Vol.I - The Coptic Orthodox Church

CH. VII.] Desert Monasteries. 295
hands with exclamations of thankfulness for our safe
arrival, and led us through the narrow doorway
within the fortress, where we were soon lodged in
the guest-chamber, and lay on rugs upon the floor
to rest and wait for our tents and camels. The
guest-chamber was a bare room with latticed but
unglazed windows : it was on the first floor, and
reached by a flight of steps in the open air without :
some dark cells are annexed to it, but did not look
very tempting. The monks gave us the usual eastern
A.y.n.
Fig. 19. Dair Macarius from the south-east.
thimbleful of coffee, but it was nearly ten o'clock
before we dined. Next morning the unwonted sound
of a church bell roused us at five o'clock, and with
the dawn we got a view of the monastery, which the
darkness of the night before had rendered im-
possible.
All the four monasteries here are built roughly on
the same model, although the details vary in arrange-
ment, and a description of our first resting-place,
Dair Macarius, will more or less accurately describe
the others. The monastery is a veritable fortress,
standing about one hundred and fifty yards square,