chemar . Septuagint asphalte , "bitumen" (Genesis 11:3). Herodotus (i. 179) mentions that hot bitumen and burned bricks were used for building the walls of Babylon; the bitumen from the river Is falling into Euphrates not far from Babylon. As the bitumen is found only here and there among the ruins, chiefly toward the basement, it was probably used only where they wished to counter. act moisture. The Dead Sea, from its abounding in asphalte, is called "the Asphalte Lake." The vale of Siddim was full of pits of it (Genesis 14:10). Moses' mother made the ark watertight with pitch and "slime" (asphalt; Speaker's Commentary Exodus 2:3, makes it mud to bind the papyrus stalks together, and to make the surface smooth for the infant).