Dealings With The Dead Volume I Part 10

"And why not, my son?"

"Why, grandfather will be there, will he not?"

"Yes, my son, I hope he will."

"Well, as soon as he sees us, he will come, scolding along, and say, 'Whew, whew, whew! what are these boys here for?' I am sure I do not wish to go to Heaven, if grandfather is to be there."

This is a short tale of a grandfather, but it is a very significant story, for its length; and calculated, I fear, for many meridians.

Well, here we are, in the very midst of bells and bonfires, screaming for joy, in honor of the new year, with our spandy new weepers on, for the old one.

No. x.x.xIV.

Viewed in every possible relation, the most melancholy and distressing funerals, of which I have any knowledge, were a series of interments, which occurred in Charleston, South Carolina, not very many years ago, and of which, in 1840, I received, while sojourning there, a particular account, from an inhabitant of that hospitable city. These funerals were among the blacks; and, as there was no epidemic at the time, their frequency, at length, attracted observation. Every day or two, the colored population were seen, bearing, apparently, one of their number to the place, appointed for all living. Suspicion was, at last, awakened--a post mortem examination was resolved on--the graves, which proved to be uncommonly shallow, were opened--the coffins lifted out, and examined--and found to be filled, not with corpses, but with muskets, swords, pistols, pikes, knives, hatchets, and such other weapons, as might be necessary, for the perfection of a deadly work, which had been long projected, and was then not far from its consummation.

These, I say, were the most melancholy funerals, of which I have any knowledge. This was burying the hatchet, in a novel sense. In 1840, the tumult of mind, resulting from immediate apprehension, had, in a great degree, subsided; yet a rigorous system of espionage continued, in full operation--the spirit of vigilance was still on tiptoe--the a.r.s.enal was in excellent working order, and capable, at any moment, of turning its iron shower, in every direction--the separate gathering of the blacks, for religious worship, had been, and still was, prohibited; for it was believed, that the little tabernacle, in which, before this alarming discovery, the colored people were in the habit of a.s.sembling, had been used, in some sort, for the purpose of holding insurrectionary conclaves; perhaps for the purpose also of muttering prayers, between their teeth, to the bondman's G.o.d, to give him strength to break his fetters.

At the time, to which I refer, the slaves, who attended religious services, on the Sabbath, entered the same temples with their masters, who paid their vows, on cushions, while many of the slaves worshipped, squatting in the aisles. At this time, slaves, _ex cautela_, were forbidden, under penalty of imprisonment and the lash, from being present at any conflagration. Under a like penalty, they were commanded to retire instantly, upon the very first stroke of the curfew bell, to their homes and cabins. At every quarter of an hour, through the whole night, the cry of _all's well_ was sent forth by the armed sentinel, from the top of St.

Michael's tower. Such was the state of things, in 1840, in the city of Charleston.

Melancholy as were these funerals, the undertakers were quite as ingenious, as those cunning Greeks, who contrived the Trojan horse, _divina Palladis arte_. Melancholy and ominous funerals were they--for they were incidents of slavery, the CURSE COLOSSAL--that huge, unsightly cicatrice, upon the very face of our heritage. Well may we say to the most favored nation of the earth, in Paul's proud words,--_would to G.o.d ye were not only almost, but altogether such as we are, saving these bonds_.

After taking a mental and moral _coup d'oeil_ of these matters, I remember that I lay long, upon my pillow, not consigning my Southern friends and brethren, votively, to the devil; but thanking G.o.d, for that blessed suggestion, which led good, old Ma.s.sachusetts, and the other states of the North, to abolish slavery, within their own domains.

