O'Eeili.y — Milesian Colonization relative to Oold-miuing. 67 



cut out of blocks of wood, and are called in the locality ' Masoiros? 

 The gold they find in these streams is coarse and in quality fine, and 

 in all probability proceeds for the most part from the immense attle 

 banks of the ancients, carried into the streams by the winter torrents 

 washing them gradually away. The attle from the Cueva de Juan 

 Rata is washed into the river Castello, another tributary of the Navia. 

 As a rule there are no bodies of alluvion, as the rivers run in deep 

 narrow beds between precipitous sides, but where the Navia has 

 washed out its bed, in softer bodies of rock, and where it bends at 

 sharp angles across these beds, when the water is low in summer, 

 washing has been carried on from time immemorial by the peasants, 

 and successful results have been obtained. One of these bends has 

 been carefully prospected by the writer, and it proved that a systematic 

 clean-out of the bed-rock and of the interstices between the layers of 

 schist pitched against the river floor, would yield enormous results. The 

 thunderstorms cause the river to rise very suddenly from 3 to 6 feet, so 

 that a wall of 6 feet there would rarely be flooded in summer. Portions 

 of the banks prospected above the river-level, the washings of the soil 

 accumulated about the roots of the moss and heather growing on the 

 rocky sides, together with sample of the clay, yielded slightly over two 

 (2) oz. of coarse gold, some grains being of the size of wheat grains." 

 With regard to the tradition related in connexion with the ' ' Cueva 

 de Juan Rata," and the enormous door therein guarded by the 

 " Janas,^'' it is worth while giving the following extract from Bailly's 

 " Lettres sur I'Atlantide," pp. 147-8 : — " Gian ou Gian ben Gian etait 

 le monarque du Peris ou Pees. II fut fameux par des exploits mili- 

 taires et par des superbes ouvrages. II regna pendent 2000 ans sur les 

 Peris. Gian ben Gian fut attaque et vaincu dans un combat general 

 et la nation despersee, Les traditions renf erment evidemment la notion 

 d'un peuple detruit et perdu. Les Orientaux I'ont exprime dans une 

 ancienne epitaphe, ou Ton dit ' Qu'est devenu le peuple de Gian ben 

 Gian' ? regarde ce que le temps en a fait" (Herbelot, p. 396). 



The tradition may have reference to "Janus" and "Jana," the 

 Roman or Italian deities who presided over doors, &c., and the works 

 referred to may, as many others, have been carried on under the 

 Romans, but they may represent a still older people. In this respect 

 it is of interest to cite the following remarks from Hans Gadow's book, 

 "In Northern Spain" (1897). Speaking of the remarkable race of 

 carriers known as the " Maragatos" of ISTorthern Spain, he says, 

 p. 180: — "The Ilaragateria coincides practically with the range of 

 hills, which running from north to south, are generally called the 



