Cuthbert, who was weary and
aching in every limb from the position in which he had been placed on
the camel, asked them by signs for permission to bathe in the lake. This
was given principally apparently from curiosity, for but very few Arabs
were able to swim; indeed, as a people they object so utterly to water
that the idea of any one bathing for his amusement was to them a matter
of ridicule.
Cuthbert, who had never heard of the properties of the Dead Sea, was
perfectly astonished upon entering the water to find that instead of
wading in it up to the neck before starting to swim, as he was
accustomed to do at home, the water soon after he got waist-deep took
him off his feet, and a cry of astonishment burst from him as he found
himself on rather than in the fluid. The position was so strange and
unnatural that with a cry of alarm he scrambled over on to his feet, and
made the best of his way to shore, the Arabs indulging in shouts of
laughter at his astonishment and alarm. Cuthbert was utterly unable to
account for the strange sensations he had experienced; he perceived that
the water was horribly salt, and that which had got into his mouth
almost choked him.
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