They Are Divided Into Several Smaller Tribes,
Some Of Whom Have Become Settlers; Thus The Tebna Are Settled In The
Date valley of Feiran, in gardens nominally the property of the convent:
the Bezya in the convent’s gardens at
Tor; and the Sattla in other
parts, forming a few families, whom the true Bedouins stigmatize with
the opprobrious name of Fellahs, or peasants. The monks told me that in
the last century there still remained several families of Christian
Bedouins who had not embraced Islamism; and that the last individual of
this description, an old woman, died in 1750, and was buried in the
garden of the convent. In this garden is the burial-ground of the monks,
and in several adjoining vaulted chambers their remains are collected
after the bodies have lain two years in the coffins underground. High
piles of hands, shin bones, and sculls are placed separately in the
different corners of these chambers, which the monks are with difficulty
persuaded to open to strangers. In a row of wooden chests are deposited
the bones of the Archbishops of the convent, which are regularly sent
hither, wherever the Archbishops may die. In another small chest are
shewn the sculls and some of the bones of two “Indian princes,” who are
said to have been shipwrecked on the coast of Tor, and having repaired
to the convent, to have lived for many years as hermits in two small
adjoining caves upon the mountain of Moses. In order to remain
inseparable in this world, they bound two of their legs together with an
iron chain, part of which, with a small piece of a coat of mail, which
they wore under their cloaks, is still preserved.
Enter page number
PreviousNext
Page 716 of 870
Words from 194747 to 195034
of 236498
