480 PLI^"T'S NATURAL HISTOTlT. [Book XXXL 



US, with the fountain of Plinthia in Sicih*, as also a certain 

 lake in Media, and the well of Saturn. The spring of Li- 

 myra*'® not unfrequcntly makes its way through the neigh- 

 bouring localities, and when it does so, is always portentous of 

 some coming event. It is a singular thing too, that the fish 

 always accompany its waters on these occasions ; the inha- 

 bitants of the adjoining districts being in the habit of consult- 

 ing them by offering them food. When the fishes seize it with 

 avidity, the answer is supposed to be favourable ; but if, on the 

 other hand, they reject the food, by flapping it with their tails, 

 the response is considered to be unfavourable. The river 

 Holcas, in Bithynia, runs close to Bryazus,^^ the name of a 

 temple and of a divinity there worshipped ; persons guilty of 

 perjury, it is said, cannot endure contact with its waters, 

 which burn like flame.™ 



The sources, too, of the Tamaricus,'^ a river of Cantabria, 

 are considered to possess certain powers of presaging future 

 events : they are three in number, and, separated solely by an 

 interval of eight feet, unite in one channel, and so form a mighty 

 stream. These springs are often dry a dozen times in the day, 

 sometimes as many as twenty, without there being the slight- 

 est trace of water there : while, on the other hand, a spring 

 close at hand is flowing abundantly and without intermission. 

 It is considered an evil presage when persons who wish to see 

 these springs find them dry ; a circumstance which happened 

 very recentlj^, for example, to Lartius Licinius," who held the 

 office of legatus after his proctorship ; for at the end of seven 

 days after his visit he died. 



In Judcea there is a river'''^ that is dry every Sabbath da3^ 



CHAP. 19. DEADLY WATERS. POISONOUS FISHES. 



There are other marvels again, connected with water, but of 



Kalouga Kouffona, or the Dead Lake, the surface of which is covered with 

 bitumen and naphtha, which contains no fish, has oleaginous waters, and 

 presents all the phajnomena of the Dead Sea. 



^8 In Lycia. 



^ Ilardouin is af opinion that a river also was so called. See B. v. 

 c. 43. Of the divinity of this name, nothing further is known. 



'"' A story evidently connected with a kind of ordeal. 



'^ See B. iv. c. 34. Intermittent springs are not uncommon. See B. 

 ii. c. 106. " See j^ ^ix. c. 11. 



'3 According to Elias of Thisbe this river was the Goza; but Holstenius 

 says that it was the Eleutherus, or one of its tributaries. Josephus says 

 that it flowed on the Sabbath duy, and was dry the other six. 



