the 40 martyrs ; Al Arbain or 

 El Lejjah. 



Having traversed Er Rahah we crossed the mouth of Wadi Sheikh 

 (the high road to Suez and Wadi Gherondel.) which opens on Er 

 Rahah from the N. E. and passed into the narrow rugged defile of 

 Ed Dair (the convent) by the Arab burial ground at its mouth, and 

 by the " Chair of Moses," towards the convent. The figure of the 

 monk on the walls reconnoitring our small party soon became visi- 

 ble. A white flag with the red cross having a black one below it 

 was over one of the turrets. Twenty minutes from the mouth of the 

 defile brought us to the convent. 



After a parley under the lofty walls, we dismounted, were duly 

 hoisted up through the pigeon hole in the way so often described, 

 and were not strangled by the loving embraces of the monks. Having 

 partaken of coff*ee with the grey-bearded superior, Nicodemus, Ave 

 retired to our cell attended by the worthy old monk Demetrius, a 

 strange being, native of Hellas in the Morea. He spoke Hin- 

 dustani fluently, to our surprize, and has repaired to this sacred 

 spot after many wanderings and vicissitudes, to repent him of his 

 sins, and to lay his bones in the dismal necropolis attached to the 

 convent. 



Ascent of Mount ^th June. — After a night's refreshing repose we 

 rose at sunrise accompanied by a Greek monk of 

 Anatolia descending the steps from the gallery into the open quad- 

 rangle of the convent, we passed by the lower cloisters to a flight 

 of steps leading down a narrow subterranean passage closed by a 

 low iron door ; after groping along its sloping floor for a few seconds, 

 we emerged into a lovely garden filled with apricot, apple, almond, 

 orange and other fruit-trees, whose light, graceful foliage, relieved 

 the sombre hue, and stately forms of the tall cypresses. From the 

 garden we passed through a door in its high wall, and stood on the 

 slopes of Horeb. The sun had not yet penetrated into the depths 

 of this valley. 



The ascent lay in a S. S. W. direction by a defile obliquing up the 

 mountain's flank of bare granite. Ten minutes brisk walk brought 

 us to the Virgin's or the Mountain Well, Mayeh El Jehel, under a 