Slavery is a curse, not only to the long-suffering slave, but to the mortified master. This chivalry of the South--what is it? Every man of the South, or the North, who comes to the blessed conclusion, that, while others own _jacka.s.ses_, _horses_, _and horned cattle_, he actually _owns men_--what a thought!--will soon become filled with this very chivalry. It is the lordly consciousness of dominion over one's fellow-man--a sort of Satrap-like feeling of power--a sentiment extremely oriental, which begets that important and consequential air of superiority, that marks the Southern man and the Southern boy,--Mr. Calhoun, diving, like one of Pope's heroes, after first principles, and fetching up, for a fact, the pleasant fancy, that _man is not born of a woman_--or the young, travelling gentleman, full of "Suth Cralina," who comes. .h.i.ther, to sojourn awhile, and carries in every look, that almost incomprehensible mixture of pride and sensitiveness, which is equally repulsive and ridiculous.

The bitterness of sectional feeling is a necessary incident of slavery.

Civil and servile wars are among its terrible contingencies. Slavery cannot endure in our land, though the end be not yet. I had rather the cholera should spread, than this moral scourge, over our new domains--not, upon my honor, because the former would be a help to our profession, but because a dead is more bearable, than a living curse.

Of all the sciolists, who have offered their services, to remedy this evil, the conscience party is the most remarkable. A self-consecrated party, with their phlogistic system, would deal with the whole South, which, on this topic, is a perfect hornet's nest already, precisely as an intelligent farmer, in Vermont, dealt with a hornet's nest, under the eaves of his dwelling--he applied the actual cautery; his practice was successful--he destroyed the nest, and with it his entire mansion. There are men, of this party, to whom the const.i.tution and laws of the Union are objects of infinite contempt; who despise the Bible; who would overthrow the civil magistrate; and unfrock the clergy. But there are many others, who abjure such doctrines--a species of conscience comeouters--who intend, after they have unkennelled the whirlwind, to appoint a committee of three, from every county, to hold it by the tail, _ne quid detrimenti respublica caperet_. These are to be selected from the most careful and judicious, who, when the firebrand is thrown into the barrel of gunpowder, will have a care, that not more than a moderate quant.i.ty shall be ignited.

The const.i.tution is a contract, made by our fathers, and binding on their children. Who shall presume to say that contract is void, for want of consideration, or because the subject is _malum in se_? Who shall decide the question of _nudum pactum_ or not? Not one of the parties, nor two, nor any number, short of the whole, can annul this solemn contract; nor can a decision of the question of const.i.tutionality come from any other tribunal, than the Supreme Judicial Court of the United States.

Lord Mansfield's celebrated dictum--_fiat just.i.tia, ruat Caelum_, has been often absurdly applied, and in connection with this very question of slavery and its removal. _Just.i.tia_ is a broad word, and refers not solely to the rights of the slave, but to those of the freeman. The proposition of the full-bottomed abolitionist--immediate emanc.i.p.ation, or dissolution of the Union, and civil and servile war to boot, if it must be so--is fit to be taught, only to the tenants of a madhouse. But there is a spirit abroad, whose tendency cannot be mistaken. Slavery is becoming daily more and more odious, in the east, in the west, in the north, ay, and in the south. Individually, many slaveholders are becoming less attached to their _property_. There may be too much even of _this good thing_. Slavery would continue longer, in the present slave states, if it were extended to the new territories; for it would be rendered more bearable in the former, by the power of sloughing off the redundancy, on profitable terms. The spirit of emanc.i.p.ation is striding over the main land, walking upon the waters, and planting its foot, upon one dark island after another. _Let us hope_--better to do that, than mischief. Let us rejoice, that, as the Scotch say, _there is a G.o.d aboon a'_--better to do that, than spit upon our Bibles, and scoff at law and order. It is always better to stand still, than move rudely and rashly, in the dark. Such was the decided opinion of my old friend and fellow-s.e.xton, Grossman, when he fell, head first, into an unclosed tomb, and broke his enormous nose.

No. x.x.xV.

