Page 104 - Travels in Arabia (Vol 2)_Neat

v.] SHERM TO SINAI. 85

exercises to occupy them during the day,

retire to rest about eight or nine in the even-
ing. Tliey are their own artificers, every
one except the superior exercising some trade
necessary or useful to the establishment.
The lodging of each is a narrow cell about
eight feet long and six broad, with an arched
roof, and a niche in the wall, answering as a
cupboard. Its sole furniture is a mattress
and coverlid. Their clothes, in which they

sleep, for the convenience of being summoned
to prayer, consists of a shirt and trowsers of
coarse blue cotton, over which they wear a
thick cloak, fastened to the waist by a leathern
belt, and marked with alternate vertical stripes
of black or brown. In the refectory there is
a pulpit, from whence one of their number,
during their repasts, reads prayers, until
the signal is given for retiring. They have
but two meals a-day; these, during the
greater part of the year, consist of a few
boiled vegetables or a coarse loaf, with occa­

sionally a little fish and oil. The former is
brought from the shores of the Mediterranean,
and is excellent; the latter is extensively
manufactured at the convent from the olive