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DJEBEL MOUSA.
in their hands has become very troublesome to them, but they
have brought it on by their own measures for enhancing their credit
with the Bedouins. In times of dearth they were accustomed to proceed ¬
in a body to Djebel Mousa, to pray for rain, and they encouraged ¬
the belief that the rain was due to their intercessions. By a natural ¬
inference, the Bedouins have concluded that if the monks could
bring rain, they had it likewise in their power to withhold it, and
the consequence is, that whenever a dearth happens they accuse
the monks of malevolence, and often tumultuously assemble and
compel them to repair to the mountain to pray. Some years since,
soon after an occurrence of this kind, it happened that a violent
flood burst over the peninsula, and destroyed many date trees ; a
Bedouin, whose camel and sheep had been swept away by the
torrent, went in a fury to the convent, and fired his gun at it, and
when asked the reason, exclaimed; * You have opened the book
so much that we are all drowned!”. He was pacified by presents;
but on departing he begged that in future the monks would only
half open the Taourat, in order that the rains might be more
moderate.
The supposed influence of the monks is, however, sometimes attended ¬
with more fortunate results: the Sheikh Szaleh had never
been father of a male child, and on being told that Providence had
thus punished him for his enmity to the convent, he two years ago
brought a load of butter to the monks, and entreated them to go
to the mountain and pray that his newly-married wife, who was
then pregnant, might be delivered of a son. The monks complied,
and Szaleh soon after became the happy father of a fine boy;
since that period he has been the friend of the convent, and has
even partly repaired the church on Djebel Mousa. This summit
was formerly inhabited by the monks, but, at present they visit
it only in time of festivals.
