Page:On the Desert - Recent Events in Egypt.djvu/126

 to Serbal being the Mount of the Law applies equally to Jebel Mousa, that there is no broad plain under it in which the whole congregation of Israel might stand. Wadies enough there are in sight, but scattered here and there in a way to raise a doubt as to its being the chosen. summit, especially when one finds another point near at hand where all the conditions are supplied. But for the hour or two that we rest here, we may give ourselves up to the sacred associations of a spot which has been consecrated by the reverent faith of many generations. Here Moslem and Christian can join in worship, for on the top stand side by side a small Greek chapel and a little mosque. We found nothing to excite our devotion in the tinselled Greek chapel, but sat reverently without on the rock while Dr. Post read out of his Arabic Bible the Ten Commandments. But the dragoman of the other American party, who was a devout Moslem, entered the mosque, and with his face turned towards Mecca, bowed himself in low prostrations, swinging his head from side to side, and calling upon Allah. The Moslems have great reverence for the Hebrew Lawgiver, whom they always speak of as "our Lord Moses," and whose name they like to associate with that of Mahomet as the two Prophets of God, and make pilgrimages to Jebel Mousa, where they show in the rock the footprint of Mahomet's camel! If any be surprised that there should be only one footprint, yet be not incredulous, O gentle reader, for this is easily explained when you consider that the sacred camel only touched the top of the rock as he flew through the air, bearing the prophet from Mecca to Jerusalem! Moslem traditions vary on this point, some affirming that the camel stood with legs outstretched, one foot in Cairo, one in Damascus, one in Mecca, and one on Sinai, from which he was carried up into heaven, with his rider on his