The Indiana State sentinel. [volume] (Indianapolis) 1868-1895, 1889-09-04
JORDAN AND THE DEAD SEA
SCENES AROUND ANDABo JERICHO.
Mount Nebo and the Land of Nebo-An Ex-
Perience With Wandering Bedouins-
Bathing in Sacred Waters-Sodom-
and GOmorrah-AncientG ilgal.


thoroughly tired after our long ride from
Jerusalem we slept pleasantly and soundly
on our first night at Jericho, notwith-
standing the ghostly cries of the jackals
and hyenas that came down from Quaran-
tania and the neighboring mountains and
made hideous music around the hotel
gardens. l couldn't express the wish that
they were sin Jericho" seeing that they
were already there, but certainly wished
them in some uncomfortable place.
After good breakfast and fortified with
glass of "raki, a native strong drink,
we again mounted our horses and rode
away over the sandy plain OF Jericho
toward the Dead sea. The day was boiling
hot and we suffered terribly from the
scorchipg sun, and ] could not help feel
ing sympathy with my little horse
"Aman" when in his efforts for relief he
suddenly laid down in the sand and COM
menced to roll-although as he didn't
give me time to dismount the move
ment was a rather inconvenient one
for me, besides enabling my COM
panions to make disparaging re-
marks upon the Craftsmanship of a
rider who permitted his horse to lay down
and roll on him. As we rode along over
the sterile lands we saw on an elevation
some distance to our left small mosque,
called the "Neby Musa," which the
Mohammedans say covers the tomb of
Moses, although there is not the shadow
of authority for the supposition. In front
of US, however, rose "Jebel Seba," the
Mount Nebo of the land of Moab, where
the scriptures distinctly says the great
father of Israel died and was buried. The
simple, exact account given in Deut.
xxxiv says: "And Moses went up from
the plains of Moab unto the mountain OF
Nebo TO the top of Pisgah, that is over
against Jericho. and the Lord showed
him all the land" And again further on,
80 Moses, the servant of the Lord, died
there in the land of Moab according
to the word OF the Lord and he
buried him in valley in the
land of Moab over against Beth Poer, but
no man knoweth of his sepulcher unto
this day; and Moses was an hundred and
twenty years old when he died; his eye
was not dim nor his natural force abated."
This is one of the best authenticated of
scriptural locations both by It's geographic
cal position and the accurate biblical de-
scription of it, and / confess that | looked
over upon these rugged peaks with more
reverent awe than upon most OF the
sacred sites pointed out to me in Palestine.
Viewed from purely profane standpoint,
history has produced no grander character
than that of Moses, the great statesman
and law-giver, and after all what better,
simpler tribute could be paid him, dying
full of years and honors in active
possession of all his great facul-
ties than that "his eve was not
dim nor his natural force abated'
after all his years of service in
the cause of Israel. Mrs. Alexander, in
her well-known poem on the death of
Moses, beautifully SAYS:
BY NebO's lonely mountain
On this side JOrdan's wave,
In a vale in the land of Moab,
There lies lonely grave.
And no man knows that sepucher,
And no man saw il e'er,
For the finger of God upturned the sod
And laid the dead man there
Some ten miles southwark another we'll
known scripturai site is pointed out to us
where the "castle of Machprus" formerly
stood-the place, according to Josephus,
where John the baptist was beheaded by
Herods orders. Not far away we see the
uOt springs VI OdlllIllOC Ou lnG OppOSibc
banks of the Dead sea, where Herod him
self, suffering from fatal illness, came to
take the baths previous to his death at
Jericho. Herod was cheerful old party,
and, as death approached, it is said, COM
manded that his attendant mobiles should
be executed in order that his decease
should be followed by general mourning.
The Dead sea is called by the Arabs the
"Bahr Lut" (sea of Lott and has been
known at different times as the ''sea of
the plain" ''salt sea-" "sea of Sodom."
etc. It's greatest length and breadth is
forty-sx miles long by ten miles wide, and
the analysis of its waters shows the extra
ordinary proportion of % parts of mineral
salts to the 100. 1t lies at the depression
of 300 feet below the Mediterranean sea
level being the lowest body of water in
existence. One marked popularity is
that it has no known outlet, evaporation
giving it the only apparent relief in that
regard. However as the heat is simply
terrific along its shores, it is not hard
to believe that to be amply suffi-
cient. In this connection | could
not but wonder at the sitting
way in which our Arabs covered up their
heads under the sweltering heat, and the
manner in which the residents of these
hot countries in general envelop their
heads in huge bundles OF cloth made into
turDans and other head coverings is most
remarkable. In fact the hotter the coun-
try the more their heads are swathed and
bandaged. Whether it is the extreme
heat or the exhalations arising from its
bitter, malignant waters, there are GER
tainly few signs of life anywhere about
the Dead sea other than the famous de-
lusive fruit that turns to ashes at the
touch. There is deadly depressing feel
ing that hovers over its borders, and it
has long been believed that no living
thing could exist within its waters or
about its pestilential precincts, although
the American expedition under Lieut..
Lynch reported having seen various fly
ing birds at certain points along the shore.
1t was on the banks of the Dead sea
that the wicked cities of Sodom and Go
morrah were located previous to their
destruction with birthstone and fire from
the Lord out of heaven" teen. xix, pa,
and there is theory that this repulsive
BODY of water was made by the great con-
vulsion of nature that destroyed these
wicked cities, in which the Lord could not
find ten righteous people-probably be-
cause they had all moved to Indianapolis.
Along the adjoining coast there are vari-
Gus peculiar salt formations, and it was
here that the pillar stood into which Lots
over-curious better half was turned Like
all tourists we felt in duty bound to battle
in the Dead sea, and found it a most novel
experience. The specific gravity of the
colt uater is so great that IL ia cOmDara-