BOOK XXXV. xLvi. 165-XLV11. 167 



The priests of" the Mother « of the Gods called Galli 

 castrate themselves, if we accept the account of 

 Marcus Caeh'us, ^^ith a piece of Samian pottery, 

 the only way of avoiding dangerous results ; and 

 Caelius proposed as a penalty for an abominable 

 offence that the guilty person should have his tongue 

 cut out in the same way, just as if he were already 

 himself inveighing against the same Vitellius in 

 anticipation. What is there that experience cannot 

 devise ? For it employs even broken crockery, 

 making it more solid and durable by pounding it up 

 and adding what is called Segni Hme, a kind of 

 material used in a method which experience has also 

 invented for making pavements. 



XL\TI. But there are other inventions also that ^^^^" 

 belong to Earth herself. For who could sufficiently eanhs. 

 marvel at the fact that the most inferior portion of 

 the earth's substance, which is in consequence 

 designated dust,^ on the hills of Pozzuoli, encounters 

 the waves of the sea and as soon as it is submerged 

 turns into a single mass of stone that withstands the 

 attacks of the waves and becomes stronger every 

 day, especially if it mixed with broken quarry-stone 

 from Cumae ? In the Cyzicus district also the nature 

 of the earth is the same, but there not dust but the 

 earth itself is cut out in blocks of any size wanted 

 and plunged into the sea ; and when drawn out, it is 

 of the consistency of stone. The same is said to take 

 place in the neighbourhood of Cassandrea,<^ and it is 

 stated that in a fresh water spring at Cnidus earth 

 becomes petrified in less than eight months. Or 

 the coast <^ from Oropus to Aulis all the earth that 

 the sea touches is turned into rocks. The finest 

 portion of the sand from the Nile is not very different 



383 



