40 CURIOUS CREATURES. 



middle of the lake, with a narrow entrance from the 

 mainland by a single bridge. These piles that support 

 the planks, all the citizens anciently placed there at the 

 common charge ; but, afterwards, they established a law 

 to the following effect ; whenever a man marries, for 

 each wife he sinks three piles, bringing wood from a 

 mountain called Orbelus ; but every man has several 

 wives. They live in the following manner ; every man 

 has a hut on the planks, in which he dwells, with a trap 

 door closely fitted in the planks, and leading down to 

 the lake. They tie the young children with a cord 

 round the foot, fearing lest they should fall into the lake 

 beneath. To their horses and beasts of burden they 

 give fish for fodder ; of which there is such an abundance, 

 that, when a man has opened his trap-door, he lets down 

 an empty basket by a cord into the lake, and, after 

 waiting a short time, draws it up full of fish." l 



Here, then, we have a valuable record of the lake 

 dwellings, and similar ones have been found in the lake 

 of Zurich. In 1854, owing to the dryness and cold of 

 the preceding winter, the water fell a foot below any 

 previous record : and, in a small bay between Ober 

 Mcilen and Dollikon, the inhabitants took advantage to 

 reclaim the soil thus left, and add it to their gardens, 

 by building a wall as far out as they could and they 

 raised the level of the land thus gained, by dredging the 

 mud out of the lake. In the course of dredging they 

 found deer horns, tiles and various implements, and, the 

 attention of an antiquary having been directed to this 

 find, he concluded that it was the site of an ancient 

 lake village. The lakes of Geneva, Constance, and 



1 The fishermen of lake Prasias still liave lake dwellings as in the time of 

 Herodotus. 



