injustice practised by them against the convent, would in the end recoil upon their own heads.

Among the tribes or clans of the Tawarah, three are by long custom and perhaps compact, Ghafirs or protectors of the convent; and hold themselves responsible for its safety and that of every thing which belongs to it. These are the Dhuheiry, 'Awârimeh, and 'Aleikât. In return, the individuals of these clans are entitled to a portion of bread whenever they visit the convent. They formerly received also a cooked dish on such occasions; besides five and a half dollars each in money annually, and a dress for each male; but all these are no longer given. When in Cairo, they are likewise entitled to receive from the branch convent there, two small loaves every morning and a cooked dish every day at noon; and formerly they had in addition four loaves every evening, which however had been stopped the present year. Besides all this, they have the exclusive privilege of conveying travellers and pilgrims to and from the convent.

It may well be supposed that to satisfy all these claims in addition to the partial support of their own serfs, must draw largely upon the temporal resources of the convent. Yet the monks find it advisable to stop these many Arab mouths with bread, rather than expose themselves to their noisy clamour, and perhaps to the danger of sudden reprisals. The bakehouse of the convent is of course upon a large scale. At the time of our visit, they complained of not being able to obtain camels to bring their supplies of grain from Tûr; and from this cause, perhaps, the best bread we saw was coarse and mingled with barley. That distributed to the Arabs is always of a very inferior quality. Their date-brandy was said to be no longer distilled in the convent, as was formerly the

case.

ARABS OF THE PENINSULA.

The following account of the Bedawîn who inhabit the peninsula of Sinai, was derived chiefly from themselves; and if it be less complete than that of Burckhardt, it may yet serve to fill out the notices given by

that traveller.1

The tribes reckoned to the proper Tawarah, the Bedawîn of Jebel Tûr or Sinai, are the following:

I. The Sawâlihah, the largest and most important of all the divisions of these Arabs, and comprising several branches which themselves constitute tribes; viz. 1. The Dhuheiry; of whom again a subdivision or clan are the Aulûd Sa'id or Sa'idiyeh, to whom our guides belonged. The Aulâd Sa'îd occupy the best vallies among the mountains, are respected, and seem to have most connection with the convent. Their present Sheikh Husein has been mentioned above. 2. The 'Awârimeh. 3. The Kurrâshy, whose head Sheikh Sâlih has long been the principal Sheikh of the Tawarah in all foreign relations, being the person to whom the Pasha addresses his orders relative to the peninsula. The Sawâlihah for the most part occupy the country W. and N. W. of the convent. The pasturing places of the tribe are in general common to all its branches; but the vallies where date-trees grow and tillage exists, are said to be the property of individuals. They consider themselves as the oldest and chief inhabitants of the peninsula. All the branches regard each other as cousins, and intermarry. Their tradition is, that their fathers came hither from the borders of Egypt about the time of the Muhammedan conquest. The Kurrâshy, however, are said to be descendants of a few families, who early came among

1) Travels, etc. p. 557, seq.

them as fugitives from the Hejâz. Hence it is, perhaps, that the two first branches are Ghafîrs of the convent; and the Kurrâshy not.-Each of the branches is subdivided into smaller clans. Burckhardt speaks also of the Rahamy as a branch; but they were not named to us.

II. The 'Aleikât are also an old tribe; but much weaker than the Sawâlihah, being indeed few in number. Intermarriages occasionally take place between them and the latter tribe; but they are not in general approved of. The 'Aleikât are also Ghafirs of the convent. They encamp chiefly around the western Wady Nusb; and extend their pasturage as far as to the Wadys Ghŭrundel and Wŭtâh.

