Page:On the Desert - Recent Events in Egypt.djvu/195

 ," is declared to be the one on which Moses broke the tables of stone when he came down from the Mount! Another rock is pointed out as the mould in which Aaron cast the golden calf! The Burning Bush Dr. Post finds to be a species of blackberry. If this be not gross imposture, it is childish credulity. But a man may be very ignorant, and even superstitious, and yet from daily communion with spiritual things, may grow into a higher life, which shall show itself in his very countenance. Not a trace of this does one see here. There is no such process of gradual elevation. There is neither natural refinement nor that spirituality which comes from converse with sacred things. Let a monk remain here forty years, and he that was vulgar is vulgar still, and he that was filthy is filthy still.

Nor is their life one of self-denial. Of course they submit to the prescribed fasts of the Church. It is now Lent, when the fasts, as well as the vigils, are kept rigorously. They will not touch a particle of animal food, but they will drink to excess. Almost the only industry which is pursued here, is making a kind of brandy out of the dates of the palm tree; and this not being prohibited, they use freely. We often see them the worse for liquor. Several of them who have been about the mountains with us as guides, before the day was over have been in a state of intoxication. It takes away from the merit of fasts when it leads to this. If they took a little more of simple, nourishing food, they would not drink so much brandy. Of course I am not particularly edified when I see these same old codgers standing in their places in the church, intoning their prayers!

But the gravest charge which I have to bring against the monks, is their utter indifference to the poor Bedaween by whom they are surrounded. To these Arabs