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Budge_Ethiopic_Alexander

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THE DEAD SEA. 219<br />

"waters thereof are like unto pus and they stink<br />

"horribly, for these are the waters in which God<br />

"Almighty destroyed the people who perished in<br />

"the Flood, and their dead bodies, and the car-<br />

"cases of the beasts, and of the birds, and of the<br />

"reptiles [lie] in the depths thereof On the shores<br />

"of that sea are innumerable trees which, by reason<br />

"of the great stench of the waters, are without<br />

"leaves; know, too, that all men who travel near<br />

"it die and are destroyed by the stink thereof"<br />

[p. 125] Then the king, the Two-horned, answered<br />

and said unto them, "O my masters, have ye your-<br />

"selves seen this [sea], or have ye only heard tell<br />

"of it from [other] men?" They said unto him,<br />

"By Him Who hath given thee sovereignty over<br />

"us and over other peoples, and Who hath humbled<br />

"us and hath advanced thee to honour, one of<br />

"us who desired to know by experience [the truth]<br />

"of these words [set out to go there], but he was<br />

"unable to reach it." And after <strong>Alexander</strong> had<br />

Tacitus (Hist. V. 6) "Lacus inmenso ambitu, specie maris,<br />

sapore corruptior, gravitate odoris accolis pestifer, neque<br />

vento inpellitur neque pisces aut suetas aquis volucres patitur.<br />

Inertes undae superjacta, ut solido^ ferunt: periti imperitique<br />

nandi perinde attolluntur." The Arabic geographers call it<br />

the "Foetid Sea" ^.. "^^<br />

lJU^I cy° ^h r^* cy ^ d^ytr-> ^^e Abu'l Fida , ed. Mac-<br />

Guckin de Slane, p. n, rrA; Mas'udi, tom. I. p. 96. Yakut,<br />

torn. I. p. on calls it an "accursed [sea", ^^aU 'ij^^s:^, and<br />

repeats substantially what we have in the text above.<br />

EE2

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