448 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY. 



into which Lot's wife was transformed was still existing. In the 

 fourth the continuance of the statue was vouched for by St. Sil- 

 via, who visited the place : though she could not see it, she was 

 told by the Bishop of Segor that it had been there some time 

 before, and she concluded that it had been temporarily covered 

 by the sea. In both the fourth and fifth centuries such great 

 doctors in the Church as St. Jerome, St. John Chrysostom, and 

 St. Cyril of Jerusalem agreed in this belief and statement ; 

 hence it was, doubtless, that the Hebrew word which is trans- 

 lated in the authorized English version " pillar," was translated 

 in the Vulgate, which the vast majority of Christians believe 

 divinely inspired, by the word " statue " ; we shall find this fact 

 insisted upon by theologians arguing in behalf of the statue, as a 

 result and monument of the miracle, for over fourteen hundred 

 years afterward.* 



About the middle of the sixth century Antoninus Martyr 

 visited the Dead Sea region and described it, but curiously re- 

 versed a simple truth in these words : " Nor do sticks or straws 

 float there, nor can a man swim, but whatever is cast into it 

 sinks to the bottom." As to the statue of Lot's wife, he threw 

 doubt upon its miraculous renewal, but testified that it was still 

 standing. 



In the seventh century the Targum of Jerusalem not only 

 testified that the salt pillar at Usdum was once Lot's wife, but 

 declared that she must retain that form until the general resur- 

 rection. In the seventh century, too, Bishop Arculf traveled to 

 the Dead Sea, and his work was added to the treasures of the 

 Church. He develops the legend, and especially that part of it 

 given by Josephus, greatly. The bitumen that floats upon the 

 sea " resembles gold and the form of a bull or camel " ; " birds 

 can not live near it " ; and " the very beautiful apples " which 

 grow there, when plucked, " burn and are reduced to ashes, and 

 smoke as if they were still burning." 



In the eighth century the Venerable Bede takes these state- 

 ments of Arculf and his predecessors, binds them together in his 

 work on " The Holy Places," and gives the whole mass of myths 

 and legends an enormous impulse, f 



In the tenth century new force is given to it by the pious Mos- 



* See Josephus, "Antiquities," 1, 1, chap, ii ; Clement, "Epist.," 1; Cyril, "Hieros. 

 Catech.," six ; Chrysostom, " Horn.," xviii, xliv in Genes. ; Irenaeus, lib. iv, c. xxxi, or cap. 

 i, p. 354, edition Oxon., 1702. For St. Silvia, see " S. Silvias Aquitana? Peregrinatio ad 

 Loca Sancta," Roma?, 1887, p. 55, also edition of 1885, p. 25. For legends of signs of con- 

 tinued life in bowlders and stones into which human beings have been transformed for 

 sin, see Karl Bartsch, " Sagen," etc., vol. ii, pp. 420 et seq. 



\ For Antoninus Martyr, see Tobler's edition of his work in the " Itinera," i, p. 100, 

 Geneva, 1877. For the Targum of Jerusalem, see citat. in Quaresmius, "Terra? Sancta? 

 Elucidatio," Peregrinatio vi, cap. xiv ; new Venice edition. For Arculf, see Tobler. For 



