7^ 



Visit to Mount Sinai. 



[No. 3S] 



something like a carter's smock-frock with capacious hanging sleeves, 

 confined at the waist by a girdle. Short loose drawers ; a red tar- 

 boosh on their heads with 'a turban twisted round it. Underneath 

 the tarboosh a tagheia or cotton skull-cap is sometimes worn, 

 which can be replaced and washed. In winter they wear the white 

 and brown striped woollen abba or a black cumli or blanket of goata 

 hair. A matchlock is slung across the back, with a piece of match 

 rope of ctggal fibres twisted round the stock. Over the left shoulder 

 is a leather belt suspending a rude cartouche box and priming flask of 

 ram's horn, and over the right is slung the usual Arab sword with 

 wooden scabbard ; a flint, steel, and amadon, a curved dagger, the 

 noted Jiwibia, garnish his brass-buckled waistbelt and kummerbund^ 

 while his feet are protected by strong bufl*aloe or camel leather 

 sandals, and a short reed or cherry-stick pipe completes his travelling 

 costume. An Arab however so well dressed is rarely met with, the 

 intermediate shades ranging to rags and almost nakedness. Yet after 

 all, these light breeched nomades appear to be one of the happiest 

 races of the world. 



Except the Arabs we encountered but few living things, a few 

 crows resembling those of Europe more than the grey necked species 

 in India ; hawks, an eagle, and a red-legged partridge ; sparrows, a 

 few lizards and green locusts, the mosquito and common fly make 

 the whole of the list. The hyaena, gazelle, and a sort of ibex are 

 said to roam the mountains. I saw none of the burrows of the jerboa 

 which in some of the passes of upper Egypt completely undermine 

 the ground. 



We found much to interest us in the customs of the convent of 

 Mount Sinai and of its inmates, but this paper is already too long. 



I obtained copies of some papers found deposited among the skulls 

 in the chests of the charnel-house which contain those of the supe- 

 riors of the convent, the bishops of Feiran and other elevated per- 

 sonages. Those of the multitude form a grinning ghastly pile. 



The copies of these inscriptions accompany this paper.* 



* Copied for me from an inscription, or marble, found in one of the chests of 

 the skulls of Bishops, by Yuseff, monk of Sinai, natiye of Roumelia, 7th June, 

 Convent of Mount Sinai. 



* 



