DOI Seite / Zitierlink:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.12664#0255
244
INCIDENTS OF TRAVEL.
did not long remain in the shifting sands; their
descendants have long been strangers in the land 5
and tradition but imperfectly supplies the want of
more accurate and enduring records. Of the gen-
eral fact there is no doubt; no other road from the
Red Sea to Mount Sinai has existed since the
days of Moses, and there is no part of the world
where the face of nature and the natural land-
marks have remained so totally unchanged. Then,
as now, it was a barren mountainous region, bare
of verdure and destitute of streams of living water ;
so that the Almighty was obliged to sustain his
people with manna from heaven and water from
•the rocks. But travellers have questioned whether
this is the fountain of Marah. The Bible account
is simple and brief: " They went three days in
■the wilderness, and found no water; and when they
came to Marah, they could not drink of the waters
of Marah, for they were bitter." Burckhardt ob-
jects that the distance is too short for three days'
jjourney, but this cavil is sufficiently answered by
others ; that the movements of such an immense
multitude, of all ages and both sexes, with flocks and
cattle, which they must have had for the sacrifices,,
if for no other purpose, must necessarily have been
slow. Besides, supposing the habits of the people
to have been the same as we find them now among
Orientals, the presumption is rather that they
would march slowly, than push on with speedy
after the danger of pursuit was over. Time is
thought of little consequence by the Arabs, and as
the Jews were Arabs, it is probable that the same
INCIDENTS OF TRAVEL.
did not long remain in the shifting sands; their
descendants have long been strangers in the land 5
and tradition but imperfectly supplies the want of
more accurate and enduring records. Of the gen-
eral fact there is no doubt; no other road from the
Red Sea to Mount Sinai has existed since the
days of Moses, and there is no part of the world
where the face of nature and the natural land-
marks have remained so totally unchanged. Then,
as now, it was a barren mountainous region, bare
of verdure and destitute of streams of living water ;
so that the Almighty was obliged to sustain his
people with manna from heaven and water from
•the rocks. But travellers have questioned whether
this is the fountain of Marah. The Bible account
is simple and brief: " They went three days in
■the wilderness, and found no water; and when they
came to Marah, they could not drink of the waters
of Marah, for they were bitter." Burckhardt ob-
jects that the distance is too short for three days'
jjourney, but this cavil is sufficiently answered by
others ; that the movements of such an immense
multitude, of all ages and both sexes, with flocks and
cattle, which they must have had for the sacrifices,,
if for no other purpose, must necessarily have been
slow. Besides, supposing the habits of the people
to have been the same as we find them now among
Orientals, the presumption is rather that they
would march slowly, than push on with speedy
after the danger of pursuit was over. Time is
thought of little consequence by the Arabs, and as
the Jews were Arabs, it is probable that the same