DOI Seite / Zitierlink:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.11637#0175
i6o
TRAVELS IV UPPER
out, did not appear to me to be circumstances that
ought to stop me now ; and since I had reached
the midst of these deserts, I was resolved at least
to have time lor making some observations in
them. Hussein, chagrined at my resolve, imme-
diately departed, after having embraced me in a
very kind and affecting manner, and left me en-
closed within four walls, without either of us
knowing how I should <ret out.
Formerly this retreat was inhabited by Greek
monks. These have been succeeded by Cophls, or
natives of Egypt, whohavingembraced Christianity,
have seen arise among them some of those congre-
gations, to which men have agreed to give the
epithet of religious, though most of them arc no-
thing but sinks of idleness and vice. Here barba-
rism and stupid ignorance likewise took up their
abode, perpetuating the memory of ancient ancho-
rites, who, imagining themselves born to be use-
less, retired in the prime of life, (o bury them-
selves from society in these remote solitudes. One
Saint Macarius rendered himself particularly fa-
mous, so that his name was given to the desert,
which the ancients had distinguished by that of
Nitria; a name which it will unquestionably re-
tain, as natron, the nitre of the ancients, will al-
ways be found in it, and marks of distinction fur-
nished by nature, have a grandeur and immutabi-
lity
TRAVELS IV UPPER
out, did not appear to me to be circumstances that
ought to stop me now ; and since I had reached
the midst of these deserts, I was resolved at least
to have time lor making some observations in
them. Hussein, chagrined at my resolve, imme-
diately departed, after having embraced me in a
very kind and affecting manner, and left me en-
closed within four walls, without either of us
knowing how I should <ret out.
Formerly this retreat was inhabited by Greek
monks. These have been succeeded by Cophls, or
natives of Egypt, whohavingembraced Christianity,
have seen arise among them some of those congre-
gations, to which men have agreed to give the
epithet of religious, though most of them arc no-
thing but sinks of idleness and vice. Here barba-
rism and stupid ignorance likewise took up their
abode, perpetuating the memory of ancient ancho-
rites, who, imagining themselves born to be use-
less, retired in the prime of life, (o bury them-
selves from society in these remote solitudes. One
Saint Macarius rendered himself particularly fa-
mous, so that his name was given to the desert,
which the ancients had distinguished by that of
Nitria; a name which it will unquestionably re-
tain, as natron, the nitre of the ancients, will al-
ways be found in it, and marks of distinction fur-
nished by nature, have a grandeur and immutabi-
lity