224 Proceedings of the Royal Irish Academy. 
the south and occupied part of the Caucasus. This is the district re- 
ferred to here. The mixture of Sarmatic and German blood had, 
according to Gibbon, contributed ‘‘to improve the features of the 
Alauni, to whiten their swarthy complexions, and to tinge their hair 
with a yellowish cast.” Thus our geographer’s description of them is 
quite exact. We have now to notice the flaming fire. I find that in 
this territory there is a phenomenon known to this day as ‘the eter- 
nal fires.”” It has been described by several travellers, among them 
Sir R. Ker Porter, whose account of it is as follows :—‘‘ Bakou, the 
smallest, but one of the most valuable, of the Russian conquests south 
of the Caucasus, occupies a peninsula of the Caspian called Absheran. 
It derives great wealth from the produce of its naphtha springs ; these 
fountains of hight and profit are deemed inexhaustible. At a short 
distance from the springs spreads the celebrated burning plain to a 
distance of nearly a mile. Here both the ancient and modern 
disciples of Zoroaster came in thousands to adore the eternal flame, 
and to convey to their own hearths a portion of the sacred flame.” ” 
He quotes the account of a previous traveller, who says: ‘‘ The whole 
country around Baku has at times the appearance of being enveloped 
in flames. It often seems as if the fire rolled down from the moun- 
tains in large masses with incredible velocity.” Sir R. Porter says 
there are two kinds of naphtha, the black and the white, the latter 
being much thinner. It was used medicinally—inwardly for chest 
complaints, and outwardly for cramps and rheumatism. Marco Polo 
speaks of its being used for cutaneous distempers in men and cattle. 
So saturated is the soil with this naphtha that Sir R. Porter says they 
have only to make an incision in the floor, and on a light being applied 
to it the flame immediately arises. With the fire a gas also arises: 
leathern bottles are frequently filled with this gas. The writer of the 
article on Baku in the new edition of the Encyclopedia Britannica says, 
the first to mention Baku and its fire-breathing mountain was the Ara- 
bian writer Masudi, in the tenth century ; but this is also the date of 
our geography, and, if the writer is not mistaken, it is remarkable 
that it should have been known as early here as by the Arabian writer. 
The reference to naphtha springs has led me to make inquiries, 
and I have found that the properties of naphtha, also called petroleum, 
were well known to the ancients. It is frequently mentioned in the 
Talmud. Thus in Buxtorf’s Talmudical Lexicon” a passage is quoted, 
in which St. Jerome says that naphtha was used by the Persians for 
burning. ‘The Hebrews mean by it the kind of oil which the author 
2 Sir R. Porter’s Travels, vol. ii. p. 216. 
13 Tbid. 
48. V. (0D) Hieronymus scribit: Salustius scribit in historiis quod naphtha 
sit genus fomentis apud Persas quo vel maxime nutriantur incendia. Hebrzi in- 
tellig unt eo genus olei quod Author Aruch yocat Petroleum cujus usus probibitus 
Judeis in Sabbatho quod sit odoris tetri. 
