478 plint's natural histoet. [Book XXXI. 



Andros, consecrated to Father Liber, from which wine flows 

 during the seven days appointed for the yearly festival of that 

 god, the taste of which becomes like that of water the mo- 

 ment it is taken out of sight of the temple. 



CHAP. 14. WATERS WHICH SERVE AS A SUBSTITUTE FOR OIL. 



Polyclitus says, that the water^* of the river Liparis,^^ near 

 Soli, in Cilicia, is used as a substitute for oil, and Theophrastus 

 mentions a spring of that name in Ethiopia, which is possessed 

 of similar properties. Lycus says, that at Tasitia'^ there is a 

 fountain of it, the water of which emits light : the same is 

 asserted, too, of a spring at Ecbatana. According to Theo- 

 pompus, there is a lake at Scotussa,^^ the waters of which 

 heal wounds. 



CHAP. 15. SALT AND BITTER WATERS. 



Juba says, that in the country of the Troglodytae there is a 

 lake, called the *' Lake of Insanitj^,"^* from its highly noxious 

 properties : thrice a day- it becomes salt and bitter, and then 

 again fresh, the same taking place as many times during the 

 night. It is full, he says, of white serpents, twenty cubits 

 loug.^^ He mentions, also, a certain spring in Arabia, which 

 rises from the ground with such remarkable force, as to throw 

 back any object pressed down upon it, however weighty. 



CHAP. 16. — WATERS WHICH THROW UP STONES. WATERS WHICH 

 CAUSE LAUGHTER AND WEEPING. WATERS WHICH ARE SAID 

 TO BE CURATIVE OF LOVE. 



Theophrastus makes mention of the fountain of Marsyas, 



compares it to the miracle of the blood of St. Januarius at Naples. The 

 contrivance of the priests of Bel was not very dissimilar; but in their 

 case, they tJiemselves were the real recipients of what the god was supposed 

 to devour. 



^* lie no doubt alludes to "petroleum," rock-oil, or Barbadoes tar, 



^•^ So called from the Greek Xnrapog, "unctuous." 



•^*^ A new reading given by Sillig in place of " India," the former one. 

 Tasitia is the name of a district mentioned by Ptolemy, iv. 7, 15, as being 

 in Ethiopia. He alludes to a burning spring, probably, of naphtha or of 

 petroleum. The burning springs of Bakou in the East are well known. 

 Genoa is lighted with naphtha from the village of Amiano, in Parma. 



" In Macedonia. ss u Lacum insanum." 



^^ Juba has been deceived, Ajasson remarks, by the tales of travellers, 

 there being no serpents of this l<'ngth in Africa, except boas. He thinks 

 that large congers, and oth'jr similar fishes, may be the animals really 

 alluded to. . ' 



