[113] [From its great length, I have found it necessary to reserve a note on this passage until the Appendix, Note A., where the reader will find it.--K. R. H. M.] [114] On this point I find all the most important voices unanimous. Robinson, in particular, has the merit of having done away with many old prejudices of this kind. But Burckhardt had already allowed himself to be so little influenced in his judgment by the authority of tradition, that he did not hesitate to find a reason for the erection of the convent of Sinai on Gebel Mûsa on strategical grounds. (Trav. in Syr. p. 609.) [115] The name Firân, formerly Pharan, is certainly the same as the Biblical Paran; but it is equally sure that this name had shifted its application in the locality. All other comparisons of names are totally unsatisfactory. [116] One of the two wells seems to go back to the time of the building of the convent; it is the smaller one of the two. The deep, principal well, which gives the most and the best water, seems to have been first sunk in 1760, by order of an English Lord. (_Ritter_, p. 610.) [117] Burckhardt also expressly observes, that there is no good pasturage in the neighbourhood of the convent, where the rather more numerous little fountains would almost allow us to consider the soil to be moisture. See Bartlett’s impression in a subsequent place. [118] So the Arabs unanimously assured us, see also Burckhardt, p. 625, and Ritter, p. 769. Lord Lindsay here found “a small wood of tarfa trees, in which blackbirds were singing, and farther on some palm plantations.” It was at the same outlet of the valley “where Seetzen first had the pleasure of gathering much manna off the tarfa bushes and eating it; here he found the ripe fruits of the wild caper bush, which were eatable like fruit.” [119] [Note B, Appendix.--K. R. H. M.] [120] Originally, both these hot springs seem not to have been called Hammân Faraûn from Pharaoh, but Farân from Pharan. For Edrisi calls the place Faran Ahrun and Istachri Taran, which should doubtless be Faran (Cf. Ritter, Asien, Bd. VIII. S. 170 ff.). Macrizi also calls the place Birkit Faran (Ritter, _Sinaihalbinsel_, p. 64.) Probably the harbour region of Pharan was called after the city, though it was somewhat distant; and the legend, so very inapposite here, concerning Pharaoh’s ruin, only connected itself with Faraûn by a confusion with Faran. It is curious that the Arab writers, of whom Macrizi was certainly there, speak of Faran as of a coast town! [121] The part of the sandy coast, considered by Robinson to be the desert of Sin, has no tarfa bush, much less manna. Concerning the regions where manna is found, Cf. Ritter, p. 665 sqq. That Eusebius also considers the wilderness of Sin to extend to Sinai, is already mentioned. [Σίν, έρημος ἡ μετάξυ παρατείνουσα τῆς Ἐρυθρᾶς Θαλάσσης καὶ τῆς ἐρήμον Σίυα]