Page 103 - Travels in Arabia (Vol 2)_Neat

84 SHERM TO SINAI. [Cll.

22, Charing Cross, London, to preach the
gospel of peace to the Jews* ”
In discipline, diet, &c., the monastic esta­

blishment of Mount Sinai appears to differ
but little from other institutions of a similar
nature in Egypt and Syria. The monks, of
whom there are now but twenty-one, princi­
pally Russians and Greeks, are compelled to
pass many hours in the church during the
day; and we heard the call to prayers twice

also during the night, a practice general
throughout the year; no one whose health
permits (and in this delightful region, illness,
save from extreme age, is almost unknown)
being allowed to absent himself.
They rise at four o’clock in the morning;
and, having little beyond their devotional
* It would have been more consistent with the faith he now
avows, if this reverend enthusiast had, on his subsequent visit,
confined himself to remarks conceived in a similar spirit, instead
of indulging in personalities, which men who judge the mildest,
cannot but consider gross, offensive, and uncalled for. These
having been printed in the Malta Gazette, I have no wish to
extend their publicity by giving them insertion here. The direct
application of such indecent epithets as “ dirty dogs,” and “ nasty
beasts of infidels,” to persons of whom he had no knowledge, and
whose signatures only appeared in the book, will, I am sure, be
considered sufficient to justify what I have said.