DOI Page / Citation link:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.11715#0193
EGYPT TO SINAI.
states that there can be no doubt that the Greek and Sinaitic writing: of which the in-
scription consists was executed by the same hand. Nor is this a solitary instance. These
writings, hitherto supposed to be of so great an age, are only detached sentences, in an
Aramaean dialect, "a great many of them being proper names, with here and there in-
troductory formulae such as Oriental peoples have been from time immemorial accus-
tomed to prefix to their compositions." They were probably the work of pilgrims and
traders during the earlier part of the Christian era, or for two or three centuries before
it. The Christian signs employed denote that many of the inscribers were Christians ;
but there is evidence to prove that-a large proportion of them were Jews or Pagans.
"The writing must have extended into the monkish times, possibly until the spread of
El-Islam brought the ancestors of the present inhabitants, Bedouin hordes, from El-
Hajaz and other parts of Arabia Proper, to the mountains of Sinai, and dispersed or
absorbed that Saracen population of whom the monks stood in such mortal dread."
Leaving the Wady Mokatteb by a boulder-strewn valley, we enter the Wady Feiran,
the most beautiful and fertile of all the wadies in the peninsula—perhaps the only one
THE WADY FEIRAN.
to which these epithets can properly be applied. Some years ago it was devastated by a
frightful inundation caused by storms of unusual violence in the mountains, which turned
the wady into a torrent ten feet in depth. Thirty Bedouin were drowned, hundreds of
sheep and goats perished, and upwards of a thousand palm trees were uprooted and
washed away. Many years must pass before the traces of this destructive deluge have
disappeared.
At the entrance of the wady are the remains of some of those ancient buildings to
which reference has already been made. Stone circles, and kist-vaens, curiously like
those of our own early Celtic period, have been discovered. In some of the latter,
opened by Mr. Lord, the bodies were found with the knees bent upon the chest, as was
the case in all the tombs of this class examined by him throughout the peninsula. The
significance of this fact will be understood by the students of pre-historic antiquities. In
and around many of the graves flint implements have been found in considerable num-
bers, but none were seen in the Wady Feiran. About seven miles beyond these ruins
the wady expands, while the rocks are lower, with wider watercourses intersecting their
states that there can be no doubt that the Greek and Sinaitic writing: of which the in-
scription consists was executed by the same hand. Nor is this a solitary instance. These
writings, hitherto supposed to be of so great an age, are only detached sentences, in an
Aramaean dialect, "a great many of them being proper names, with here and there in-
troductory formulae such as Oriental peoples have been from time immemorial accus-
tomed to prefix to their compositions." They were probably the work of pilgrims and
traders during the earlier part of the Christian era, or for two or three centuries before
it. The Christian signs employed denote that many of the inscribers were Christians ;
but there is evidence to prove that-a large proportion of them were Jews or Pagans.
"The writing must have extended into the monkish times, possibly until the spread of
El-Islam brought the ancestors of the present inhabitants, Bedouin hordes, from El-
Hajaz and other parts of Arabia Proper, to the mountains of Sinai, and dispersed or
absorbed that Saracen population of whom the monks stood in such mortal dread."
Leaving the Wady Mokatteb by a boulder-strewn valley, we enter the Wady Feiran,
the most beautiful and fertile of all the wadies in the peninsula—perhaps the only one
THE WADY FEIRAN.
to which these epithets can properly be applied. Some years ago it was devastated by a
frightful inundation caused by storms of unusual violence in the mountains, which turned
the wady into a torrent ten feet in depth. Thirty Bedouin were drowned, hundreds of
sheep and goats perished, and upwards of a thousand palm trees were uprooted and
washed away. Many years must pass before the traces of this destructive deluge have
disappeared.
At the entrance of the wady are the remains of some of those ancient buildings to
which reference has already been made. Stone circles, and kist-vaens, curiously like
those of our own early Celtic period, have been discovered. In some of the latter,
opened by Mr. Lord, the bodies were found with the knees bent upon the chest, as was
the case in all the tombs of this class examined by him throughout the peninsula. The
significance of this fact will be understood by the students of pre-historic antiquities. In
and around many of the graves flint implements have been found in considerable num-
bers, but none were seen in the Wady Feiran. About seven miles beyond these ruins
the wady expands, while the rocks are lower, with wider watercourses intersecting their