In looking up a topic, for my dealings with the dead, this afternoon, I can think of nothing more interesting, at the present time, than _Lot's wife and the Dead Sea_. I consider Lieutenant Lynch the most fortunate of modern discoverers. He has discovered the long lost lady of Lot--the veritable pillar of salt! There are some incredulous persons, I am aware, who are of opinion, that the account of this discovery should be received, _c.u.m grano salis_; but my own mind is entirely made up. I should have been better pleased, I admit, if he had verified the suggestion, which led to the discovery, by bringing home a leg, or an arm. Possibly, it may be thought proper to send a Government vessel, for the entire pillar, to ornament the Rotunda at Washington. The identification of Lot's wife is rendered exceedingly simple, by the fact, that seventeen of her fingers, and not less than fourteen of her toes, broken off from time to time, by the faithful, as relics, are exhibited in various churches and monasteries.

Models of these, in plaster, could readily be obtained, I presume; and an application of their fractured parts to the salt corpse, discovered by Lieutenant Lynch, would settle the question, in the manner, employed to test the authenticity of ancient indentures. Besides, every one knows, that salt is a self preserver, and lasting in its character, especially the Attic. The very elements of preservation abound in the Dead Sea, and the region round about. Its very name establishes the fact--_Asphalt.i.tes_--so called from the immense quant.i.ty of _asphaltum_ or bitumen, with which it abounds. This is called _Jews' Pitch_, and was used of old, for embalming; and the corpse of Mrs. Lot, after the salt had thoroughly penetrated, rolled up, as it probably was found by Lieutenant Lynch, in a winding sheet of bitumen, which readily envelopes everything it touches, would last forever. This pitch is often sold by the druggists, under the name of mummy.

In Judea, with the territory of Moab, on the East, and the wilderness of Judah, on the West, and having the lands of Reuben and Edom, or Idumea, on the North and South, lies that sheet of mysterious and unfrequented water, which has been called the East Sea--the Salt Sea--the Sea of the Desert--the Sea of the Plain--the Sea of Sodom--and, more commonly, the Dead Sea. To this I beg leave to add another t.i.tle, the Legendary lake, or Humbug water. More marvel has been marked, learned, and inwardly digested, by Christians, on the subject of this sheet of water, than the broad ocean has ever supplied, to stir the landman's heart. Its dimensions, in the first place, have been set down, with remarkable discrepancy. Pliny, lib.

v. 15, says, Longitudine excedit centum M. pa.s.suum, lat.i.tudine maxima xxv., implet, minima s.e.x, making the length one hundred miles, and the breadth, from twenty-five miles, to six. Josephus estimates its length at five hundred and eighty furlongs, from the mouth of the Jordan, to the town of Segor, at the opposite end; and its greatest breadth one hundred and fifty furlongs. The Rev. Dr. William Jenks, of whose learning and labors a s.e.xton of the old school may be permitted to speak, with great respect, sets down the length, in his New Gazetteer of the Bible, appended to his Explanatory Bible Atlas, of 1847, at thirty-nine miles, and its greatest breadth at nine. Carne, in his Letters from the East, says the length is sixty miles, and the breadth from eight to ten. Stephens states the length to be thirty miles, in his Incidents of Travel.

The origin of this lake was ascribed to the submersion of the valley of Siddim, where the cities stood, which were destroyed, in the conflagration of Sodom and Gomorrah. This tremendous gallimaufry or hotch potch, produced, as some suppose, an intolerable stench, and impregnated the waters with salt, sulphur, and bitumen.

Pliny, in the pa.s.sage quoted above,--observes--Nullum corpus animalium recipit--no animal can live in it. Speaking of these waters, Dr. Jenks remarks--"no animals exist in them." On the other hand, Dr. Poc.o.c.ke, on the authority of a monk, tells us, that fish have been caught in the Dead Sea. _Per contra_ again, Mr. Volney affirms, that it contains neither animal nor vegetable life. M. Chateaubriand, on the other hand, who visited the Dead Sea, in 1807, remarks--"About midnight, I heard a noise upon the lake, and was told by the Bethlehemites, who accompanied me, that it proceeded from legions of small fish, which come out, and leap upon the sh.o.r.e." The monks of St. Saba a.s.sured Dr. Shaw, as he states in his travels, that they had seen fish caught there.

