The Camden journal. [volume] (Camden, S.C.) 1866-1891, 1879-02-13
JORDAN AND THE DEAD SEA.

school-boy.
JORDAN AND THE DEAD SEA.
The Sacred md Famous Waters Of Pnles
The following extreIct lis from "Syrian
Sunshine" by T. q. Appleton: The
Nile is q sacred river, ard the Tiber ls
famous, but the most sacred and most
famous river of the world is the Jordan.
From the beginning to the end. it has
that mystical character which BELTS
such lofty pretensions; its life is the
most vivid and complete, and It's death
the most sudden and mysterious that
can be imagined. It is torrential, and
it leaves the banks of the Herrnon and
the many fountains of its tributaries
with an eager precipitation, as ii it bore
mission. From it's greatest height,
some hundred feet above the sea level,
it leaps downward till it disappears
in the Dead sea some thirteen hundred
feet below it. It hides itself among
oleander, tamarisk and willow, and many
an unfamiliar Oriental tree, as if wish
ing to keep from profane eyes the secret
of its errand. It does not stop long to
overflow its banks and fertilize the val
ley, for it has purpose too mystical to
waste itself even upon acts of benevo-
lence. It is only willing to become q
living barrier between the desert tribes
and the favored nation which loved it.
No boat lives on its bosom. No fisher
men dwell by its margin; but it moves,
one headlong column Of sacred waters
from its cradle of snow and clold, high
in the heaven, till it dies in fatal lake
marked by the finger of God, snd for
ever subject for mans curiosity and
reverence.
It would seem q thing apart and not
to be confounded with vulgar waters,
which lose their personality in the bosom
of tho mighty sea, but exhaling to
heaven Like some holy messenger
who perished in the fulallment OF bis
duty. Ita birth and its death alike
separate it from it's sister rivers OF
earth, and only the voiceless mounds
of persisted and namaless cities, tribes
stationary as If hidden to halt by some
supreme destiny OF the past, or ahe awed
and questioning stranger from the many
Christian lands whose baptism drew its
authority from the sprinkling of it's
waters, are seen upon its banks.
And th0n we wandered through many
whispering reeds, through kind OF
Jungle where sterility and the river had
fought for mastery, and which showed
traces OF both; tangle of bushes rs it
were, fighting their wayi up, and great
spaces of barrenness which the summer
would scorch to lifelessness.
And at last the Dead sea. Though
we know that it is OF volcanic origin,
and fed by mines of salt, the imaeina.
tion now, as ever, is content to see in il
thing accursed. There was fresh
breeze; and reluctant lift ard heavy
tumble OF its tiny breakers made them
unlike osher waves, but rather like
those of Dante's Internal sea. There
was a breath heavy with doom in the
air, and we were fortunate it was not
more sitting. Was it the breath Of
those lost or tortured there2 And be.
meath that saline eheet, did We not see,
as in the picture of Delacroi1, the ago
nizing and twisted figures OF the con.
demned?
We did not bathe in the Dead sea.
Others have done 80, and report o. its
buoyancy the same tales that are told of
our own Salt lake. There is whimsi-
cal coincidence in the geographical re-
lation of the Dead sea and tho home o.
the earlier prophets, and Mr.. Brigham
Young's personal continuation of the
old dispensation, with private Dead
sea OF his own, IN his immediate neigh
borhood. The poorest swimmer keeps
his head above water, and persons have
said to me- thattheir legs seemed to fly
up from Itndef them. All speak OF its
Ewaters as refreshiiiSty after the lreai
heasof that tropical valley. Birds are
said never to fy over it, which is the
merest superstition, for they are really
often seen to do so. This lake certainly
has brand upon it, as of divine ven.
geance. The waters are heavy witt
sin, the shores around blessed, and the
very site of destroyed citieB upon its
banks unknown. And here are still seer
the apples of Sodom, smooth and pretty
to the eye and touch, of pale yellow
like small orange, but within, al
Josephus says, still retaining the ashes
of Sodom in living perpetuity of tht
divine punishment. They are like Lit
tie oranges to the eye and touch, but
when pressed are like oak apples, ant
explode like these, puff OF sir leaving
the shell hollow, with only slender
pouch holding fine filaments like silk
which the Arabs use as matches fol
their guns.