vengeance that remained in his day, goes on to speak of their ashes being perpetuated in fruits, which have an appearance as if fit to be eaten, but which, on being plucked, dissolve in the hand into smoke and ashes.*

Several plants indeed have been at different times supposed to be identical with those thus described; but the best claims are presented by the Mad apple (Solanum melongena) and the Osher (Asclepias procera). The former is a shrub from three

APPLE OF SODOM.

to five feet in height, bearing round yellowish berries about an inch and a half in diameter. They are called Leimún Lút by the Arabs, who have a tradition that "the plant formerly bore excellent limes, but

* Bell. Jud. IV. viii. 4.

for the wickedness of the people of the plain, it was cursed by Lot, and doomed to bear the bitter fruit which it now yields." It is true they are not always filled with dust, but only when the fruit is attacked by an insect, (a species of saw fly, Tenthredo,) which turns the whole interior into dust, leaving the skin only entire, and of a beautiful colour.

The osher, however, seems better to coincide with the description of Josephus. Professor Robinson thus speaks of it:-"One of the first objects which attracted our notice on arriving at 'Ain Jidy (Engedi) was a tree with singular fruit . . . the 'ösher of the Arabs... which is found in abundance in Upper Egypt and Nubia, and also in Arabia Felix; but it seems to be confined in Palestine to the borders of the Dead Sea. We saw here [at 'Ain Jidy] several trees of the kind, the trunks of which were six or eight inches in diameter, and the whole height from ten to fifteen feet. It has a greyish cork-like bark, with long oval leaves, . . . and when its leaves and flowers are broken off, it discharges copiously a milky fluid. The fruit greatly resembles externally a large smooth apple or orange, hanging in clusters of three or four together, and when ripe is of a yellow colour. It was now fair and delicious to the eye, and soft to the touch, but on being pressed or struck it explodes with a puff, like a bladder or puff-ball, leaving in the hand only the shreds of the thin rind, and a few fibres. It is, indeed, chiefly filled with air, like a bladder, which gives it the round form, while in the centre a small slender pod runs through it from the stem, and is connected by thin filaments with the rind. The pod contains a small quantity of fine silk

GEOLOGICAL CHARACTER.

185

with seeds, precisely like the pod of the silk-weed, (Asclepias Syriaca,) though very much smaller. The Arabs collect the silk, and twist it into matches for their guns, preferring it to the common match, because it requires no sulphur to render it combustible."

In the account of Josephus, the Professor goes on to observe, "there is nothing, after a due allowance for the marvellous in all popular reports, which does not apply almost literally to the fruit of the 'ösher as we saw it. It must be plucked and handled with great care, in order to preserve it from bursting. We attempted to carry some of the boughs and fruit with us to Jerusalem, but without success."*

The geological character of this whole region is somewhat singular. Dr. Wilson considers the great crevasse which forms the valley of the Jordan, the Dead Sea, and the Wady Arabah to have been produced by the upheaving of basalt, which appears in many places around the Lake of Tiberias, and which is seen here and there along the line nearly to the source of the Jordan at Hasbeya. In connexion with this remarkable formation he notices the existence of thermal springs, particularly at the bituminous wells near Hasbeya, along the shores of the Lake of Tiberias, on the banks of the Jarmuk, and in the Wady Zerka Main; and also of layers, cakes, and masses of bitumen and salt, especially along the shores of the Dead Sea.

Such then are the physical characters of this ancient river; and we now proceed to glance at some of those incidents with which it has been associated, * Bibl. Res. vol. ii. p. 235.

and which have conferred upon it an interest superior to that which attaches to any other stream (with one exception) on the face of the globe.

JOSHUA III, IV.

THE children of Israel had wandered in the Arabian desert, "that great and terrible wilderness," through the dreary period of forty years; and now at length the time was come when they were to go in to possess the good land which Jehovah had sworn to give them. Moses their devoted leader was dead; Aaron the high-priest was dead also; and of all the six hundred thousand fighting men that had come out of Egypt, there now remained not one except Caleb and Joshua, the faithful spies who thirty-eight years before had given a good report of the land which they had then searched out. The mission of Moses, the mediator and lawgiver in the wildernesswandering, was accomplished, and he had passed from the scene; and the command of the host now devolved upon Joshua, who, as the typical Captain of their salvation, was appointed to lead them into possession of the promised inheritance, to conquest and

to rest.

The thousands of Israel were encamped in the Plains of Moab. In their front rolled the Jordan, like a sea; for the winter rains had fallen, and his full tide had overflowed his banks, and filled the whole breadth of the lower valley. Beyond the foaming tide was spread the fertile plain of Jericho, covered with its waving fields of corn, now fully

ripe, and inviting the sickle; and in the midst of it, full in the sight of the host, embosomed in its gardens and groves of balsam-trees, and date-palms, and many other valued plants, rose the lofty walls of the fair “city of palm-trees," the stately Jericho. The level tract on which the Hebrew camp was pitched had not at this time its wonted barrenness; for the genial spring had covered its sands with verdure, and adorned it with a thousand flowers. Behind, girding in the plains of Shittim as with a rampart, stretched along the horizon the mountains of Abarim, casting their morning shadows even to the camp; and, conspicuous among them, the lofty Pisgah reared its rugged peak, whence, only a little while before, the beautiful sight of " Israel abiding in their tents" had evoked blessings instead of curses from the unwilling mouth of the Mesopotamian prophet; and where, still more recently, the venerable lawgiver had been privileged with a prospect of the goodly land, and had then died in the arms of God.*

Joshua had sent out two spies to take a survey of the frontier city, and to report its condition to him. They had now returned, and had informed him of their adventures; of the terror which had struck deep into the failing hearts of the Canaanites on the approach of Israel; of the renown which the late interpositions of Divine power had procured for the name of Jehovah; of the faith of Rahab, the harlot

* "So Moses, the servant of the Lord, died there in the land of Moab, according to the Word of the Lord." Deut. xxxiv. 5. In the Hebrew, it is "at the mouth of the Lord;" which the Rabbins render, "by the kiss of the Lord."