In the pa.s.sage quoted from Pliny, he says--Tauri camelique fluitant. Inde fama nihil in eo mergi--bulls and camels float upon this lake: hence the notion, that nothing will sink in it. It is true, that the water of the Dead Sea is specifically heavier than any other, owing to the great quant.i.ty of salt, sulphur, and bitumen; but Dr. Poc.o.c.ke found not the slightest difficulty, in swimming and diving in the lake. Sir Thomas Browne, treating of this, in his Pseudodoxia, vol. iii., p. 341, London, 1835, observes--"As for the story, men deliver it variously. Some, I fear too largely, as Pliny, who affirmeth that bricks will swim therein.

Mandevil goeth further, that iron swimmeth and feathers sink." "But,"

continueth Sir Thomas, "Andrew Thevet, in his Cosmography, doth ocularly overthrow it, for he affirmeth he saw an a.s.s with his saddle cast therein and drowned."

Another legend is equally absurd, that birds, attempting to fly over the lake, fall, stifled by its horrible vapors. "It is very common," says Volney, "to see swallows skimming its surface, and dipping for the water, necessary to build their nests." Mr. Stephens, in his Incidents of Travel, vol. ii. chap. 15, gives an interesting account of the Dead Sea, and says--"I saw a flock of gulls floating quietly on its bosom."

It has been roundly a.s.serted, that, in very clear weather, the ruins of the cities, destroyed by the conflagration, are visible beneath the waters. Josephus soberly avers, that a smoke constantly arose from the lake, whose waters changed their color three times daily.

The waters of Jordan and of the brooks Kishon, Jabbok, and Arnon, flow into the Dead Sea, yet produce no perceptible rise of its surface. The influx from these mountain streams is considerable. Hence another legend, to account for this mystery--a subterraneous communication with the Mediterranean--which would surely make the matter worse, for Dr. Jenks and other writers state, that "the waters lie in a deep caldron, many hundred feet _below_ the Mediterranean." Evaporation, which is said to be very great, explains the mystery entirely. At the rising of the sun, dense fogs cover the lake.

Chateaubriand says--"The first thing I did, on alighting, was to walk into the lake, up to my knees, and taste the water. I found it impossible to keep it in my mouth. It far exceeds that of the sea, in saltness, and produces, upon the lips, the effect of a strong solution of alum. Before my boots were completely dry, they were covered with salt; our clothes, our hats, our hands were, in less than three hours, impregnated with this mineral." "The origin of this mineral," says Volney, "is easy to be discovered, for, on the southwest sh.o.r.e, are mines of fossil salt. They are situated, in the sides of the mountains, which extend along the border; and, for time immemorial, have supplied the neighboring Arabs, and even the city of Jerusalem."

"Whoever," says Mr. Carne, in his Letters from the East, "has seen the Dead Sea, will have its aspect impressed upon his memory. It is, in truth, a gloomy and fearful spectacle. The precipices, in general, descend abruptly to the lake, and, on account of their height, it is seldom agitated by the winds. Its sh.o.r.es are not visited, by any footstep, save that of the wild Arab, and he holds it in superst.i.tious dread. On some parts of the rocks, there is a thick, sulphureous incrustation, and, in their steep descents, there are several deep caverns, where the benighted Bedouin sometimes finds a home. The sadness of the grave was on it and around it, and the silence also. However vivid the feelings are, on arriving on its sh.o.r.es, they subside, after a time, into languor and uneasiness; and you long, if it were possible, to see a tempest wake on its bosom, to give sound and life to the scene."

