The tomb of Saleh in the Wadi Sheykh was noticed by Bishop Pococke in 1726 (i. 141), and Burckhardt, in 1816, mentioned the celebration held here which took place in the last week in May (p. 489). This festival was described in detail by Tischendorf who saw it in 1846,[196] and by Prof. E. H. Palmer, who witnessed it in June of 1870.[197] The festival took place at the time when the dates ripened, and lasted three days. Tribes from all parts of the peninsula, including women and children, assembled in the Wadi Sheykh near the insignificant-looking tomb which consisted of a domed chamber cemented over, with an empty coffin standing inside. Pieces of cloth, ostrich eggs, tassels and other parts of camel equipment were brought as offerings and suspended from the roof. The first step in the festivity consisted in renovating and whitewashing the tomb. In a large tent erected outside forty to fifty men assembled and sat in a circle, while the first of all the sheykhs barefoot and wearing the white garment (_Imam_) and a white turban over his red fez, sat near the fire. A procession headed by the women encircled the tomb. The young men then brought out fifty to sixty lambs which were cut on the forehead, and blood was drawn before they were slaughtered, skinned and cut up. While the food was boiling a camel race took place, four to six camels racing at a time. Four to six persons then sat around each lambskin which was spread on the ground, and on it their share of boiled lambs’ flesh was poured out, which they ate using their fingers. Besides the flesh there were meal-cakes (_bilaw_), and water to drink. A dance followed in which men and women took part, and which was timed to singing and clapping of hands. Besides this, two women danced figures outside the group. Men and women remained conversing in couples till late at night. The celebration struck Tischendorf as dignified. At its conclusion some of the Bedawyn repaired to the summit of the Gebel Musa, where there stood a small and highly revered mosque (mentioned as early as 1335), which they entered, wearing the _Imam_ or white garment. Over the natural hole, called the footprint of the prophet’s she-camel, they sacrificed a sheep. A further festivity took place in former days near the summit of the Gebel Musa which we hear of in the sixteenth century only and not again. Early writers agree that no hermit or monk ever spent a night on the summit of the mountain. Nilus (_c._ 400) remarked that the height was generally avoided “since God conferred there with the people,” while Etheria and Antoninus Martyr simply noted that no hermit spent the night there. This fact Procopius (_c._ 550) connected with “heavenly phenomena.” At a later date the hermit Simeon, for a time, dwelt “on the summit of Mount Sinai, where the Law was given, a place deserted because of the restless Arabs.”