Page 100 - Travels in Arabia (Vol 2)_Neat

v.J SHERM TO SINAI. 81

the convent but a few months previous, and
had subsequently supplied them with a new
rope and pulley, as has happened to several
other travellers, we should have been com­
pelled to return without satisfying our curi­
osity with a sight of the interior.

Upon our arrival, we found several Bedowins
seated around the walls, who saluted us by the
appellation of Haji, or pilgrim. They then com­
menced shouting and firing their matchlocks,
until one of the monks opened a door thirty
or forty feet from the ground. From a part of
the building projecting over this door, a rope
was now lowered down, having a noose fixed
at its extremity. In this one of the party
seated himself; and the other end being fast­
ened to a capstan, turned by the monks, they

soon hoisted us up, and after due salutations
from the superior, we passed to the travellers*
room. There we were committed to the espe­
cial care of the cook, a round, sleek-headed,
fat, and facetious-looking personage, who has
charge of the refectory, and who paid unre­
mitting attention to our wants and comforts
during our stay. But notwithstanding the

hospitable efforts of the monks, who cheer-
vol. ii. G