"If we adopt," says Chateaubriand, "the idea of Professor Michaelis, and the learned Busching, in his memoir on the Dead Sea, physics may be admitted, to explain the catastrophe of the guilty cities, without offence to religion. Sodom was built upon a mine of bitumen, as we know from the testimony of Moses and Josephus, who speak concerning wells of bitumen, in the valley of Siddim. Lightning kindled the combustible ma.s.s, and the cities sank in the subterranean conflagration." In Calmet's Dictionary of the Bible, vol. iii., article Lot, it is stated, that the Mahometans have added many circ.u.mstances to his history. They a.s.sert, that the angel Gabriel pried up the devoted cities so near to Heaven, that the angels actually heard the sound of the trumpets and horns, and even the yelping of puppies, in Sodom and Gomorrah: and that Gabriel then let the whole concern go with a terrible crash. Upon this, Calmet remarks,--"Romantic as this account appears, it preserves traces of an earthquake and a volcano, which were, in all probability, the _natural secondary cause_ of the overthrow of Sodom, and of the formation of the Dead Sea." Lot's wife in my next.

No. x.x.xVI.

The conversion of Lot's wife into a pillar of salt has given rise to as much learned discussion, as the question, so zealously agitated, between Barcephas and others, whether the forbidden fruit were an _apple_ or a _fig_. _But his wife looked back from behind him, and she became a pillar of salt._ Gen. xix. 26. Very little account seems to have been made of this matter, at the time. The whole story, and without note or comment, is told in these fifteen words. It would have seemed friendly, and natural, and proper, for Abraham to have said a few words of comfort to Lot, on this sudden and singular bereavement; but, instead of this, we are told, in the following verse, that Abraham got up, next morning, and looked, very philosophically, at the smoke, which went up from the cities of the plain, like the smoke of a furnace. This neglect of Lot's wife is, too frequently, a wife's lot. Some of the learned have been sorely perplexed, to understand, why this unfortunate lady has not long since melted away, under the influence of the rains; for a considerable quant.i.ty of water has fallen, since the destruction of Sodom. But they seem to forget, that there is no measure of limitation, for a miracle; and that the salt might have been purposely designed, like _caoutchouc_, to resist the action of water. The departure from Sodom was sudden, to be sure; but the lady was clothed, in some sort, doubtless; yet nothing has been said, by travellers, about her drapery, and whether that also was converted into salt, or cast off, by the mere energy of the miracle, is unknown.

This pillar of salt Josephus says he has seen; and, though he does not name the time, it is of little consequence, as, in such a matter, we can well afford to throw in a century or two; but it must have been between A.

D. 37, and a point, not long after the 13th year of Domitian. Such being the term of the existence of Josephus, as nearly as can be ascertained.

The cities of the plain were destroyed, according to Calmet's reckoning, 1893 years before Christ; therefore, _the pillar_, which Josephus saw, must have then been standing more than nineteen centuries. These are the words of Josephus: "_But Lot's wife, continually turning back, to view the city, as she went from it, and being too nicely inquisitive what would become of it, although G.o.d had forbidden her so to do, was changed into a pillar of salt, for I have seen it, and it remains at this day_." Antiq., vol. i. p. 32, Whiston's translation, Lond. 1825. The editor, in a note states, that Clement of Rome, a cotemporary of Josephus, also saw it, and that Irenaeus saw it, in the next century. Mr. Whiston prudently declines being responsible for the statements of modern travellers, who say they have seen it. And what did they see?--a pillar of salt. This is quite probable. Volney remarks, "At intervals we met with misshapen blocks, which prejudiced eyes mistake for mutilated statues, and which pa.s.s, with ignorant and superst.i.tious pilgrims, for monuments of the adventure of Lot's wife; though it is nowhere said that she was metamorphosed into stone, like Niobe, but into salt, which must have melted the ensuing winter." Volney forgets, that the salt itself was miraculous, and, doubtless, water proof.

Mr. Stephens, in his Incidents of Travel, though he gives a description of the Dead Sea, in whose waters he bathed, says not a syllable of Lot's wife, or the pillar of salt.

