242 History of Nature [BooK VII. 



The like accident is reported to have befallen Lit. Lamia, 

 of Praetorian rank. That C. ^Elius Tubero, who had been 

 Praetor, was brought Alive again from the Funeral Fire, 

 Messala Rufus and many others assert. Such is the condi- 

 tion of Mortal Men ; and to this kind of Fortune, and such 

 as this, are we born : so that in the case of Man there is 

 no assurance, no, not even in his Death. We read in 

 Chronicles, that the Soul of Hermotimus Clazomenius was 

 accustomed to leave his Body, and wandering to a great 

 distance, brought him backs News of such things as could 

 not possibly have been known unless it had been present 

 there ; and all the while his Body lay half Dead. This 

 manner he continued, until the Cantharidae, who were his 

 Enemies, took his Body and burnt it to Ashes; and by that, 

 means disappointed his Soul when it came back again to 

 its Sheath. Also it is said, that the Spirit of Aristteas in 

 Proconnesus was seen to fly out of his Mouth in the form 

 of a Raven ; and many an empty Tale followeth thereon : 

 for surely I take it to be no better than a Fable, which is in 

 like manner reported of Epimenides the Gnossian, that, when 

 he was a Boy, and wearied with Heat and Travel, he laid 

 himself down in a Cave, and there slept for 57 Years. 1 At 

 length he awoke, as if on the very next Morning, and won- 

 dered at the changed face of every thing he saw. Hence in an 

 equal number of Days after, he grew Old, that at last he lived 

 to the Age of 175 Years. Women, by reason of their Sex, are 

 most subject to this, danger, 2 by the turning of the Womb ; 

 which, if it be corrected, they soon recover. To this belongs 

 that noble Volume among the Greeks written by Heraclides, 

 where he writeth of a Woman that for seven Days lay as 

 Dead, but who in the end was restored to Life. Also Varro 

 reporteth, that when the twenty Men were dividing Lands 



1 Gibbon refers to a similar story, which was widely believed, in the 

 fifth century of Christianity (" Decline and Fall," c. xxxiii.) ; but he seems 

 not to have been aware of this more ancient, and perhaps original, narra- 

 tive of a similar event. Wern. Club. 



2 That is, of the suspension of animation, one of the symptoms of 

 Hysteria. Wern. Club. 



