[122] Robinson, vol. i. p. 173, 196. To Wilson’s particular argument of the extensive prospect from Gebel Mûsa is to be objected, that, from a point very inconsiderably higher than the plain, many places can be seen, from which the elevation itself would not appear very considerable. [123] See Robinson, vol. i. pp. 118, 196. [124] Ewald, History of the People of Israel, vol. ii. p. 86, also considers that Sinai “was already looked upon as an oracular place and divine seat before Moses.” Ritter considers it insupportable. [125] This is confirmed at the present day by Rüppell, who considers Gebel Katharine to be Sinai. He relates in his voyage to Abyssinia, vol. i. p. 127, the following about his ascent of Mount Serbâl in 1831:--“At the top of Serbâl, the Bedouins have placed little circles of stones in a circle, and other stones are laid from it down the steep declivity like steps, to render the ascent more easy; when we came to that circle _my guide took off his sandals, and approached it with religious reverence, he then said a prayer inside_, and afterward told me that he had already sacrificed two sheep here as _thank-offerings_, the one at the birth of a son, the other on regaining his health. The mountain of _Serbâl has been held for such superstitions in the highest respect by the Arabs of the vicinity, from time immemorial_; and it must once have been somewhat holy to the Christians, as in the valley to the south-west there lie the ruins of a great convent and many little hermits’ cells. In any case, the wild, craggy rocks of Serbâl, and the _isolated position of this mountain is much more remarkable and grand than any other group of mountains in Arabia Petræa, and it was peculiarly adapted for the goal of religious pilgrimages_. The highest point of the mount, or the second rock from the west, and on which the Arabs usually sacrifice, is, according to my barometrical observation, 6,342 French feet above the level of the sea.” [126] See the excellent treatise of Tuch (Einundzwanzig Sinaitische Inschriften, Leipzig, 1849.) This scholar endeavours to prove, by the deciphered names of the pilgrims, that the authors of the inscriptions were native pagan Arabs, and went to Serbâl for religious festivals; according to him, these pilgrimages ended, at latest, in the course of the third century. Here it may also be mentioned, that the name itself of Serbâl, which Rödiger, (in Wellsted’s Travels in Arabia, vol. ii. page the last), doubtlessly correctly derived from [Illustration: Arabic] _serb_, _palmarum copia_, and Baal, “palm grove (φοινίκων) of Baal,” points to a heathen origin. [However much M. Tuch may reproduce the notion of Beer, he cannot set aside its confutation in Forster’s Primeval Language, Part I. pp. 8-38.--K. R. H. M.] [127] Vol. i. p. 198.