476 PLINY'S NATURAL HISTORY. [Book XXXL 



Gaul, has a spring of great renown, which sparkles as it 

 bursts . forth with bubbles innumerable, and has a certain 

 ferruginous taste, only to be perceived after it has been 

 drunk. This water is strongly purgative, is curative of tertian 

 fevers, and disperses urinary calculi : upon the application of 

 fire it assumes a turbid appearance, and finally turns red. The 

 springs 41 of Leucogaea, between Puteoli and ^eapolis, are 

 curative of eye diseases and of wounds. Cicero, in his work 

 entitled " Admiranda/' 43 has remarked that it is only by the 

 waters of the marshes of Reate 43 that the hoofs of beasts of 

 burden are hardened. 



CHAP. 9. WATERS WHICH COLOUR THE HAIR. 



Eudicus informs us that in Hestiseotis 44 there are two 

 springs ; one of which, Cerona, renders sheep black that drink 

 of it, while the other, called INeleus, turns them white : if, 

 again, a sheep should happen to drink their waters mixed, its 

 fleece will be mottled. According to Theophrastus, the water 

 of the Crathis, 45 a river of Thurii, makes sheep and cattle 

 white, while that of the river Sybaris turns them black. 



CHAP. 10. WATERS WHICH COLOUR THE HUMAN BODY. 



And not only this, but human beings even, Theophrastus 

 tells us, are sensible of this difference : for persons who drink 

 the water of the Sybaris, he says, become more swarthy and 

 more hardy, the hair inclining to curl : while those, again, 

 who drink of the Crathis become fair and more soft-skinned, 

 with the hair growing straight and long. So, too, in Mace- 

 donia, persons who wish the produce to be white, drive their 

 cattle to the river Haliacmon, while those who desire a black 

 or tawny colour, take them to water at the Axius. Upon the 



Spa ; but it is more probable that he alludes to the spring still in existence 

 at the adjacent town of Tongres, which was evidently well known to the 

 Romans, and is still called the " Fountain of Pliny." 



41 The springs on the present Monte Posilippo. 



42 This work is lost. Chifflet suggests that "Varro" should be read. 

 See, however, B. vii. c. 2, B. xxix. c. 16 and c. 28 of this Book. It was 

 a common-place book, probably, of curious facts. 



43 See B. ii. c. 106, where a growing rock in the marsh of Reate is 

 mentioned. 



44 In Thessaly. A mere fable, no doubt. 



45 Ovid, Met. xv. 315, et seq., tells very nearly the same fabulous story 

 about the rivers Crathis and Sybaris. 



