tm 
clarke’s travels. 
Belaod, in Ills account of Lake Asphaltites^ after insert¬ 
ing copious extracts from Galen concering the properties and 
quality of the water, and its natural history, proceeds to ac¬ 
count for the strange fables that have prevailed with regard j 
to its deadly influence, by showing that certain of the ancients 
compounded this lake with another, bearing the same appel¬ 
lation of Asphaltites (which signifies nothing more than biiu~ 
minous) f near Babylon; and that they attributed to it quali¬ 
ties which properly belonged to the Babylonian waters.^ An 
account of the properties of the Babylonian lake occurs in 
the writings of Vitruvius,§ of Pliny.|| of Athenaeus,** and of 
Xiphilirms from their various testimony it is evident that all 
the phenomena supposed to belong to the lake Asphaltites, 
near Babylon, were, from the similarity of their names, ulti¬ 
mately considered as the natural characteristics of the Judaean 
Jake; the two Asphaltites being corjfounded.Jt Thus, when 
Dioscorides, extolling the Bitumen Judaicum above all other, 
adds, that it is also found in Babylon,0§ he is evidently refer¬ 
ring to the bituminous sources mentioned by Diodorus Sicu- 
lus.ljlT The Arabian geographers, and among these Ibn Idris*** 
admitted ail the fabulous opinions concerning the Dead Sea , 
which were found in the writings of the Greeks and Romans. 
According to them, no animal found in other waters existed 
here. Among the numerous asserters of the remarkable spe¬ 
cific gravity of the water, almost every ancient author may 
be included, by whom the lake has been mentioned; this is 
$ Palsast. Ulust. lib. ii. cap. 38. tom. 1 p. 238. Traj. Bat. 1714. 
| “ Mare mortuum, in quo nihil poterat esse vitaie, et mare amarissirnum, quod 
Graeci xijjtvr.v ’AcrjpaXrrmv, id est, Stagnum bituminis, vocant.” Hieron. in Comm, 
ad Ezek. xlvii. 
\ “ Credo itaque confudisse quosdam yeterum hunc lacum Asphallitem cum alio 
lacu ejusdem nominis circa Babyionem, et uni tribuisse quod aiteri tribueiidum fue* 
rat.” Paigest. Illust'. tom. I. j>. 244. 
'I'V'itruT. lib. viii. cap. 3. A tost. 1649, 
II Plin. lib. xxxv. cap. 15. tom. III. pp 459, 430. L. Bat. 1635. 
Athen. lib. ii. cap. 5. L. Bat. 1612. 
it Xiphilio. in. Epitome Dionis, p. 2 52. 
tt “ Ita quod de lacu Asphakite Baby Ionise fama ferebatur, de hoc lacu Asphaltite 
Sudeffi narrarunt, et duos hos lacus eoni'uderunt.” Heland. Pal. 111. lib. i. tom I c 
38. p. 245. Traj. Bat 1714. 
Dioscorides de Re Medica, lib. i. cap. 99. Francof. 1588. 
Uli nofev 8s xai irapti66%ccv ovtcov Qset jiclto-v ■ y.araj-h-v BafivKwvf&v fa'-erra 
§avn&&7aiyxd^rd irkvfos r ns sv aurn yivMjitvns a&ty&KfiSj x. r. h. Mu Ita sane 
Babylonia contmet spectatu digna et admirnnda; sed inter haec non minimum adroi- 
rutibnis meretur bituminis copia ilia exsudantis, &c.” Diodor. Sic. lib. ii. cap. 12. 
Aimt. 1746. 
Appellator autem mare mortuum, quia nihil in quo anima est ibi invenitur, 
nec piscis, nec reptile, nee aliud quidpiam quod in reliquis aquis generari solet ‘ 
Vid. Test. Georg. Arab, in Rei. 'Pal. Ulust, lib. i. cap. 33. tom. I. p. 249, etc. 
