66 MEMOIR OP BURCKHARDT. 



is not just that I should be at the expense or trouble 

 of curing her." He never provides clothes or arti- 

 cles of dress for his spouse ; she is in consequence 

 obliged to apply to her own family, or to rob her 

 husband of his wheat and barley, and sell it clan- 

 destinely in small quantities, other^^^se she could 

 not appear decently in public. The inhabitants hold 

 commercial intercourse with Jerusalem, for which 

 place a caravan departs every two months. 



Burckhardt had not an opportunity of descend- 

 ing to the borders of the Dead Sea, but he took 

 notes of the descriptions of it which were given him 

 by the natives. The hills towards the south abound 

 in rock-salt, which is washed off by the winter 

 rains and carried down into the lake. The asphal- 

 tum, which the Arabs j^retend oozes from the fis- 

 sures in the eastern cliffs, is collected in large pieces 

 on the rocks below, where the mass gradually in- 

 creases and hardens until it is rent asunder by the 

 heat of the sun with a loud explosion, and falling 

 into the sea, it is carried by the waves in consider- 

 able quantities to the opposite shore. At the north- 

 ern extremity of the lake, 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 water of the Dead Sea is so 

 strongly impregnated with salt, that the skin of the 

 legs of those who wade across it soon afterwards 

 peels entirely off. 



After remaining nearly three weeks at Kerek, 

 waiting the departure of the sheikli, Burckliardt set 



