* Reland, in his account of Lake Asphaltitcs, after insert ing copious extracts from Galen concering the properties and quality of the water, and its natural history, proceeds to account for the strange fables that have prevailed with regard to its deadly influence, by showing that certain of the ancients counfounded this lake with another, bearing the same appellation of Asphaltites (which signifies nothing more than bituminous) near Babylon; and that they attributed to it qualities which properly belonged to the Babylonian waters. An account of the properties of the Babylonian lake occurs in the writings of Vitruvius, of Pliny, of Athenæus,** and of Xiphilinus:ft from their various testimony it is evident that all the phænomena supposed to belong to the lake Asphaltites, near Babylon, were, from the similarity of their names, ultimately considered as the natural characteristics of the Judæan Jake; the two Asphaltites being confounded. Thus, when Dioscorides, extolling the Bitumen Judaïcum above all other, adds, that it is also found in Babylon, he is evidently referring to the bituminous sources mentioned by Diodorus SicuJus. The Arabian geographers, and among these Ibn Idris,*** admitted all the fabulous opinions concerning the Dead Sea, which were found in the writings of the Greeks and Romans. According to them, no animal found in other waters existed here. Among the numerous asserters of the remarkable specific gravity of the water, almost every ancient author may be included, by whom the lake has been mentioned; this is *Palæst. Illust. lib. ii. cap. 38. tom. 1 p. 238. Traj. Bat. 1714. Mare mortuum, in quo nihil poterat esse vitale, et mare amarissimum, quod Græci Aluvy 'Aoparírny, id est, Stagnum bituminis, vocant." Hieron. in Comm. ad Ezek. xlvii. Credo itaque confudisse quosdam veterum hunc lacum Asphaltitem cum alio lacu ejusdem nominis circa Babylonem, et uni tribuisse quod alteri tribuendum fuerat." Palæst. Illust. tom. I. p. 244. Vitruv. lib. viii. cap. 3. Amst. 1649. Plin. lib. xxxv. cap. 15. tom. 111. pp 459, 460. L. Bat. 1635. **Athen. lib. ii. cap. 5. L. Bat. 1612. #Xiphilin. in E Pacum & paistab "Ita quod de lacu Asphaltite Babyloniæ fama ferebatur, de hoc lacu Asphaltite Judeæ narrarunt, et duos hos lacus confuderunt." Reland. Pal. 1. lib. i. tom I. c. 28. p. 245. Traj. Bat. 1714. Dioscorides de Re Medicâ, lib. i. cap. 99. Francof. 1598, Η Πολλῶν δὲ και παραδόξων ὄντων θεαμάτων κατά την Βαβυλωνίαν εχ ἥκιστα θαυμάζεται, καὶ τὸ πλῆθος τῆς ἐν αὐτῇ γεννωμένης ασφάλτο, κ. τ. λ. Multa sane Babylonia continet spectatu digna et admiranda; sed inter haec non minimum admrationis meretur bituminis copia illa exsudantis, &c." Diodor. Sic. lib. ii. cap. 12. Amst. 1746. ***Appellatur autem mare mortuum, quia nihil in quo anima est ibi invenitur, nec piscis, nec reptile, nec aliud quidpiam quod in reliquis aquis generari sole: Vid. Test. Georg. Arab. in Rel. Pal. Illust, lib. cap. 38. tom. I. p. 249, ele. noticed by Aristotle ;* and it can hardly be doubted but that' their testimonies have some foundation in reality. Maundrell, ATTOпTHE, as he is emphatically styled by Reland,† is entitled to implicit confidence in this, as in all other matters, where he speaks from his own practical observation. Being willing," says he, "to make an experiment of its strength, I went into it, and found it bore up my body in swimming with an uncommon force. But as for that relation of some authors, that men wading into it were buoyed up to the top as soon as they go as deep as the navel, 1 found it, upon experiment, not true." There is scarcely a single ancient geographer who has not mentioned something concerning this inland sea. Josephus, Julius Africanus, and Pausanias, describe it from their own ocular evidence. The first of these often introduces allusions to it under the appellation of lake Asphaltites. Its water, although limpid, like that of the sea of Galilee, and resulting from the same river, the Jordan, instead of being, as that is, sweet and salutary, is in the highest degree salt, bitter, and nauseous. Its length, according to Diodorus Siculus, is above seventy-two English miles, and its breadth nearly nineteen.|| Julius Africanus mentions the abundance of balsam found near its shores.