Among them, some few shooting upright, lift high above. the rest their lovely coronal of rustling fans and glowing bunches of dates; but the greatest part assume that fantastic variety of form which only untended nature can originate; some, wildly throwing forth their branches, droop to the ground like heavy plumes, laden with a graceful burden of fanlike boughs which almost kiss the turf; others, crossing and intertwined, form mazy alleys of exquisite verdure the clear stream bubbles freshly on the edge of these arcades, and the deep solitude is vocal with the song of birds; the wind, sweeping down the rocks, plays over the rustling foliage with the gentlest murmur; and, shut in by two lofty walls of rock from the dreary desert without, the traveller, lulled in a dreamy and delicious repose, heightened by his past weariness, forgets a while its perils and privations, and the long distance he has yet to accomplish across its drouthy sands."

This small but beautiful valley bears in it marks of having been a place of some consequence in the ancient times. We find here stone walls, the remains of a city and of a convent and churches, and in the rocks numerous holes either natural or excavated, yet evidently once the abodes of anchorites. From the fourth to the eighth century of our era, Christian residents and pilgrims were sufficiently numerous in this part of Arabia to have a bishop, whose home appears to have been at Pharan (Feiran); and Theodorus of this see made himself famous in two Christian councils, one at Rome, A. D. 649, and the other at Constantinople, A. D. 680. The great abundance of Sinaitic inscriptions about this place also shows how much it was frequented in those early times.

Three miles southward from this fair, gem-like spot of Wady Feiran is Serbal (No. 16), the most northerly of the granitic mountains, and the first of them reached by the Israelites in their journey. There are higher mountains in

the peninsula, but this one, standing so far at one corner of the granitic region and quite distant from all the others, has a very commanding aspect, and always affects the visitor by its majestic grandeur. As stated already it is 6342 feet in height above sea-level: it is terminated above by five or six conical peaks which form a very picturesque outline marked on the sky. All this is very distinct, and as the Israelites came journeying on the huge mass excited the wonder and admiration of every one, even the most obtuse. Massive, yet in its sharp upward peaks airy-like; solemn, yet picturesque; in its singular combination of opposite characteristics, it must have drawn every eye by a peculiar attractiveness.

The black line represents the present stream in Wady Feiran: the dotted line showS Wady Aleyat, giving the most direct access to Serbal.

Is this the Sinai of the Scriptures? Writers of great eminence, Lepsius among them, contend firmly that it is. Robinson, with others also of authority, holds to the contrary; and the nature of our subject requires that we now examine the

question. Eminent authorities and tradition also as far as it can be reached, appear to be about equally balanced between this and the other reputed Sinai-the mountain usually called by this latter name. Probably each place will always continue to have its advocates; but if we take literally the requirements in the record of events connected with the giving of the Law, there seems to be scarcely room for doubt: for the latter and the region adjoining answer fully to these requirements, while Serbal and its precincts have no such correspondence, but the contrary.

Every one who, without prejudgment, reads the history of the giving of the Law at Sinai, must conclude that all the multitudes of the Israelites were near the mountain, and in a situation to allow them easily to see it; also with ready access to it, and where from it they could be easily reached. Now, Wady Feiran is three miles from the foot of Serbal, and is the only place in this region where the Israelites in a body could have encamped. The mountain is reached with difficulty from Feiran, by a narrow, rough wady, Aleyat, leading to it from the latter; is not seen from Feiran except at a few spots, and there imperfectly, and consequently could not be visible to most of the encampment there; and the grand, solemn impressiveness of the scenes at Sinai would here have been broken up by the difficulties of the intervening and surrounding space. We will quote again from Bartlett, and we do it the more readily because he seems to be very much inclined in favor of Serbal, although his evidence, which is candidly given, must be admitted to be on the other side. He says, speaking of the objection, that "there is no open space in the immediate neighborhood of Serbal suitable for the encampment of the vast multitude, and from which they could all of them at once have had a view of the mountain," "is this objection conclusive? We read, indeed, that Israel 'camped before the mount,' and that the Lord came down in sight of all the people;' more

over, that bounds were set to prevent the people from breaking through and violating even the precincts of the holy solitude. Although these conditions are more literally fulfilled at er-Rahah, [in front of Sinai], yet if we consider them couched in general terms, they apply, perhaps, well enough to the vicinity of Serbal. A glance at the view and a reference to this small rough map,' will show the reader that the main encampment of the host must have been in Wady Feiran itself, from which the summit of the Serbal is only here and there visible, and that it is by the lateral wady, Aleyat, that the base of the mountain itself, by a walk of about an hour, is to be reached. It certainly struck me, in passing up this valley, as a very unfit, if not impracticable, spot for the encampment of any great number of people, if they were all in tents: though well supplied with pure water, the ground is rugged and rocky,-toward the base of the mountain awfully so; but still it is quite possible that a certain number might have established themselves, as the Arabs do at present, while, as on other occasions, the principal masses were distributed in the surrounding valleys. I do not know that there is any adequate ground for believing, as Robinson does, that because the people were warned not to invade the seclusion of the mount, and a guard was placed to prevent them from doing so, that therefore the encampment itself pressed closely on its borders. Curiosity might possibly enough lead many to attempt this even from a distance, to say nothing of those already supposed to be located in the Wady Aleyat, near the base of the mountain, to whom the injunction would more immediately apply."

This much for the reasoning of Bartlett in favor of Serbal. Of his visit to that mountain he wrote:

"The path on leaving Wady Feiran follows the Wady Aleyat, and for some distance is tolerably easy, but becomes

1 Given in his book: we present a more elaborate one, taken from Lepsius.

....

gradually more and more rugged as it ascends toward the base of the mountain; yet it was evidently an old way, formerly frequented, as appeared from the ruined buildings, and the Sinaitic characters which we now and then found scratched on any convenient blocks of stones. The bed of this wady, as I have before remarked, is very rugged, and would with difficulty have served as a camping-ground for the Israelites, save on a very limited scale: there are two beautiful springs to relieve its sterility; one was deep below us; but the second, or upper one, lay directly in our course. The foliage, as at Feiran, is exquisitely beautiful around this upper spring; the water welling out from it is colder and purer than that of the stream below: probably a small hermitage or monastic establishment once existed here. Hence the isolated peaks of the Serbal tower up with awful magnificence, and seemingly defy the most adventurous: all path soon after ceased, and our course hence to the base of the mountain was over a wilderness of loose blocks, which it was no easy matter to cross without slipping, yet we occasionally found the Sinaitic characters inscribed upon them. So rugged was the way that, though but a single hour had elapsed since we left Feiran, I felt almost completely tired when we reached the foot of the conical precipices, which rise sheer and abrupt from this scene of desolation. The only possible means of ascent is up a narrow and almost perpendicular chasm, dividing two of these impracticable peaks, half filled with huge crags fallen from above, and hurled one upon another in the most terrific confusion: to get to the top seemed to me impossible; the guide, however, assured us there was no difficulty: with this we began to scramble up the chasm: . . . . to myself, the clamber, though I had practised pretty well among the Alps, seemed so desperately toilsome, and so increasingly dangerous as we advanced, that but for the resolution of Komeh [the guide], who seemed determined to have me to