III. The Muzeiny came into the peninsula at a later period; and are still regarded as intruders by the Sawâlihah, who do not intermarry with them. Our Arabs of the Aulâd Sa'îd held them in great contempt. The story of their introduction to the peninsula, as related by our guides, was as follows: The whole territory of the Tawarah originally belonged to the Sawâlihah and 'Aleikât, and was equally divided between them; the former having possession of the western part of the peninsula, and the latter of the eastern. During a famine, a war arose between the two tribes, in which the former in a night-attack near Tûr, killed all but seven men of the 'Aleikât. To celebrate this victory, they assembled around the tomb of Sheikh Sâlih in Wady esh-Sheikh, and sacrificed a camel. Just at this time, seven men of the Muzeiny came to them from their country Harb on the road to the Hejâz, and proposed to settle with them in the peninsula on equal terms; saying they had fled from home because they had shed blood, and feared the avenger. The Sawâlihah replied, that if they would come as serfs, they were welcome; if not, they

might depart. They chose to depart; and on their way fell in with the remnant of the 'Aleikât. Forming a league with these, they together fell upon the Sawâlihah at night, as they were assembled among the Turfa-trees to feast upon the camel; and a great slaughter was the consequence. The war continued for many years; but at last peace was made between the contending parties by foreign mediation. The 'Aleikât now gave to the Muzeiny half of their portion of the peninsula and of their general rights; and admitted them to intermarriage. Those rights the Muzeiny still enjoy; but having increased very much in number, while the 'Aleikât have remained few and feeble, they now occupy all the eastern part of the peninsula and the whole Tawarah portion of the shore of the Gulf of 'Akabah, living very much by fishing; while the 'Aleikât, as is said above, have withdrawn to the vicinity of the western Wady Nŭsb. The Muzeiny stand in no connection with the convent. IV. Aulâd Suleimân, consisting of only a few families in the neighbourhood of Tûr.

V. Beni Wasel, also only a few families dwelling among the Muzeiny in and around Shurm.

These five tribes constitute the proper Bedawîn of Mount Sinai or Jebel Tûr, whence their name Tawarah in the plural, from the form Tûry in the singular. They stand connected under one head Sheikh,—at present Sheikh Sâlih of the Kurrâshy, as said above. They form a single body when attacked by other Bedawîn from abroad; but have occasionally bloody quarrels among themselves.

VI. To the Arab inhabitants of the peninsula must also be reckoned the Jebeliyeh, or serfs of the convent. The Tawarah do not of course acknowledge them as Bedawîn; but call them Fellâhs and slaves. Their very existence was almost unknown out of the penin

sula, until the full account which Burckhardt for the first time gave of them.'

3

The tradition of the convent respecting these vassals, as related to us by the Superior, is as follows: When Justinian built the convent, he sent two hundred Wallachian prisoners, and ordered the governor of Egypt to send two hundred Egyptians, to be the vassals of the monastery, to serve and protect it. In process of time, as the Arabs came in and deprived the convent of many of its possessions, the descendants of these vassals became Muslims, and adopted the Arab manners.2 The last Christian among them, a female, the Superior said, died about forty years ago in the convent of the Forty Martyrs. These serfs are under the entire and exclusive control of the convent, to be sold, or punished, or even put to death, as it may determine. They are not now to be distinguished in features or manners from the other Bedawîn. A portion of them still encamp among the mountains in the vicinity of the convent; and have charge of its gardens in the neighbourhood. Some of them also attend by turns in the convent itself; where they perform menial offices, and lodge in the garden. Most of those who thus live around the convent, are in a great measure dependent upon it for support. When they work for the convent, as they often do in the garden and

The testimony of Eutychius mentioned in the next note, has been hitherto entirely overlooked.

1) Most of the early travellers appear to have known nothing of these Jebeliyeh. Belon merely mentions the slaves' of the convent; Observatt. p. 286. Paulus' Sammlung, etc. I. p. 224. Van Egmond and Heyman, (about A. D. 1720,) give a short but correct account of them; Reizen, II. translated 165. This was copied by Büschp. ing, Erdbeschr. XI. i. p. 605. Ritter's construction of the language of Rudolf de Suchem has been noted above, p. 191, note 1.

2) The substance of this tradition is corroborated as far back as the ninth century by the testimony of Eutychius, Patriarch of Alexandria; Annales II. p. 167, seq. The passage is curious, and is at length in Note XVIII, at the end of the volume. Compare p. 185, above.

3) Or, as Burckhardt was told, in A. D. 1750. P. 564.