EARLY USE OF STEAM. 371 
All this may be true, without having the least impor- 
tance in the history that now occupies us. I have not 
even insisted, I acknowledge, so much on these slight 
lineaments of ancient science relative to the power of 
steam, but in order to live at peace, if possible, with the 
Daciers of both sexes, with the Dutens of our own 
epoch.* 
Both natural and artificial powers, before becoming 
really subservient to the use of man, have almost always 
been adopted for objects of superstition. Nor will the 
steam of water be an exception to the general rule. 
The chronicles informed us that on the banks of the 
Weser, the god of the ancient Teutones sometimes indi- 
cated his displeasure to them by a sort of thunder-clap, 
which was immediately followed by a cloud that filled 
the sacred area. The image of their god Bustérich, 
found, it is said, in some excavations, clearly reveals the 
way in which the pretended prodigy was obtained. 
The statue was of metal. The hollow head contained 
an amphora of water. Wooden plugs closed the mouth 
and a hole above the forehead. Some charcoal, adroitly 
placed in the cavity of the cranium, gradually warmed 
*’For the same reason, I cannot dispense with here relating an 
anecdote, which, notwithstanding its romantic style, and containing 
what we now know to be contrary to the way in which steam acts, 
still shows the high opinion that the ancients had formed of this me- 
chanical agent. It is related that Anthemius, Justinian’s architect, 
occupied a house next door to that of Zeno, and to annoy that ora- 
tor, who was his declared enemy, he placed in the ground floor of his 
own house several cauldrons containing water; that from an opening 
made in the lid of each of these there proceeded a flexible tube, which 
was conducted into the party-wall and up to the beams that supported 
the floors in Zeno’s house; in short, that those floors heaved as if 
there had been a violent earthquake, as soon as fire was applied to 
the boilers. 
