Monte Cavo near Rome, as signals to the tribes of Latium. The Peninsula then was doubtless far more populous than now, many tribes dwelling in yonder valleys, within full view of this mountain height, so that when the beacon-fire was lighted here in the darkness of night, it shone in thousands of eyes which glared fiercely at the sign of battle. Nor was it patriotism alone which fired those warriors of the desert. Serbal, as its name imports — the palm-grove of Baal[1] — was a mountain devoted to that idolatrous service; it was the highest of all the "high places" set apart for that cruel and bloody worship. Here the priests of Baal erected their altars. On the top is still a rude cairn of stones, which may have stood here from the remotest times. This may have been one of their altars, which smoked with human sacrifices. Who could believe, when standing on such a spot, amid such scenes, so grand and yet so still and peaceful, that man could thus defile the noblest works of God; how, unawed by such grandeur, he was capable of deeds that thrill us with horror — deeds of such cruelty and crime! When I reached the top, I threw myself down upon a shelf of rock, in which there was a slight indentation, a hollow such as is sometimes worn by the action of water, which seemed as if made on purpose to receive the head of a poor pilgrim. This I took for a pillow, and here, stretched at full length, gave one long,
- ↑ The late Professor Palmer, who was at once master of Arabic and an indefatigable explorer in the Peninsula of Sinai, derived the name from another Arabic word, sirbal, signifying a shirt or coat-of-mail, which might have been suggested by the appearance of the mountain in a storm, when the floods descended on its dome-like head, and poured in innumerable silver streams down its rocky sides. Whether that be the true etymology of the name or not, the image it presents is very striking and beautiful.
