Page:On the Desert - Recent Events in Egypt.djvu/196

 they bear a peculiar relation. When Justinian founded this monastery, he endowed it with two hundred slaves, to be, with their descendants, its servants forever — its hewers of wood and drawers of water. The descendants of those slaves are here to-day, and so kindly and wisely and religiously have they been treated by their Christian masters, that they have all turned Moslems! Nor do I wonder. The holy fathers treat them like beasts of burden — their camels or their asses. They dole out to them lumps of bread hard as a stone, such as one would hardly give to a camel. In the cell of one of the monks I observed a rawhide hanging on the wall. One of our party whispered that this was used by the poor man for self-flagellation. O dear, the holy man, thus to do penance for his sins! But a little inquiry drew out the fact that it was intended for no such spiritual office. Indeed the monk himself was much amused at the suggestion of his doing penance, and laughed heartily as he indicated by word and gesture that he kept it to flog the Arabs!

It goes to my heart to wander about these sacred mountains, and see the poverty and wretchedness of the people. The places they live in are not fit for cattle, nor is the food they eat, when they get any, which is not always the case. Dr. Post asked a little fellow what he ate. He answered by naming the poorest and coarsest food. "Well, if you don't have any food?" He answered with a shrug, drawing his poor tattered clout over his shoulders, that "he sat down on the ground and bore it, till God should send some"! The American party of which I have spoken were greatly captivated by the beauty of a little fellow (Mousa) with black eyes and graceful form and pretty manners. Coming down from the mountains, we met his mother (veiled of course), and saw where she lived. Her only house was a rock which