DOI Page / Citation link:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.12664#0320
THE FAREWELL.
301
the superior would not hear of my leaving the
convent; but I resisted his importunities, and laugh-
ingly told him I did not like that unchristian way
of burial, cutting up and piling away a man's bones
like sticks of firewood to dry. Finding me re-
solved, he took me to his room, and gave me from
his little store -of treasures some shells and petri-
factions (which I threw away when out of his
sight), engravings of Mount Sinai, and incidents of
which it has been the scene, the rudest and most
uncouth conceptions that ever were imagined, and
a small box of manna, the same, as he religiously
believed, which fed the Israelites during their so-
journ in the wilderness. He gave me, too, a long
letter, written in modern Greek, and directed to
the governor of Gaza, certifying that I was a pil-
grim from America ; that I had performed all the
duties of the pilgrimage, and was now travelling to
the holy city of Jerusalem. The letter contained,
also, a warm and earnest recommendation to all
the Greek convents in the Holy Land, to receive
and comfort, feed and clothe, and help and succour
me in case of need. Last of all, he put on my fin-
ger a ring of the simplest form and substance, and
worthy to accompany the palmer's staff of an older
age. Every pilgrim to Mount Sinai receives one
of these rings ; and, like the green turban of the
Mussulman, which distinguishes the devout hadji
who has been to Mecca, among the Christians of
the East it is the honoured token of a complete and
perfect pilgrimage.
VOL.. I.—C C
301
the superior would not hear of my leaving the
convent; but I resisted his importunities, and laugh-
ingly told him I did not like that unchristian way
of burial, cutting up and piling away a man's bones
like sticks of firewood to dry. Finding me re-
solved, he took me to his room, and gave me from
his little store -of treasures some shells and petri-
factions (which I threw away when out of his
sight), engravings of Mount Sinai, and incidents of
which it has been the scene, the rudest and most
uncouth conceptions that ever were imagined, and
a small box of manna, the same, as he religiously
believed, which fed the Israelites during their so-
journ in the wilderness. He gave me, too, a long
letter, written in modern Greek, and directed to
the governor of Gaza, certifying that I was a pil-
grim from America ; that I had performed all the
duties of the pilgrimage, and was now travelling to
the holy city of Jerusalem. The letter contained,
also, a warm and earnest recommendation to all
the Greek convents in the Holy Land, to receive
and comfort, feed and clothe, and help and succour
me in case of need. Last of all, he put on my fin-
ger a ring of the simplest form and substance, and
worthy to accompany the palmer's staff of an older
age. Every pilgrim to Mount Sinai receives one
of these rings ; and, like the green turban of the
Mussulman, which distinguishes the devout hadji
who has been to Mecca, among the Christians of
the East it is the honoured token of a complete and
perfect pilgrimage.
VOL.. I.—C C