** The observations of Pausaniast contain merely a repetition of remarks already introdu ced. The temptation to visit Bethlehem was so great, that, notwithstanding the increasing alarms concerning the ravages of the plague as we drew near the town, we resolved at all events to venture thither. For this purpose, calling all our troop together, we appointed certain members of our cavalcade to keep a look out, and act as guards in the van, centre, and rear of the party, to see that no person loitered, and that none of the inhabitants might be permitted to touch us, or our horses and camels, on any account whatsoever. In this * Εἰ δ' ἔστιν, ὥσπερ μυθολογόσι τίνες, ἐν Παλαιστίνη τοιαύτη λίμνη, εἰς τὴν ἐάν τις ἐμβάλλη συνδήσας ἄνθρωπον ἢ ὑποζύδιον ἐπιπλεῖν, καὶ ἐ καταδύεσθαι κατὰ τὸ ὕδατος, μαρτύριον ἂν εἴη τοῖς εἰρημένοις. "Si autem, uti quidam narrant, in Palaestina ejusmodi lacus sit, in quem si quis hominem aut jumentum ligatum injecerit, su pernatet nec mergatur, id ea quae diximus confirmabit." Aristot. lib. ii. cap. 3. Meteorologicorum, Paris. 1629. Pal. Itlust. tom. I. p. 244. Traj. Bat. 1714. Maundrell's Journ. from Alep. to Jerus. p 84. Oxf. 1721. Ibid. Vid. Diod. Sic. lib. xix. Amst. 1746. Reckoning the stadium as being equal to our furlong, ε. Εστι δὲ παρ' αὐτῇ πάμπολυ το βαλσάμε φυτόν. " Circumquaque magna balsami Jul. African. de Lacu Asphalt. Vid. Rel. Pal. III. lib. i. c. 38. Pausanias, lib. v. cap. 7. Lips. 1796. opia est." van. manner we passed entirely through the town, which we found almost deserted by the inhabitants, who, having fled the contagion, were seen stationed in tents over all the neighbouring hills. It appeared to be a larger place than we expected to find the houses are all white, and have flat roofs, as at Jerusalem, and in other parts of the country. A nephew of the governor of Jerusalem, mounted upon a beautiful Arabian courser, magnificently accoutred, rode near the centre of our caraHe had volutcered his company, as he said, to ensure us respect, and as a mark of the governor's condescension. To our very great embarrassment, we had no sconer arrived in the middle of Bethlehem, than some of the inhabitants, at the sight of this man, came toward him to salute him; and in spite of all our precautions and remonstrances, a Bethlehemite of some consideration came and conversed with him, placing his arm upon the velvet saddle cloth which covered his horse's haunches. This, we knew, would be sufficient to communicate the plague to every one of us; therefore there was no alternative, but to insist instantly upon the young grandee's immediate dismissal. However, when our resolutions were made known to him, he positively refused to leave the party upon this, we were compelled to have recourse to measures which proved effectual; and he rode off, at full speed, muttering the curses usually bestowed on Christians, for cur insolence and cowardice. We reached the great gate of the convent of the nativity without further accident; but did not choose to venture in, both on account of the danger, and the certainty of beholding over again much of the same sort of mummery which had so frequently put our patience to the proof in Jerusalem. Passing close to its walls, we took our course down into the deep valley which lies upon its northeastern side; visiting the place where tradition. say S the angel, with a multitude of the heavenly host, appeared to the shepherds of Judæa, with the glad tidings of our Saviour's nativity; and, finally, halting in an olive plantation at the bottom. *Bernard the Monk, who visited Beth'ehem in the year 870, speaks of a monastery in this place, which he describes as a mile distant from the town. We saw nothing of the monastery alluded to by him; neither does the place here mentioned agree with his distance. "Miliario denique uno à Bethleem est monasterium sanctorum Pastorum, quibus Angelus Domini apparuit in nativitate Domini." Vid. Itinerarium Per nardi Monachi, apud Mabillon. Act. Sanct. Ord. Benedict. Sæcul. 3. Pars ìi. p. 525. Int. Paris, 1672. Doubdan saw the ruins of a church, built, he says, hy Helenas mother of Constantine (Voy: de la T. S. p. 167. Paris, 1657.) but his description of their situation answers to the place where we halted." C'est une petite campagna pleine et unie au fond du vallon. une terre labourable ... fermée d'une po tite mur. etc. etc " We found it, of the valley below the convent and the town. even here, necessary to station an armed guard upon the outside of the olive ground, which was fenced with a low wall, in order to keep off those whom curiosity attracted toward us; and who expressed their astonishment at our fear of them, having withdrawn, they said, from the town, expressly to avoid the contagion, and therefore considered themselves as little likely to communicate infection. The Arab soldiers of our escort were, however, of opinion, that we should do well to keep them at a distance, and therefore we did not allow them to come within the wall. There was a well, stationed upon the outside of our little rampart, near the