"
In the eighth century the Venerable Bede takes these statements of
Arculf and his predecessors, binds them together in his work on _The
Holy Places_, and gives the whole mass of myths and legends an
enormous impulse.[[229]]
In the tenth century new force is given to it by the pious Moslem
Mukadassi. Speaking of the town of Segor, near the salt region, he
says that the proper translation of its name is "Hell"; and of the
lake he says, "Its waters are hot, even as though the place stood
over hell-fire."
In the crusading period, immediately following, all the legends
burst forth more brilliantly than ever.
The first of these new travellers who makes careful statements is
Fulk of Chartres, who in 1100 accompanied King Baldwin to the Dead
Sea and saw many wonders; but, though he visited the salt region at
Usdum, he makes no mention of the salt pillar: evidently he had
fallen on evil times; the older statues had probably been washed
away, and no new one had happened to be washed out of the rocks
just at that period.
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