The words of Dean Stanley are equally graphic and convincing. No one who has approached the Ras Sasafeh through that noble plain, or who has looked down upon the plain from that majestic height, will willingly part with the belief that these are the two essential features of the view of the Israelite camp. That such a plain should exist at all in front of such a cliff is so remarkable a coincidence with the sacred narrative, as to furnish a strong internal argument, not merely of its iden tity with the scene, but of the scene itself having been described by an eyewitness. The awful and lengthened approach, as to some natural sanctuary, would have been the fittest preparation for the coming scene. The low line of alluvial mounds at the foot of the cliff exactly answer to the bounds ' which were to keep the people off from touching the mount.' The plain itself is not broken and uneven, and narrowly shut in, like almost all others in the range, but presents a long retiring sweep, against which the people could remove and stand afar off.' The cliff, rising like a huge altar, in front of the whole congregation, and visible against the sky in lonely grandeur from end to end of the whole plain, is the very image of the mount that might be touched,' and from which the voice of God might be heard thr and wide over the still ness of the plain below, widened at that part to its utmost extent by the confluence of all the con tiguous valleys. Here, beyond all other parts of the peninsula, is the aclytum, withdrawn as if in the end of the world,' from all the stir and con fusion of earthly things ' (pp. 423 43).
It is a remarkable fact that Sinai never became a place of Jewish pilgrimage. Elijah went there, but it was at the command of God, and to escape the vengeance of Jezebel. He is the only Jew, so far as history tells, who visited the mount of the Lord ' after the time of Moses. At a very early period, however, in the Christian era, Sinai began to be an object of reverence. It appears that re fugees from persecution in Egypt first sought an asylum amid the mountains. Anchorites conse quently flocked to it, and convents were at length founded. The poor monks had hard fare, and were exposed during a long course of ages to persecutions and fearful massacres at the hands of the wild no mads. In the early part of the 6th century the em peror Justinian caused a church to be erected, and a fortified convent to be built round it, to protect the monks from the incursions of the Ishmaelites. It is the same which still exists in the wild ravine under the northern brow of Sinai. The number of resident monks is now usually about twenty-four, though in the i4th century it is said to have been as high as four hundred. They are ruled by a prior ; but there is an archbishop who always resides at Constantinople, and is one of the four independent archbishops of the Greek Church. The library of the convent contains some 1500 printed books, and about 700 manuscripts. A few of the latter are of great antiquity and value ; among them Tischendorf was so fortunate as to discover, in the year 1859, the celebrated Codex Sinaiticus, one of the most ancient and valuable copies of the Greek N. T. ex tant (Robinson, B. R. i. 88-144 ; Burckhardt, Travels in Syria, pp. 6541-590 ; Bibliotheca Sac. May 1849, pp. 381-38 ; Stanley, S. alld P. pp. 3-77; Beamont, Cairo to Shiai, pp. 58-85; Sandie, Horeb and "erusalent, pp. 154-224. The German writers—Ritter, Pal. iind Syr. ; Ruppel, Reise ; Schubert, Reim, ; and Niebuhr, Description de PArabie—may be consulted with advantage ; and full descriptions of the convent, with views, are given in Laborde's Mount Sinai and Petra, and in Bartlett's Forty Days in the Desert).
The remarks of Mr. Beamont, a recent and observant traveller, are of some importance, as showing that some traces of the ancient Scripture names still linger around Mount Sinai : Two or three facts seem to me well worthy of observation. Immecliately above Wady esh-Sheikh rises Gebel Fureia ; the front of this is named Gebel Seneh. Of this name our sheikh from Tor knew nothing ; but our guide on Ras es-Sufsafeh needed no prompt ing to give it its designation. This cluster of Fureia or Zipporah is nearly pamllel with the cluster of Jebel Musa, and extends northward from it to the head of the central Sinaitic cluster. Se parated from the same central cluster of Jebel Musa on the left by Wady Leja runs another parallel range of Sinaitic rocks. To one of these, and separated from Gebel Fureia by the broad er Rahah, the name Urrebba is given. This name also, as well as the name of the other group, was spontaneously assigned to it by our guide Moham med. I was rather sceptical on the point, and made him repeat his designation three or four times, that there might be no mistake. My ortho graphy is intended to express, as nearly as I can, the sound of his utterance, for it would have been vain to ask him to spell the word. Supposing, then, that his nomenclature was correct, we have a cluster bearing the name of Seneh (Sinai ; cf. Stanley, p. 42) on the right of Gebel Musa, and one bearing the name Urrebbeh (Horeb) on the left ; the central cluster itself has no local appellative, and is called after the prophet Moses. May we not, then, sup pose that this central cluster bore the name Sinai or Horeb indiscriminately, serving as the nucleus to which the ranges of Sinai and Horeb trended ; and that, after the delivery of the law from the peak of Ras es-Sufsafeh, this bare the special name of Mountain of Moses ; and that subsequently the local designations were restricted to the ridges on the right and left ?' (Cairo to Sinai, pp. 81, 82).
The name Wady er-Rahah, which is given to the upland plain in front of Ras es-Sufsafeh, is also suggestive. It signifies The vale of rest ' (L,9, rest after labour, as that enjoyed by beasts of burden at the close of the day. This is very ex pressive as applied to the long encampment of the Israelites in this plain, after the toilsome march from Egypt. The monks, as has been stated, ,give the name of Jebel Milsa to the southern peak of the central ridge, identifying' it with Sinai ; but they identify Ras es-Sufsafeh with Horeb. There are several traditional sites pointed out in Wady er-Rnah along the base of Sufsafeh, but they are so manifestly apocryphal as to be scarcely worth notice ; such as the hill on which Aaron stood, the 1110ll ld in which the golden calf was formed, and the pit of Korah (Handbook, p. 35).
It is worthy of note that no other district in the whole peninsula, with the exception of a small portion of Wady Feiran, possesses such supplies of water and pasture as that around Mount Sinai. When the springs and wells are dry elsewhere, the Bedawfn resort hither. On Sinai itself, on Jebel Kathedn, in Wady el-Leja, in the convent, and in the plain of Rahah, are perennial sources. The pastures, too, among the rocks, and in the glens and little upland plains, are comparatively abundant (see Olin, Travels, i. 386, 415).—J. L. P.