oily film which impedes the action of the winds, and being moreover without tides, strike the eye at once as different from all others- from those of the Great Sea, always in motion by reason of its tides, and from those of other lakes which, fresh and light, are curled by the gentlest breath of air that passes over them. Had this sea, instead of water presented to the eye a surface of white polished silver, where every object on its sides was reflected with the perfection of reality, it would not have differed from what I saw, nor filled the mind with more astonishment. When we drew near, and impatient of delay, attempted in the most direct manner to reach the shore, we were instantly defeated by the soft and treacherous sands into which our horses sank. This compelled us to wind round the bay which forms the upper extremity, that we might gain a rocky shore lying under a low cape or promontory, that divided us from the city and fortress of Machærus. Having accomplished our object, we stood upon the rocks against which the water lay, reached down and tasted for ourselves its exceeding bitterness; and looked into those clear depths which the eye penetrates as they were composed of crystal. It demanded but slight effort of the fancy to make me believe that far down in those dismal solitudes I beheld the pinnacles and towers, the temples and the walls of the devoted cities; and that I could still hear, as the peasants affirm they ever do, the moaning or the imprecations of the wicked spirits there overwhelmed, and whom the justice of God still binds in their watery prisons. I lay along upon the rocks, and gazed and listened till I was weary, and I was roused by Ziba's voice, saying that it was time we set out for Machærus, would we reach that place before night. |