Sinai’s Secrets

Sun (Auckland), Volume I, Issue 246, 7 January 1928, Page 10

Sinai’s Secrets

WHAT WAS MIRACULOUS

"BREAD” SCIENTISTS TRAIL MANNA Ten years ago, when General Allenby marched his troops through the Sinai Desert to tbii Holy Hand, an event took place that influenced considerably the destinies of Palestine and its vast hinterland in the south. For centuries the empty expanse of the desert proved a mysterious, impassable area in which were buried its manifold resources (says a writer in the ‘New York Times’*'). While one should speak with soine reserve of a desert's “resources,” it is nevertheless a fact that the alleged poverty of the Sinai Desert Is due more to lack of exploration and to ignorance than to the reluctance of the misery-stricken to develop it. Little did the average civilised man know either about Sinai Peninsula or Mount Sinai, beyond the fact that the Israelites wandered about there, and that on one of its peaks, generally identified as Mount Katfierine, Moses the law-giver gathered his exhausted flock. Since that far-off time the desert has remained a closed book to most of us. The one element of the Sinai#Desert that proved an Irresistible attraction alike to layman and to scientists was manna, that strange and baffling food on which the children of Israel had been fed. Manna—what was it? In the hundreds of etymological interpretations offered by Biblical scholars in connection with this substance, the most plausible advanced was the one appearing in the passage of the Scriptures in which th'e word occurred for the first time. The Biblical Manna Examining the facts available in the Bible, we learn that the manna came every morning, except, the Sabbath, m the shape of a small seed resembling the hoar frost; that it was to be gathered early, before the rays of the sun appeared to melt it; that the Sabbath, though not a ’‘dies non” for purposes of nutrition, was nevertheless a day on which manna was not to be gathered; that this miraculous food nourished what was no doubt a considerable population for some 40 years; and that it ceased to be provided when the first corn of the land of Canaan was available. Something like half a million tons a year must have been supplied by this “Divine gift” to still the hunger of the wandering tribes. While many dubious elements can be traced in this story, even by those not familiar with the exaggerations of recorders of'antiquity, it was apparent that the whole story could not be treated as a product of the imagination. There were two Questions to answer befor€> the identity of manna could be established. First, was there such a thing as manna growing wild in any part of the Oriental deserts? Second, to what extent could we draw upon the accounts of the Scriptures to estab-

lish its identity and its food value? The problem had more than an academic significance. It was not merely a problem of Biblical investigation, and of the identity of a doubtful word or concept. It was concerned with more than one science, and offered tempting attractions to scholars. \ l Here were met together, on one common platform, for purposes of investigation, scientists of many domains, each attempting to contribute from his own angle to the solution of the enigma. Scientific Searching* The more scientists were involved in the examination of the problem M “*e more difficult its solution became. The geographer searched for manna in those counties lying, so to say, in the civilised belt so far as food supply is concerned. These* regions included ne-v'' the whole of Eastern and Southern Europe and Western Asia, in which some sort of corn, or exudation of cer-' tain species of the tamarisk, was known to abound. Botanists, still in the dark as to the nature of the manna, oaid less heed to climatic conditions, which gave rise to the 7 tiplication of varieties of flora, than to the manna itself, after which they are still searching. They took some of those elements containing the socalled mannite, found in Southern I 4 * and in some of the Balkans, subjected them to examination, and tr* *d to ascertain whether they answered to any of the data given in the Bible. The systematic search began early in the last century. A well-known Oriental traveller and geographer observed the manna lying in Mesopotamia like a meal on the leaves of a tre'' which to him vas a species of oak. This yielded a generous harvest in the wet seasons, the matter—which was shaken off the tree —accumulating till it. became thick. Another traveler, Burckhard, equally famous for his explorations in the Orient, found a -simi-

lar matter in the Jordan Valley. This ambled gum lying on the leaves of tree, and looked something like dew. It iwas of a brown or greyish colour. These explorers have laid the foundations of such exact knowledge as we possess covering Oriental modes of living. Their investigations of however, were only part, and not the most important part, of their Eastern explorations. Careful Investigation Begun Not until lately did research in the field of manna become of great interest to icientists of several fields. The accounts in the Bible, confirmed in part by the and rejected as humbug by some others, were at least deemed worthy of investigation. Where, after all, lay the truth, or the nearest approach to truth? Needless to say, no approach to truth on such x a. mysterious matter could be fqund by incidental investigation. It needed more than amateurish methods to get indisputable results. The youngest university in the world, the Hebrew University of Jerusalem, undertook the work. In July of this year it sent a scientific expedition to the Sinai Peninsula. The members of that expedition were Dr. F. Bodenheimer, entomologist of the experimental station of Tel-Aviv; Theodor, entomological assistant at the Microbiological Institute of the Hebrew University; and a third member to deal with the botanical side of the work. It was obvious that, if a fair measure of success was to be obtained in t' • ' .atter of the manna, constant investigations ought to be made on the sr»ot, and not restricted to one particular locality in which the manna could be found only in odd quantities. This the expedition aimed to achieve b~ a fairly long sojouim in the desert, and bv observation of the process of the formation of the manna in all the c places in which it could he seen. The commission spent some 25 days J_2_the desert, watching at times for

long hours, in dry as well as 111 J weather, in the dark as light, the process of that feraffl j said to have been hitherto impaffl; j observed. The theory most commonly ali until now was that the manm 4 i } tamarisk was the true Biblical bs | The exact manner of Its formatted | form of its secretion from aW* | species of the tamarisk, was act Ml Some thought it came from the fci j*: or branches of the tree; some 1 | b r ing on the many tetsj* its secretion as the result of i—jp work. The expedition found these be a secretion of small cocdM® sects, mealy bugs and scale tee These insects excreted fro» i bodies a very clear juice, which Id J drops upon the ground. The fteg| of these excretions varies tees*, to the weather. When there plentiful quantity the drops ft® | on the ground hardened', and lf*V white sugar grains. SometiflMi*| were very small; sometimes the?* as big as lentils. Season's Production VariM Manna has therefore its good V sons and its less favourable There was one such good senate 12 years ago, when, according accounts of Bedouins, a ma* gather as much as one and kilograms in a day. The expetfound traces of manna all aloas : route that it traversed. g This is, in substance, all that be gathered by the expedition. are other details of which one>»•"leak with some reserve pdßdnfH publication of the full report w*' expedition. There are a ' uestions to be established may say that wc possess all the**** sary knowledge with regard to »* called “Divine food.” When the n* has been made public, a great dte doubtless be known that will be « not merely to scientists, bat those interested in the practice * of scientific advancement. .