spot; and as it was necessary to send to this place for water to boil our coffee, we fixed upon a single individual for this purpose, upon whose discretion we could rely. Bethlehem, written Bethlechem by Reland,* is six miles from Jerusalem. This distance, allowed by almost all authors, exactly corresponds with the usual computed measure, by time, of two hours. Some inaccuracy might therefore be acknowledged to exist in the printed text of Josephus, describing the interval between the two cities as equal only to twenty stadia. Jerom, who passed so many years at BethJehem, and therefore was best qualified to decide this point, together with Eusebius, Sulpitius Severus, and Phocas, all agree in the distance before stated. But Reland, with his ordinary critical acumen, observes, that the apparent inaccuracy of the Jewish historian arises only from a misconstruction of his words; that he is speaking of the distance from Jerusalem to the camp of the Philistines in the valley between the two cities, and not of their distance from each other. There is at *Pallaest. Illust. tom. II. p. 642. Utrecht, 1714. † Τῆς δὲ τῶν ἐχθρῶν παρεμβολῆς ἐν τῇ κοιλάδι κειμένης, ἢ μέχρι πόλεως Βηθλεέμ διατείνει, σταδίους Ἱεροσολύμων ἀπεχέσης εἴκοσι. "Castris vero hostium in ea valle positis quae usque ad Bethleem urbem pertingit, viginti stadiis ab Hierosolymis distantem.' Josephi Antiq. Jud. lib. vii. cap. 12 tom. 11. p. 402. Edit. Havercampi, Ba tav. 1725. Hieronym. in lib. de Locis Hebraicis. "Urbs vero Beth Ἡ δὲ Βεθλεὲμ πόλις ἀπέχει τῆς ἀξίας πόλεως ὡσεὶ μίλια ἕξ. leem à sancta civitate sex fere mille passibus distat." Phocae Descript. T. S. apud Leo. Allat. in Ecup. Colon. 1653. Sed error hic non est Josephi, verum ex verbis ejus male intellectis natus. Inspice verba Graeca. Illud anexons refertur ad rókaws Bnbλeip, sic ut sensus sit urbem Bethleem distare 20 stadiis ab urbe Hierosolymitana. Sed refer illud ad vocem Tapsuẞons, et hostilem exercitum : atque ita Josephus scripsit castra inimicorum, quae erant in valle se extendente usque ad urbem Bethleem abfuisse Hierosolymis present a particular reason for wishing to establish the accaracy of Josephus in this part of his writings. In the same passage he makes allusion to a celebrated well, which, both from the account given by him of its situation, and more especially from the text of sacred scripiure,* seems to have contained the identical fountain, of whose pure and delicious water we were now drinking. Considered merely in point of interest, the narrative is not likely to be surpassed by any circumstance of Pagan history. It may be related with reference both to the words of Scripture, and to the account given by Josephus. David, being a native of Bethlehem, calls to mind, during the sultry days of harvest a well near the gate of the town, of whose delicious water he had often tasted; and expresses an carnest desire to assuage his thirst by drinking of that limpid spring. "And David longed, and said, oh that one would give me drink of the water of the well of Bethlehem, which is by the gate!" The exclamation is overheard by "three of the mighty men whom David had;" by Ádino, by Eleazar, and by Shanumab f These men, the most mighty of all the chiefs belonging to David's host, sallied forth, and, having fought their way through the Philistine garrison at Bethlehem, drew water from the well, that was by the gate," on the other side of the town, "and took it, and brought it to David." Josephus lays the scene of action in the valley, calling these renowned warriors by the naies of Jessaem, Eleazar, and Sebas :** he further says, that as they returned back, bearing the water through the Philis tine camp, their enemics gazing in wonder at the intrepidity of the enterprize, offered them no molestation. Coming into the presence of David, they present to him the surprising testimo 20 stadia: non ipsam urbem Bethleem Hierosolymis abfuisse 20 stadiorum intervalJun. Peccant itaque versiones quae Josephum ita loquentem inducunt." Reland. Pal. Illust. lib. ii. c. 9. *2 Sam. xxiii. 15. 115id ver. 13. Ibid. ver 8, 9, 11. And the garrison of the Philistines was then in Beth-lehem." Ibid. ver. 14. **Vid. Joseph. Antiq. lib. vii. c. 12. tom. I. p. 401. Without attempting to reconcile Adino with Jessaem, it may be observed that Sebas was probably Semas; the ancient Greek band m being, in MS. scarcely distinguishable from each other. † Ὡς της Παλαιστίνος καταπλαγέντας αὐτῶν τὸ θράσος καὶ τὴν εὐψυχίαν, ἠρεμῆσαι, καὶ μηδὲν ἐπ' αὐτοὺς τολμῆσαι, κ. τ. λ. "Adeo ut Palaestini, eorum audacia animi que fortitudine atteriti, quieverint, nihlique in ipsos ausi fuerint," etc. Ibid. p. 402. |