BOOK II. cvi. 231-233 



Andros always has the flavour of Avine on January 5th : 

 the day is called God's Gift Day. To drink of the 

 Styx near Nonacris in Arcady causes death on the 

 spot, although the river is not pecuUar in smell or 

 colour ; similarly three springs on Mount Liberosus 

 in Taurica irremediably but painlessly cause death. 

 In the territory of Carrina in Spain there are two 

 adjacent springs of which one rejects all objects and 

 the other sucks them down ; another in the same 

 nation makes all the fish in it look of a golden colour, 

 although except when in that water there is nothing 

 pecuHar about them. In the district by the Lake 

 of Como a copious spring always swells up and sinks 

 back again every hour. A hot spring on the island 

 of Cydonea ofF Lesbos flows only in the springtime. 

 Lake Sannaus in Asia is dyed by the wormwood 

 springing up round it. In the cave of Apollo of 

 Claros at Colophon tliere is a pool a draught from 

 which causes marvellous oracular utterances to be 

 produced, though the hfe of the drinkers is shortened. 

 Even our generation has seen rivers flow backward at 

 Nero's last moments, as we have recorded in our 

 history of that Emperor. 



Again everybody is aware that all springs are vnirenai 

 colder in summer than in winter, as well as of the fZiZs^^ 

 foUowing miracles of nature : that bronze and lead 

 sink when in mass form, but float when flattened out 

 into sheets ; that among objects of the same v/eight 

 some float and others sink ; that heavy bodies are 

 more easily moved in water ; that stone from Scyros 

 in however large a mass floats, and the same stone 

 broken into small pieces sinks ; that bodies recently 

 dead sink to the bottom but rise when they begin to 

 swell ; that empty vessels cannot be drawn out of 



359 



