DOI Page / Citation link:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.12664#0254
APPROACH TO SINAI.
243
upon his head, flying with his chariot and horses
over the face of the deep; and even to this day
the Arab, diving for coral, brings up fragments of
swords, broken helmets, or chariot-wheels, swal-
lowed up with the host of Egypt."
Early the next morning we resumed our jour-
ney, and travelled several hours along a sandy
valley, diverging slowly from the sea and ap-
proaching the mountains on our left. The day's
journey was barren of incident, though not void of
interest. We met only one small caravan of Be-
douins, with their empty sacks, like the children of
Jacob of old, journeying from a land of famine to a
land of plenty. From time to time we passed the
bones of a camel bleaching on the sand, and once
the body of one just dead, his eyes already picked
out, and their sockets hollow to the brain. A huge
vulture was standing over him, with his long talons
fastened in the entrails, his beak and his whole
head stained with blood. I drove the horrid bird
away; but before I had got out of sight he had
again fastened on his prey.
The third day we started at seven o'clock, and
after three hours of journeying entered among the
mountains of Sinai. The scene was n >w entirely
changed in character; the level expanse of the
sandy desert for the wild and rugged mountain-
pass. At eleven we came to the fountain of Ma-
rah, supposed to be that at which the Israelites
rested after their three days' journey from the Red
Sea. There is some uncertainty as to the par-
ticulars of this journey ; the print of their footsteps
243
upon his head, flying with his chariot and horses
over the face of the deep; and even to this day
the Arab, diving for coral, brings up fragments of
swords, broken helmets, or chariot-wheels, swal-
lowed up with the host of Egypt."
Early the next morning we resumed our jour-
ney, and travelled several hours along a sandy
valley, diverging slowly from the sea and ap-
proaching the mountains on our left. The day's
journey was barren of incident, though not void of
interest. We met only one small caravan of Be-
douins, with their empty sacks, like the children of
Jacob of old, journeying from a land of famine to a
land of plenty. From time to time we passed the
bones of a camel bleaching on the sand, and once
the body of one just dead, his eyes already picked
out, and their sockets hollow to the brain. A huge
vulture was standing over him, with his long talons
fastened in the entrails, his beak and his whole
head stained with blood. I drove the horrid bird
away; but before I had got out of sight he had
again fastened on his prey.
The third day we started at seven o'clock, and
after three hours of journeying entered among the
mountains of Sinai. The scene was n >w entirely
changed in character; the level expanse of the
sandy desert for the wild and rugged mountain-
pass. At eleven we came to the fountain of Ma-
rah, supposed to be that at which the Israelites
rested after their three days' journey from the Red
Sea. There is some uncertainty as to the par-
ticulars of this journey ; the print of their footsteps