The Farmington times. (Farmington, St. Francois County, Mo.) 1905-1926, 1914-01-16

miles an hour; involving much mus.
cular inconvenience to rider who
had never been on camel back before.
From little details such as these the
reader pictures the daily trek and
thinks of the host of weary lsraelites
on foot, with insufficient food, harass.
ed by Amalekites and other disagree
able people and blaming their leader
for leaving behind the tempting flesh.
pots OF their Egyptian slavery.
Loneliness Complete.
The loneliness was. of course, com
plete. an occasional Bedouin being the
only humanity the little party encoun.
tered, except once, when, nearing
Sinai, they came across two English.
men sleeping In the open, without
tents or retinue, while they hunted
for Turquoiaes and kept weather
eye alert for ibexes. One has long.
Ing to know more about those two
lonely Englishmen on their adventur-
Gus quest, but information is not forth.
coming
The mountains stand out boldly on
this trlp-not only the great bleak
range of Sinai, but other hills as well,
with naked ridges, gaunt cliffs and
peaks of extraordinary formation. The
coloring was most striking. Red
granite mountains in the glory Of the
desert dawn must be seen to be be.
lieved; but 1t was the limestone strata
that provided the weirdest framework
of this desolate wilderness.
The afterglow in desert country can
neither be painted nor described. The
granite and limestone, too. were var.
led sometimes by veins of red.browD
porphyry, black diorite, and glittering
slabs OF gypsum, transparent as crys-
tai. There was certainly no lack of
brilliant coloring to make up for the
comforting greens OF absent foliage,
while ut night in moonlight the eff.
feet was of some enchanted fairyland
of purest silver And in this setting
is constructed for the inner eye the
procession of the great Jewish host.
the pillar of cloud by day and fire by
night, the route by which Moses de-
scended from communing with his
Deity: smashing the tables OF stone
and strewing the powdered fragments
ION the. surface OF the brook which
descends from spring on the western
slopes OF the Sufsafa." Beneath the
Mountain OF Conversation" In the
Wadl Beiran, which, by Arab tradition,
is the mountain where God conversed
with Moses, the Arabs still sacrifice
to the memory OF the Hebrew prophet,
singing: 20 mountain of the converse.
ton Of Moses, we.seek thy favor! Pre-
serve thy good people and we will Wis.
it thee every year"
is interesting. The party was cour-
teously received by the monks, who
now number only %. instead OF. as
formerly, 400, and pitched their tent in
convenient spot outside. After at
tending n service In modern Greek,
three of the monks called and Joined
us at tea, when VIC had q most inter.
esting talk with them about evangel
lzing their Moslem Slaves |. e.. de.
scendants of 100 Roman and 100 Egyp.
tian slaves, presented to the monas.
terry by Justinian In the sixth cen.
fury. They said that up till the Eng.
lIsh rule in Egypt their lives were in
danger. one of tho monks having been
shot through the chapel window while
celebrating mass. Now, thanks to the
English. all the country was peace.
full and quiet. but yet they had not
dared to mention Christianity to their
Moslsm dependents for fear OF raising
antagonism." A visit to the charnal
house was also made. where the bones
Of the monks lie carefully piled ur
since the sixth century. but the bish
cps' bones are kspt In boxes apart