DOI Page / Citation link:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.12664#0288
A MONKISH LEGEND,
273
table of rock standing boldly out, and running
down almost perpendicularly an immense distance
to the valley. I was expecting another monkish
legend, and my very heart thrilled when the monk
told me that this was the top of the hill on which
Moses had sat during the battle of the Israelites
and the Amalekites, while Aaron and Hur sup-
ported his uplifted hands, until the sun went down
upon the victorious arms of his people. From the
height I could see, clearly and distinctly, every
part of the battle-ground, and the whole vale of
Rephidim and the mountains beyond ; and Moses,
while on this spot, must have been visible to the
contending armies from every part of the field on
which they were engaged.
Some distance farther on the old monk stopped,
and, prostrating himself before a stone, kissed it de-
voutly, and then told me its history. He said that
the last time the monks in the convent were beset
by the Arabs, when their communication with
Cairo was cut off, and death by the sword or fam-
ine staring them in the face, the superior proposed
that they should put on their holiest vestments, and,
under the sacred banner of the cross, ascend in a
body, and, for the last time, sing their Te Deum on
the top of the mountain. On their return, at this
stone they met a woman with a child, who told
them that all their danger was over; and in ac-
cordance with her words, when they returned to
the convent, they found the Arabs gone, and forty
camels from Cairo laden with provisions standing
273
table of rock standing boldly out, and running
down almost perpendicularly an immense distance
to the valley. I was expecting another monkish
legend, and my very heart thrilled when the monk
told me that this was the top of the hill on which
Moses had sat during the battle of the Israelites
and the Amalekites, while Aaron and Hur sup-
ported his uplifted hands, until the sun went down
upon the victorious arms of his people. From the
height I could see, clearly and distinctly, every
part of the battle-ground, and the whole vale of
Rephidim and the mountains beyond ; and Moses,
while on this spot, must have been visible to the
contending armies from every part of the field on
which they were engaged.
Some distance farther on the old monk stopped,
and, prostrating himself before a stone, kissed it de-
voutly, and then told me its history. He said that
the last time the monks in the convent were beset
by the Arabs, when their communication with
Cairo was cut off, and death by the sword or fam-
ine staring them in the face, the superior proposed
that they should put on their holiest vestments, and,
under the sacred banner of the cross, ascend in a
body, and, for the last time, sing their Te Deum on
the top of the mountain. On their return, at this
stone they met a woman with a child, who told
them that all their danger was over; and in ac-
cordance with her words, when they returned to
the convent, they found the Arabs gone, and forty
camels from Cairo laden with provisions standing