Fig. 21.—Ritter von Harff before St. Katherine.
From Jaffa the pilgrims visited Jerusalem, where he had the option of returning home via Jaffa or going on to Sinai and Cairo. If he decided on this course he was allowed ten ducats on his return fare, and was provided by the Franciscans with an escort to Gaza. The charge for the round was twenty-three ducats, half of which was paid at Jerusalem, the other at Gaza. An agreement was drawn up in writing by the dragoman, the wording of which is much the same as the one that is drawn up at the present day. In the course of the fifteenth century Noe Bianchi, a Franciscan, wrote a guide book called The Way from Venice to the Holy Sepulchre and Mount Sinai, which contained practical advice for pilgrims. It estimated the cost of going the round from Venice to Jerusalem, Gaza, the convent, Cairo and back to Venice at two hundred ducats, i.e. one hundred for general expenses, fifty to serve in case of sickness, fifty for the sea-voyage. The pilgrim was advised to carry a mattress (strapontino), a barrel for water, a barrel for wine, and he was warned against discussing matters of faith with infidels.
The chief danger which threatened the pilgrims was sickness. Many died on the way. The Italians in 1384, between Cairo and the convent, met nine Frenchmen; eleven out of their party of twenty had died on the way. In 1483 there was so much sickness in Gaza that many pilgrims gave up the thought of going to the convent; and the young Count Solms died on the way back (Fabri, ii. 446). There were other dangers. Arnold von Harff in 1497 saw the effect of a sandstorm which had cut off a caravan; the corpses of six hundred camels and of fifty men, mauled and rotting, strewed the roadside (p. 120). The pilgrims were often in dread of the Bedawyn, who swooped down on them clamouring for food, and calling for the payment of dues for crossing their territory. The shortage of food at the time was aggravated, no doubt, by the curtailed largess at the convent. The pilgrims of 1483 carried three times as much bread as they needed for themselves in order to meet all possible demands.
The routes followed by the pilgrims were the ordinary caravan routes, subject to some variation. Thus the pilgrims of 1479, mindful of the raiding of a caravan by some Catalans between Gaza and Tur, left Gaza by “a route that had not been followed for twenty years;” they went by “Rappa” (Rafa), “Makati Nockra” (low-lying ground), where there were many gazelles and entered the “Wadi el Arish” (Rieter, p. 91). The pilgrims of 1483, after leaving “Gaza,” stopped at “Lebhem,” where there was a mosque, crossed a sandy plain to “Chawatha,” “called Cades by the Latins,” where it rained, and where there were large cisterns in ruins (Fabri, ii. 494), Ain Kadeis of the present day. Here they entered the “Wadi Gayan” (“Gyon” of Joos, p. 147), the present Wadi el Jain, and stopped in the “Wadi Wadalar,” the scene of the Catalan outrage (Fabri, ii. 502; Breydenbach, p. 187), with the “Wadi Magdabee” or “Mahgaby” and the “Gebel Hallel,” the present Gebel Hellal. They then camped near “Magara,” a name signifying holes, where Fabri, setting out from the camp, ascended a hill on which he found piles of stones and fluttering rags which he thought were intended to work magic, so he tore them down and set up a cross, but he well-nigh missed his way going back to the tents. The next stopping place was “Hachsene,” an important watering station, where the party of the year met many Arabs, and where the pilgrims stored water for three days. This was doubtless the present Bir Hassana, for they were moving over white ground (noted as white chalk mounds on the modern map) to “Minshene” (Fabri, ii. 515), modern Minshera, where they entered the “Wadi el Arish,” camping at “El Harock” or “Barak” (Fabri, ii. 510), the “Wadi Torcko” or “Borricko” of the travellers of 1479 (p. 697). Here they must have been near Nakhl. After passing the white mountain “Chalep” or “Calpio” (perhaps the Colebmaleo of Jacopo), they reached the white “Wadi Meshmar” (Mesmar of Joos), where silver and gold had been worked in the mines as was shown by the smelting. The name corresponds to modern Gebel Megmar. Following the “Hallicub,” where the water was bad, they crossed the wilderness “Elphogaya,” and then entered the red sandstone district of “Rackani” (or “Rochi” or “Roachyne”), where they encamped in an exposed situation. On the following day they descended along the steepest gorge Fabri had ever seen, the modern Naghb el Racki. At its foot they camped in Ramathaym, i.e. bushes, and saw a star at night which, they were told, stood above the convent of St. Katherine. Later stopping places were “Scholie” or “Schoyle,” “Abelharock,” and “Magara” (or “Mackera” or “Mackasea”), where the road branched off to Tur.
The pilgrims of 1479 and 1483 noted the place where Moses pastured his flocks near “Wackya,” probably the present El Watiyeh, which is still associated both with Nebi Saleh and with Moses.[282] On the twelfth day after leaving Gaza, the pilgrims arrived at the convent.
Here they were taken the usual round of the churches and chapels, and ascended the Mountain of the Law, access to which was now forbidden to the Jews. They repaired to the convent of the Arbaïn from which they made the ascent of Gebel Katrîn. They saw the stone in the shape of a Golden Calf, about which Fabri had his doubts (ii. 594); the stone on which the Tables were broken; the convent of St. John Climacus; the convent of SS. Cosmas and Damianus, with its well-kept garden; the spot where Dathan and Abiram disappeared (ii. 590); the boulder with twelve channels of water, one for each of the twelve tribes. Finally, they were shown the relics of St. Katherine, lying in their chest, into which they dropped two ducats each, and were allowed to touch the relics with trinkets they had brought for this purpose (ii. 600). The flow of sacred oil had ceased. There was none available in 1483; in 1489 it was collected at the rate of three drops a week (Joannes de Hese, p. 181). This is the last we hear of it. Pilgrims received, instead, a piece of cotton wool or of silk which was taken out of the chest of St. Katherine, and steeped in the oil of the lamps. The cessation of oil was attributed to the desecration of the shrine by the Arabs.
From the convent some of the pilgrims went on to Cairo by way of “El Phat,” and the white hills of “Lacrara,” where they joined the caravan road coming from Tur. Further stations along the road were “Enaspo” (Wadi Nasb), “Horenden” or “Dorenden” (Wadi Gharandel), “Werdachii” (Werdan), and “Marath” or “Merach,” perhaps the old Mara, and the present Ayun Musa. These stopping-places are the same as those chosen by pilgrims and travellers at the present day.