The Gorgonix Domus, &c. ip 



habitants and their Utenlils , (which have, at one Time or 

 other, fo much taken up the Attention of the Curious,) were 

 all of them, at firft, the mere Fables and Inventions of the 

 yirabs ; and afterwards propagated, by fuch Perfons, who, like 

 the Tripoly Ambaflador and his Friend, were credulous enough 

 to believe them. 



However, there is one remarkable Circumftance, i*elating Jj^^^^^°^f 

 to Ras Seniy that deferves very well to be recorded. Wheng[(^J^ ^'"^ 

 the Winds have blown away the Billows of Sand, which fre- 

 quently cover and conceal thefe Petrifications, (for they are 

 not always vifible upon that Account ; ) they difcover in the 

 lower and more depreffed Places of this Diftrift, feveral little 

 Pools of Water ; which is ufually of fo heavy and ponderous a 

 Nature, that, upon drinking of it, it pafles through the Body 

 like Quickfilver. This, perhaps, may be that Petrifying Fluid, This heavy 

 which has all along contributed to the Converiion of thefe Palm be the Petn- 

 Trees, the Echini and their Prickles into Stone. For the ^'"^ "' ' 

 Formation, not only of thefe, but of Petrifications of all Kinds, 

 may be intirely owing, to their having been, firft of all, lodged 

 in a Bed of Loam, Clay, Sand, or fome other proper Nidi^s 

 and Matrix \ and afterwards gradually adled upon and pervad- 

 ed by fuch a Petrifying Fluid, as this may be fuppofed to be. 



Some curious Perfons have imagined, that, as the Gordon s^^^'"'^ "°^ 



^ , . '^ the Gorgom^ 



Head, with the venomous Snakes handng from it, bears a near ^'"""^- ^^- 

 Refemblance to Ras Sem, (or the Head of Toifon, as it is in- 

 terpreted ;) we are therefore to look for the Gorgonice Domm 

 at this Place. But, befides the allegorical Conftrudion that has, 

 from the carlieft Antiquity, been put upon the Gorgon s Head ; 

 and a much later and more ingenious Conjedure ', that we are 

 to underftand by it, the Wheel or the Roller only, which, by 

 prefling out the Olives, converts them into (or leaves nothing 

 behind it, but their) Stones ; I fay, befides thefe, there are two 

 other Objections, that Ras Sem and the Gorgonice T>omt^ can- 

 not be the fame. 



I. The firft is, that both the Name and the Defcription of The Hidory 



.. ^-^-. otUrfj Sem is 



Ras Sem are of no Antiquity; neither do we find any Tradi-of no Anti- 



■*■ -^ quity. 



I Mr. Plucbe, in his Hiftolre du del. Vol. i. p. i8(J, 187. derives the Name of Medufi, 

 from Wll Dufl}, triturare, to tread out i and thatMedHfa{^tfi)'l!2 i^f^^- ^°-) Medujlu) there- 

 fore is the prefing out. Gorgon, in like manner, he makes to be the fame with Galgul 

 7J'?J } and that the Arabs C3\\ Medufa, as delineated upon the Sphere or Coelcftiai Globe, 

 Algol, i, e. The Wheel. 



E % tion 



