Greek Fire of the Middle Ages. 35 
abstracts and brief chronicles of the’'times, are equally silent 
respecting it. The pagans have all the credit of it, at least in 
the following verses : 
Ignis hic conficitur tantum per Paganos 
Ignis hic exterminat tantum Christianos 
Incantatus namque est per illos prophanos 
Ab hoc perpetud, Christe, libera nos. 
The good monk seems to have held it in great horror. 
The descriptions which represent it as unctuous and viscid, 
and as adhering to the objects which it reached, may be per- 
haps reconciled to the former, since a viscid substance, as well 
as a liquid one, might have been kept in “‘phioles.” But as 
these viscid and unctuous substances only present the same 
kind of difficulties as the former, I need not dwell on them. 
They might easily have been all formed of the same resinous 
ingredients in various proportions. 
There is a much greater difficulty coming, The opinion of 
the Greek fire being inextinguishable by water, could not justly 
have been entertained of any compositions of this nature, not 
even of Anna Comnena’s sulphureous compound. No burning 
substance could have resisted an application of this nature, 
provided it were employed in sufficient quantity, unless under 
the protection of a carcass or tube of some kind, in which case 
it must also have contained nitre. Itis plain that there is 
either a good deal of imagination or of ignorance in these re- 
ports; such, indeed, as to throw serious doubts upon much 
more of the history of this substance. The Florentine monk, 
who describes the siege of Acre, says, 
Pereat 6 utinam ignis hujus vena 
Non enim extinguitur aqua sed arena 
Vixque vinum acidum arctat ejus frena 
Et urina stringitur ejus vix habena. 
That sand should have extinguished some of these fires, we can 
understand ; but that it should have been put out by vinegar 
and urine, and not by water, is impossible, as these were not 
likely to have been procured in sufficient quantity, surely not 
in such abundance as water; and on no cther principle could 
the one have acted better than the other. 
D2 
