DOI Page / Citation link:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.12664#0251
240
INCIDENTS OF TRAVEL.
small for such a voyage, and money would not
induce him to attempt it. Late in the afternoon
we landed on the opposite side, on the most sacred
spot connected with the wanderings of the Israel-
ites, where they rose from the dry bed of the sea,
and, at the command of Moses, the divided waters
rushed together, overwhelming Pharaoh and his
chariots, and the whole host of Egypt. With the de-
votion of a pious pilgrim, I picked up a shell and put
it in my pocket as a memorial of the place, and then
Paul and I, mounting the dromedaries which my
guide had brought down to the shore in readiness,
rode to a grove of palm-trees, shading a fountain
of bad water, called ayoun Moussa, or the fountain
of Moses. I was riding carelessly along, looking
behind me towards the sea, and had almost reached
the grove of palm-trees, when a large flock of
crows flew out, and my dromedary, frightened with
their sudden whizzing, started back and threw me
twenty feet over his head, completely clear of his
long neck, and left me sprawling in the sand. It
was a mercy I did not finish my wanderings where
the children of Israel began theirs ; but I saved my
head at the expense of my hands, which sank in the
loose soil up to the wrist, and bore the marks for
more than two months afterward. I seated my-
self where I fell, and as the sun was just dipping
below the horizon, told Paul to pitch the tent, with
the door towards the place of the miraculous pas-
sage. I shall never forget that sunset scene, and it
is the last I shall inflict upon the reader. I was
sitting on the sand on the very spot where the cho-
INCIDENTS OF TRAVEL.
small for such a voyage, and money would not
induce him to attempt it. Late in the afternoon
we landed on the opposite side, on the most sacred
spot connected with the wanderings of the Israel-
ites, where they rose from the dry bed of the sea,
and, at the command of Moses, the divided waters
rushed together, overwhelming Pharaoh and his
chariots, and the whole host of Egypt. With the de-
votion of a pious pilgrim, I picked up a shell and put
it in my pocket as a memorial of the place, and then
Paul and I, mounting the dromedaries which my
guide had brought down to the shore in readiness,
rode to a grove of palm-trees, shading a fountain
of bad water, called ayoun Moussa, or the fountain
of Moses. I was riding carelessly along, looking
behind me towards the sea, and had almost reached
the grove of palm-trees, when a large flock of
crows flew out, and my dromedary, frightened with
their sudden whizzing, started back and threw me
twenty feet over his head, completely clear of his
long neck, and left me sprawling in the sand. It
was a mercy I did not finish my wanderings where
the children of Israel began theirs ; but I saved my
head at the expense of my hands, which sank in the
loose soil up to the wrist, and bore the marks for
more than two months afterward. I seated my-
self where I fell, and as the sun was just dipping
below the horizon, told Paul to pitch the tent, with
the door towards the place of the miraculous pas-
sage. I shall never forget that sunset scene, and it
is the last I shall inflict upon the reader. I was
sitting on the sand on the very spot where the cho-