218 THE HOLY LAND. 
CHAP, the water " so hot, as not easily to be endured," 
> ,- ' and " so salt, as to communicate a brackish 
taste to that of the lake near it." Volney says \ 
that, " for want of cleaning, it is filled with a 
black mud, which is a genuine Mthiops Martial^' 
that " persons attacked by rheumatic complaints 
find great relief, and are frequently cured by 
baths of this mud." 
These observations have been introduced, 
because we were unable ourselves to visit the 
place ; and were compelled to rest satisfied 
with a distant view of the building which 
covers a spring renowned, during many ages, 
for its medicinal properties. In the space be- 
tween Tiberias and Emmaus, Egmont and Heyman 
noticed remains of walls, and other ruins, which 
are described as foundations of the old city^. 
This is said, by Pococke^, to have extended 
(1) Travels in Egypt and Syria, vol. II. p. 230. Lond. 1787- 
(2) Egmont and Heyman, vol. II. p. 33. 
(3) Descriptio7i of the East, vol. II. part I. p. 68. Pocoche says, 
that when they were digging for stones to build the castle, upon the 
north side of the town, they found a great number of sepulchres, ' 
wherein it was stated JeiL's bad been buried eight hundred years 
before. He saw a stone coffin (p. 69) adorned with reliefs, exhibiting^ 
a bulk's head within a crown of flowers, and " a festoon supported hy 
a spread eagle." The city has never been inhabited by any people 
unto whom this religious custom can be ascribed, except its Jewish 
owner*. Tlie fact therefore affords curious proof of the antiquity of 
a very popular symbol in heraldry. 