Some of the learned have opined, that Lot's wife, like Pliny, during the eruption of Vesuvius, was overwhelmed, by the burning and flying ma.s.ses of sulphur and bitumen; this is suggested, under the article, Lot's Wife, in Calmet. "Some travellers in Palestine," says he, "relate that Lot's wife was shown to them, i. e. the rock, into which she was metamorphosed. But what renders their testimony very suspicious is, that they do not agree, about the place, where it stands; some saying westward, others eastward, some northward, others southward of the Dead Sea; others in the midst of the waters; others in Zoar; others at a great distance from the city." In 1582, Prince Nicholas Radziville took a vast deal of pains to discover this remarkable pillar of salt, but all his inquiries were fruitless. Dr.

Adam Clarke suggests, that Lot's wife, by lingering in the plain, may have been struck dead with lightning, and enveloped in the bituminous and sulphureous matter, that descended. He refers to a number of stories, that have been told, and among them, that this pillar possessed a miraculous, reproductive energy, whereby the fingers and toes of the unfortunate lady were regenerated, instanter, as fast as they were broken off, by the hands of pilgrims. Irenaeus, one of the fathers, a.s.serts, that this pillar of salt was _actually alive in his time_! Some of those fathers, I am grieved to say it, were insufferable story-tellers. This tale is also told, by the author of a poem, _De Sodoma_, appended to the life of Tertullian. Some learned men understand the Hebrew to mean simply, that "_she became fixed in the salsuginous soil_"--anglice, _stuck in the mud_.

If this be the real meaning of the pa.s.sage, it must have been some other lady, that was seen by Josephus, Clement, Irenaeus, and Lieut. Lynch.

Sir Thomas Browne, credulous though he was, had, probably, no great confidence in the _literal_ construction of the pa.s.sage in Genesis. In vol. iii. page 327, of his works, London, 1835, he says--"We will not question the metamorphosis of Lot's wife, or whether she were transformed into a real statue of salt; though some conceive that expression metaphorical, and no more thereby than a lasting and durable column, according to the nature of salt, which admitteth no corruption." This is evidently the opinion of Dr. Adam Clarke. In other words, G.o.d, by her destruction, while her husband and daughters were saved, made her a _pillar or lasting memorial_ to the disobedient. In this sense a pillar of _salt_ means neither more nor less than an _everlasting memorial_. Salt is the symbol of perpetuity; thus Numbers xviii. 19. _It is a covenant of salt forever_: and 2 Chron. xvii. 5, the kingdom is given to David and his sons forever, _by a covenant of salt_. If this be the true construction, those four gentlemen, to whom I have referred, have been entirely misled, in supposing that any one of those ma.s.ses of salt, which Volney says may be mistaken, for the remains of mutilated statues, has ever, at any period of the world, been the object of Lot's devotion, or the partner of his joys and sorrows.

In vol. ii. page 212, of his Incidents of Travel, New York, 1848, Mr.

Stephens, referring to an account, received by him, respecting what he supposed to be an island in the Dead Sea, writes thus--"_It comes from one who ought to know, from the only man, who ever made the tour of that sea, and lived to tell of it_." If Mr. Stephens will look at Chateaubriand's Travels, and his fine description of the Dead Sea, he will find there the following pa.s.sage: "_No person has yet made the tour of it but Daniel, abbot of St. Saba. Nau has preserved in his travels the narrative of that recluse. From his account we learn_," &c.

"The celebrated lake," says Chateaubriand, "which occupies the site of Sodom, is called in Scripture the Dead or Salt Sea." Not so: it is no where called the Dead Sea, in the sacred writings. By the Turks, it is called Ula Deguisi, and by the Arabs, Bahar Loth and Almotanah.

It is quite desirable for travellers to be well apprized of all, that is previously known, in regard to the field of their peregrination. Goldsmith once projected a plan of visiting the East, for the purpose of bringing to England such inventions and models, as might be useful. Johnson laughed at the idea, and denounced Goldsmith, as entirely incompetent, from his ignorance of what already existed--"he will bring home a wheelbarrow,"