of Plinies Naturall Fiftorie. 553 
A. thatitis fo ftrong asto breake the force of the fea water and to beat backe the waves, but to fub- 
due and cruth the bodies of our young gentlemen, and therefore ferveth well in the publicke 
place of wreftling forthofe that bee given to fuch exercifes : And for this purpofe verely was it 
brought from thence by fea unto Patrobis, a flave lately enfranchifed by Nero the Rmperour. I 
read alfo,chat Leowatus,Cratus,& Meleager,who were great captains under Alexander the Great 
and followed his court, were woont ro have this fand carried with them, with other baggage be- 
longing to the campe, But I meanenotto write any more of this argument,no more verely than 
of the ufe ofearth in thofe places where our youth annoint theit bodies againft they fhould wre- 
{tle;wherein our youths addict themfelves fo much to the exercife of the bodie, that they have 
fpoiled themfelves otherwife, and loft the vigor of the mind, 
Crap. X1rits 
ee Of mud walls : of Bricke walls,and the order and manner of 
making them. | 
which they call * For#acei, of the forme and frame that is made of planks andbourds *Some read 
of each fide, betweene which a man may fay they arerather infarced and ftutfed up, (7s 
than otherwife laid and reared orderly: but] affure you, the earth thus infarced, continueth a 
world of yeers and perifheth not, checking the violence of raine,wind, and fire,no mortar and 
C cement fottiffe and ttrong. There are yet to befeene in divers parts of Spaine, the watch-towers 
of Aaniball, the high turrets and skonces alfo reared upon the tops of hills, made all of earth : 
and hereof wee have our turfs, which naturally are fo propernot onely for the rampiers and forti- 
fications of a campe, but alfo fot wharfs,bankes, and buttreffes,to breake the violence and inun- 
dation of rivers, As for the manner of making walls by dawbing windings and hurdles with mud 
and clay,alfo of rearing them otherwhiles with unbaked bricke ; who is {fv ignorant that he know- 
eth itnot ?Howbeic,for co make good bricks,they ought notto be made of any foile that is full 
of fand and gravell, much lefle then of that which ftandeth much upon grit and ftones, but of a 
greyifh marle or whitith chalkie clay, or at leaftwifea reddith earth : but in cafe wee be forced to 
ufe that which is givento bee fandie, yet wee muft chufe that kind of {and whichis rough and 
D ftrong. The beft feafon to make thefe brickes or tyles,isin the Spring time; for in the mids of 
Summer they will cleave and be full of chinks: but if you would have good bricks for building; 
theyoughttobee two yeers old atthe leaft. Nowthe batter or lome that goeth tothe making of 
them, ought to bee well fteeped and foked in water, before it bee fafhioned into brickeor tyle: 
Bricks are made of three fizes: The ordinarie bricke that wee ule, is called Didoron, which car- 
rieth in length one foot and a halfe, and in breadth a foot sa fecond fort is named Tetradoron, 
id ei; three toot long: and the third, Pentadoron, of three foot andnine inches in length :for 
the Greeks in old time, called the {pan or {pace of the nand from the thumbe to the little fingers 
end ftretched out, Doron; whichis the reafon that gifts and rewardsbe called in their language, 
Dorf, for that they were prefented by the hand. You fee therefore, how according tothe length 
E that they carrie, either of foure or five fpans,they have their denominationof Letradora, or 
Pentadora; forthe breadth is oneand the famein them all,to wit,one foot over. Now there be- 
ing this difference in the fize, in Greece the manner isto employ the finaller fort in their privat 
buildings, but the bigger ferveth for greater publicke workes. At Pitana in Affa, and in Maifia 
and Calentum, citties of low Spaine, the bricks that be made, after they are once dried, will not 
fiake in the water,but flote aloft; for of a fpungeous and hollow earth they be made, refembling 
the nature of the pumifh ftone,which is very good for this purpofe,when itmay be wrought. The 
Greeks have alwaies preferred the walls of bricke,before any others, unleffeit be in thole places 
where they had flint arhand to build withall : for furely {uch bricke wallsyif they be made plumbe 
upright & wrought by line and levell,fo as they neither hang nor le battee@) be everlafting: and 
J therforefuch bricks ferve for walls of cities & publick works; their roiall pallaces likewife be buile 
therewith, After this{ort, was that part of the wall at Athens|laid and reared,which regardeth the 
mount Hymettus:fo they built alfo at Patre the temples of Jupiter and Hercules although all the 
columns,pillars, and architraves round about them, wereof afhler ftone:thus was the pallace 
of K, Attalvs builtat Tralleis; likewife that of K.Cva/wat Sardis, which afterward was converted 
: b ij 9 
V - » Hat fhall wee fay ? See wee not int Affricke and Spaine both, certaine walls of earth, 
