D10
DEAD SEA.
394
depth beneath the surface, and are used by the Arabs to cure diseases ¬
in their camels. The asphaltum (), Hommar, which is
collected by the Arabs of the western shore, is said to come from
a mountain which blocks up the passage along the eastern Ghor,
and which is situated at about two hours south of Wady Modjeb.
The Arabs pretend that it oozes from the fissures in the cliff, and collects ¬
in large pieces on the rock below, where the mass gradually
increases and hardens, until it is rent asunder by the heat of the
sun, with a loud explosion, and falling into the sea, is carried by the
waves in considerable quantities to the opposite shores. At the
northern extremity of the sea the stink-stone is found ; its combustible ¬
properties are ascribed, by the Arabs, to the magic rod
of Moses, whose tomb is not far from thence. The stones are
thrown into the fires made of camel’s dung, to encrease the heat.
Concerning the lake itself, I was informed that no visible increase ¬
of its waters takes place in winter time, as the greater part
of the torrents which descend from the eastern mountains do not
reach the lake, but are lost in the sandy plain. About three hours
north of Szaffye is a ford, by which the lake is crossed in three
hours and a half. Some Arabs assured me that there are spots in
this ford where the water is quite hot, and where the bottom is of
red earth. It is probable that there are hot springs in the bottom
of the lake, which near the ford is nowhere deeper than three or
four feet; and generally only two feet. The water is so strongly
impregnated with salt, that the skin of the legs of those who wade
across it soon afterwards peels entirely off.
The mountains about Kerek are all calcareous, with flint; they
abound with petrified shells, and some of the rocks consist entirely
of small shells. Fine specimens of calcareous spath, called by the
Arabs Hadjar Ain el Shems), the Sun's eye, are found
