74 DESCRIPTION OF ARABIA. 



troughs, to perform a march of ninety Roman miles 

 in three days. 



The remembrance of this memorable transaction 

 is preserved in the local traditions of the inhabit- 

 ants. The Wells of Moses (Ayoun Mousa), and 

 the Baths of Pharaoh (Ilammam Faraoun), are as- 

 sociated with the names of the Jewish deliverer and 

 the Egyptian monarch ; and the superstitious Arabs 

 call the gulf the Bahr of Kolzoum, or Sea of De- 

 struction, in whose roaring waters they still pretend 

 to hear the cries and waitings of the ghosts of the 

 drowned EgyiJtians.* 



Of the navigation of the Arabian seas, the ancients 

 uniformly spoke with awe and apprehension, as 

 everywhere full of peril and difl^culty. Arrian, 

 Agatharcides, Strabo, and Abulfeda unite in draw- 

 ing the same terrific picture of tempests, whirlpools, 

 and sunk mountains, v/ith which these inhospitable 

 waters were infested. The storms dashed their 

 ships on the rocks, and the rocks cut their cables ; 

 while the inhabitants were more terrible than either, 

 for they plundered and ate, or made slaves of all 

 who escaped the wrecks and the waves. The first 

 navigators never ventured to encounter these com- 

 plicated dangers until they had instituted solemn 

 festivals, or performed sacrifice to Neptune ; and 

 those who had the fortune to return in safety were 

 regarded as prodigies, and adorned with garlands 



* Diodorus seems distinctly to allude to the passage of the 

 Israelites ■ " It has been an ancient report among the Ichthy- 

 ophagi, conthmed down to them from their forefathers, that by 

 a mighty reflux of the waters, which happened m former days, 

 the whole gulf became dry land, and appeared green all over, 

 the water overflowing the opposite shore ; and that, all the 

 ground being thus left bare to the very lowest bottom of the 

 >'ulf the sea, by an extraordinary high tide, returned again into 

 fts ancient channel." (Lib. ii. cap. 3.) It is not ummportant to 

 find a heathen writer unconsciously bearing testimony to the 

 truth of Scripture history. 



