CONVENT OF MOUNT SINAI.
491
let down, upon which I placed myself, and was hoisted up. Like
all travellers I received a cordial reception and was shewn into the
same neatly furnished room in which all preceding Europeans had
taken up their abode.
I rested in the convent three days. When I told the monks that
I intended to go to Akaba, they gave me very little encouragement,
particularly when they learnt that I had no Firmahn from the
Pasha; but finding that I was firmly resolved, they sent for the
chief Ghafyr, or protector of the convent, and recommended me
strongly to him. The monks live in such constant dread of the
Bedouins, who knowing very well their timid disposition, take every
opportunity to strengthen their fears, that they believe a person is
going to certain destruction who trusts himself to the guidance of
these Bedouins any where but on the great road to Suez or to
Tor. I had been particularly pleased with the character and
behaviour of Hamd Ibn Zoheyr, the Bedouin who had joined us
at Suez; and not being equally satisfied with the guide who had
brought me from Cairo, I discharged him, and engaged Hamd
for the journey to Akaba; he did not know the road himself, but
one of his uncles who had been there assured us that he was well
acquainted with the tribe of Heywat, which we should meet on the
road, and with all the passages of the country ; I therefore engaged ¬
him together with Hamd.
As no visitor of the convent is permitted to leave it without the
knowledge of one of the Ghafyrs, who has a right to share in the
profits of the escort, I was obliged to give a few piastres to him
who is at present the director of the affairs of the convent in the
desert. The Arabs have established here the same custom which
I remarked in my journéy from Tor to Cairo. Every one who is
present at the departure of a stranger or of a loaded camel from
the convent is entitled to a fee, provided the traveller has not passed
