The real asphaltus is that which was obtained in the vicinity of Babylon, and with which it is said that the Greek fire was fed. Several lakes are full of asphaltus, or a bitumen resembling it, as others are strongly impregnated with nitre. There is a great lake of nitre in the desert of Egypt, which extends from lake M?ris to the entrance of the Delta5; and it has no other name than the Nitre Lake.
The Lake Asphaltites, known by the name of Sodom, was long famed for its bitumen; but the Turks now make no use of it, either because the mine under the water is diminished, because its quality is altered, or because there is too much difficulty in drawing it from under the water. Oily particles of it, and sometimes large masses, separate and float on the surface; these are gathered together, mixed up, and sold for balm of Mecca.
Flavius Josephus, who was of that country, says that, in his time, there were no fish in the lake of Sodom, and the water was so light that the heaviest bodies would not go to the bottom. It seems that he meant to say so heavy instead of so light. It would appear that he had not made the experiment. After all, a stagnant6 water, impregnated with salts and compact matter, its specific matter being then greater than that of the body of a man or a beast, might force it to float. Josephus’s error consists in assigning a false cause to a phenomenon which may be perfectly7 true.
As for the want of fish, it is not incredible. It is, however, likely that this lake, which is fifty or sixty miles long, is not all asphaltic, and that while receiving the waters of the Jordan it also receives the fishes of that river; but perhaps the Jordan, too, is without fish, and they are to be found only in the upper lake of Tiberias.
Josephus adds, that the trees which grow on the borders of the Dead Sea bear fruits of the most beautiful appearance, but which fall into dust if you attempt to taste them. This is less probable; and disposes one to believe that Josephus either had not been on the spot, or has exaggerated according to his own and his countrymen’s custom. No soil seems more calculated to produce good as well as beautiful fruits than a salt and sulphurous one, like that of Naples, of Catania, and of Sodom.
The Holy Scriptures8 speak of five cities being destroyed by fire from heaven. On this occasion natural philosophy bears testimony10 in favor of the Old Testament11, although the latter has no need of it, and they are sometimes at variance12. We have instances of earthquakes, accompanied by thunder and lightning, which have destroyed much more considerable towns than Sodom and Gomorrah.
But the River Jordan necessarily discharging itself into this lake without an outlet13, this Dead Sea, in the same manner as the Caspian, must have existed as long as there has been a River Jordan; therefore, these towns could never stand on the spot now occupied by the lake of Sodom. The Scripture9, too, says nothing at all about this ground being changed into a lake; it says quite the contrary: “Then the Lord rained upon Sodom and upon Gomorrah brimstone and fire, from the Lord out of heaven. And Abraham got up early in the morning, and he looked toward Sodom and Gomorrah, and toward all the land of the plain, and beheld14; and lo, the smoke of the country went up as the smoke of a furnace.”
These five towns, Sodom, Gomorrah, Zeboin, Adamah, and Segor, must then have been situated15 on the borders of the Dead Sea. How, it will be asked, in a desert so uninhabitable as it now is, where there are to be found only a few hordes16 of plundering17 Arabs, could there be five cities, so opulent as to be immersed in luxury, and even in those shameful18 pleasures which are the last effect of the refinement19 of the debauchery attached to wealth? It may be answered that the country was then much better.
Other critics will say — how could five towns exist at the extremities20 of a lake, the water of which, before their destruction, was not potable? The Scripture itself informs us that all this land was asphaltic before the burning of Sodom: “And the vale of Sodom was full of slime-pits; and the kings of Sodom and Gomorrah fled and fell there.
Another objection is also stated. Isaiah and Jeremiah say that Sodom and Gomorrah shall never be rebuilt; but Stephen, the geographer21, speaks of Sodom and Gomorrah on the coast of the Dead Sea; and the “History of the Councils” mentions bishops22 of Sodom and Segor. To this it may be answered that God filled these towns, when rebuilt, with less guilty inhabitants; for at that time there was no bishop23 in partibus.
But, it will be said, with what water could these new inhabitants quench24 their thirst? All the wells are brackish25; you find asphaltus and corrosive26 salt on first striking a spade into the ground.
It will be answered that some Arabs still subsist27 there, and may be habituated to drinking very bad water; that the Sodom and Gomorrah of the Eastern Empire were wretched hamlets, and that at that time there were many bishops whose whole diocese consisted in a poor village. It may also be said that the people who colonized28 these villages prepared the asphaltus, and carried on a useful trade in it.
The arid29 and burning desert, extending from Segor to the territory of Jerusalem, produces balm and aromatic30 herbs for the same reason that it supplies naphtha, corrosive salt and sulphur.
It is said that petrifaction31 takes place in this desert with astonishing rapidity; and this, according to some natural philosophers, makes the petrifaction of Lot’s wife Edith a very plausible32 story.
But it is said that this woman, “having looked back, became a pillar of salt.” This, then, was not a natural petrifaction, operated by asphaltus and salt, but an evident miracle. Flavius Josephus says that he saw this pillar. St. Justin and St. Iren?us speak of it as a prodigy33, which in their time was still existing.
These testimonies34 have been looked upon as ridiculous fables35. It would, however, be very natural for some Jews to amuse themselves with cutting a heap of asphaltus into a rude figure, and calling it Lot’s wife. I have seen cisterns of asphaltus, very well made, which may last a long time. But it must be owned that St. Iren?us goes a little too far when he says that Lot’s wife remained in the country of Sodom no longer in corruptible36 flesh, but as a permanent statue of salt, her feminine nature still producing the ordinary effect: “Uxor remansit in Sodomis, jam non caro corruptibilis sed statua salis semper manens, et per naturalia ea qu?sunt consuetudmis hominis ostendens.”
