Travels to Discover the Source of the Nile, Volume 1 (of 5): In the years 1768, 1769, 1770, 1771, 1772 and 1773Bruce, James
History
Travels to Discover the Source of the Nile, Volume 1 (of 5): In the years 1768, 1769, 1770, 1771, 1772 and 1773
Bruce, James
Egypt -- Description and travel; Ethiopia -- Description and travel; Ethiopia -- History; Natural history -- Ethiopia; Nile River
The third way was straight east into Arabia, pretty much the road by
which the Pilgrims go at this day to Mecca, and the caravans from Suez
to Cairo. In this track they would have gone round by the mountains of
Moab, east of the Dead Sea, and passed Jordan in the plain opposite
to Jericho, as they did forty years afterwards. But it is plain from
scripture, that God’s counsels were to make Pharaoh and his Egyptians
an example of his vengeance; and, as none of these roads led to the
sea, they did not answer the Divine intention.
About twelve leagues from the sea, there was a narrow road which turned
to the right, between the mountains, through a valley called _Badeab_,
where their course was nearly south-east; this valley ended in a pass,
between two considerable mountains, called _Gewoube_ on the south; and
Jibbel Attakah on the north, and opened into the low stripe of country
which runs all along the Red Sea; and the Israelites were ordered to
encamp at Pihahiroth, opposite to Baal-zephon, between Migdol and that
sea.
It will be necessary to explain these names. _Badeah_, Dr Shaw
interprets, _the Valley of the Miracle_, but this is forcing an
etymology, for there was yet no miracle wrought, nor was there
ever any in the valley. But _Badeah_, means _barren_, _bare_, and
_uninhabited_; such as we may imagine a valley between stony mountains,
a desert valley. _Jibbel Attakah_, he translates also, _the Mountain
of Deliverance_. But so far were the Israelites from being delivered
on their arrival at this mountain, that they were then in the greatest
distress and danger. _Attakah_, means, however, to _arrive_ or _come up
with_, either because there they arrived within sight of the Red Sea;
or, as I am rather inclined to think, this place took its name from
the arrival of Pharaoh, or his coming in sight of the Israelites, when
encamped between Migdol and the Red Sea.
Pihahiroth is the mouth of the valley, opening to the flat country
and the sea, as I have already said, such are called _Mouths_; in the
Arabic, _Fum_; as I have observed in my journey to Cosseir, where the
opening of the valley is called Fum el Beder, _the mouth of Beder_; Fum
el Terfowey, _the mouth of Terfowey_. Hhoreth, the flat country along
the Red Sea, is so called from _Hhor_, a narrow valley where torrents
run, occasioned by sudden irregular showers. Such we have already
described on the east side of the mountains, bordering upon that narrow
flat country along the Red Sea, where temporary showers fall in great
abundance, while none of them touch the west side of the mountains or
valley of Egypt. Pihahiroth then is the mouth of the valley Badeah;
which opens to Hhoreth, the narrow stripe of land where showers fall.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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