DOI Page / Citation link:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.12664#0296
THEOLOGICAL CONTROVERSY. 279
such a profane story, and considering the holy
mountain in a manner his property, broke out un-
ceremoniouslv, and denounced it as a wicked in-
vention of the Arabs, averring that everybody
knew that, before Mohammed got half way up, the
camel stumbled, fell, and broke the neck of the
« Prophet. This was equally new and monstrous
to the Arab, who swore that the legend was true,
for it was written in the Koran, and that he him-
self had often seen the print of the foot; and he ac-
counted for my not seeing it, by the very sensible
and satisfactory explanation that it was visible only
to the eyes of true believers. The good father
was completely roused by this obstinate persistance
in the scandal; and a reckless Bedouin and an old
Bulgarian monk, sitting by a fountain among the
deserts of Sinai, were soon disputing with as much
clamour and bitterness as if they had been brought
up in the midst of civilization, to harangue from
opposing pulpits the preachers of the promises, and
the denouncers of the curses of rival churches.
One thing the pious father especially insisted on—
the strong point in his argument, and particularly
ludicrous, as coming from such an old bundle of su-
perstitions—was the impossibility of a camel's foot
making an impression on stone ; and, judging from
this alone, one might have suspected him of having
had in his youth some feeble glimmerings of com-
mon sense ; but a few minutes after he told me the
legend of Mount St. Catharine.
Mount St. Catharine is the great rival of Sinai
in the range of mountains in the Arabian peninsula.
such a profane story, and considering the holy
mountain in a manner his property, broke out un-
ceremoniouslv, and denounced it as a wicked in-
vention of the Arabs, averring that everybody
knew that, before Mohammed got half way up, the
camel stumbled, fell, and broke the neck of the
« Prophet. This was equally new and monstrous
to the Arab, who swore that the legend was true,
for it was written in the Koran, and that he him-
self had often seen the print of the foot; and he ac-
counted for my not seeing it, by the very sensible
and satisfactory explanation that it was visible only
to the eyes of true believers. The good father
was completely roused by this obstinate persistance
in the scandal; and a reckless Bedouin and an old
Bulgarian monk, sitting by a fountain among the
deserts of Sinai, were soon disputing with as much
clamour and bitterness as if they had been brought
up in the midst of civilization, to harangue from
opposing pulpits the preachers of the promises, and
the denouncers of the curses of rival churches.
One thing the pious father especially insisted on—
the strong point in his argument, and particularly
ludicrous, as coming from such an old bundle of su-
perstitions—was the impossibility of a camel's foot
making an impression on stone ; and, judging from
this alone, one might have suspected him of having
had in his youth some feeble glimmerings of com-
mon sense ; but a few minutes after he told me the
legend of Mount St. Catharine.
Mount St. Catharine is the great rival of Sinai
in the range of mountains in the Arabian peninsula.