St. Iren?us does not seem to express himself with all the precision of a good naturalist37 when he says Lot’s wife is no longer of corruptible flesh, but stillretains her feminine nature.
In the poem of Sodom, attributed to Tertullian, this is expressed with still greater energy:
Dicitur et vivens alio sub corpore se us,
Mirifice solito dispungere sanguine38 menses.
This was translated by a poet of the time of Henry II., in his Gallic style:
La femme à Loth, quoique sel devenue,
Est femme encore; car elle a sa menstrue.
The land of aromatics39 was also the land of fables. Into the deserts of Arabia Petr?a the ancient mythologists pretend that Myrrha, the granddaughter of a statue, fled after committing incest with her father, as Lot’s daughters did with theirs, and that she was metamorphosed into the tree that bears myrrh. Other profound mythologists assure us that she fled into Arabia Felix; and this opinion is as well supported as the other.
Be this as it may, not one of our travellers has yet thought fit to examine the soil of Sodom, with its asphaltus, its salt, its trees and their fruits, to weigh the water of the lake, to analyze40 it, to ascertain41 whether bodies of greater specific gravity than common water float upon its surface, and to give us a faithful account of the natural history of the country. Our pilgrims to Jerusalem do not care to go and make these researches; this desert has become infested42 by wandering Arabs, who range as far as Damascus, and retire into the caverns43 of the mountains, the authority of the pasha of Damascus having hitherto been inadequate44 to repress them. Thus the curious have but little information about anything concerning the Asphaltic Lake.
As to Sodom, it is a melancholy45 reflection for the learned that, among so many who may be deemed natives, not one has furnished us with any notion whatever of this capital city.
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1
bitumen
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| n.沥青 | |
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lining
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| n.衬里，衬料 | |
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cisterns
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| n.蓄水池，储水箱( cistern的名词复数 )；地下储水池 | |
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applied
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| adj.应用的；v.应用，适用 | |
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delta
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| n.（流的）角洲 | |
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stagnant
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| adj.不流动的，停滞的，不景气的 | |
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7
perfectly
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| adv.完美地，无可非议地，彻底地 | |
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8
scriptures
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| 经文，圣典( scripture的名词复数 )； 经典 | |
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scripture
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| n.经文，圣书，手稿；Scripture:(常用复数)《圣经》，《圣经》中的一段 | |
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testimony
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| n.证词；见证，证明 | |
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testament
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| n.遗嘱；证明 | |
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variance
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| n.矛盾，不同 | |
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outlet
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| n.出口/路；销路；批发商店；通风口；发泄 | |
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14
beheld
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| v.看，注视( behold的过去式和过去分词 )；瞧；看呀；（叙述中用于引出某人意外的出现）哎哟 | |
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15
situated
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| adj.坐落在...的，处于某种境地的 | |
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hordes
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| n.移动着的一大群( horde的名词复数 )；部落 | |
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plundering
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| 掠夺，抢劫( plunder的现在分词 ) | |
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shameful
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| adj.可耻的，不道德的 | |
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refinement
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| n.文雅；高尚；精美；精制；精炼 | |
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extremities
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| n.端点( extremity的名词复数 )；尽头；手和足；极窘迫的境地 | |
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geographer
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| n.地理学者 | |
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bishops
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| （基督教某些教派管辖大教区的）主教( bishop的名词复数 )； （国际象棋的）象 | |
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bishop
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| n.主教，（国际象棋）象 | |
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24
quench
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| vt.熄灭，扑灭；压制 | |
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brackish
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| adj.混有盐的；咸的 | |
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corrosive
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| adj.腐蚀性的；有害的；恶毒的 | |
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subsist
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| vi.生存，存在，供养 | |
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28
colonized
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| 开拓殖民地，移民于殖民地( colonize的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
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arid
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| adj.干旱的；(土地)贫瘠的 | |
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aromatic
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| adj.芳香的，有香味的 | |
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petrifaction
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| n.石化，化石；吓呆；惊呆 | |
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32
plausible
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| adj.似真实的，似乎有理的，似乎可信的 | |
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prodigy
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| n.惊人的事物，奇迹，神童，天才，预兆 | |
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testimonies
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| （法庭上证人的）证词( testimony的名词复数 )； 证明，证据 | |
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fables
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| n.寓言( fable的名词复数 )；神话，传说 | |
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36
corruptible
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| 易腐败的，可以贿赂的 | |
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naturalist
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| n.博物学家(尤指直接观察动植物者) | |
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38
sanguine
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| adj.充满希望的，乐观的，血红色的 | |
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39
aromatics
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| n.芳香植物( aromatic的名词复数 )；芳香剂，芳香药物 | |
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40
analyze
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| vt.分析，解析 (=analyse) | |
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41
ascertain
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| vt.发现，确定，查明，弄清 | |
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42
infested
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| adj.为患的，大批滋生的（常与with搭配）v.害虫、野兽大批出没于( infest的过去式和过去分词 )；遍布于 | |
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43
caverns
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| 大山洞，大洞穴( cavern的名词复数 ) | |
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44
inadequate
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| adj.(for,to)不充足的，不适当的 | |
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45
melancholy
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| n.忧郁，愁思；adj.令人感伤（沮丧）的，忧郁的 | |
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