478 
PLimr's NATUEAL HISTOEY. [Book XXXL 
Andros, consecrated to Father Liber, from wliicli wine flows 
during* the seven days appointed for the yearly festival of that 
god, the taste of which becomes like that of water the mo- 
ment it is taken out of sight of the temple. 
CHAP. 14. WATEES WHICH SEEVE AS A SUBSTITUTE FOE OIL. 
Polyclitus says, that the water^^ of the river Liparis, near 
Soli, in Cilicia, is used as a substitute for oil, and Theophrastus 
mentions a spring of that name in ^Ethiopia, which is possessed 
of similar properties. Lycus says, that at Tasitia^^ there is a 
fountain of it, the water of which emits light : the same is 
asserted, too, of a spring at Ecbatana. According to Theo- 
pompus, there is a lake at Scotussa,^' the waters of which 
heal wounds. 
CHAP. 15. SA.LT AND BITTEE WATEES. 
Juba says, that in the country of the Troglodytae there is a 
lake, called the Lake of Insanity,"^^ from its highly noxious 
properties : thrice a day it becomes salt and bitter, and then 
again fresh, the same taking place as many times during the 
night. It is full, he says, of white serpents, twenty cubits 
long.^^ He mentions, also, a certain spring in Arabia, which 
rises from the ground with such remarkable force, as to throw 
back any object pressed down upon it, however weighty. 
CHAP. 16.^ — WATERS WHICH THEOW UP STONES. WATEES WHICH 
CAUSE LAUGHTER AND WEEPING. WATEES WHICH AEE SAID 
TO BE CUEATIVE OF LOVE. 
Theophrastus makes mention of the fountain of Marsyas, 
compares it to the miracle of the blood of St. Januarius at Naples. The 
contrivance of the priests of Bel was not very dissimilar ; but in their 
case, tJmj themselves were the real recipients of what the god was supposed 
to devour. 
He no doubt alludes to "petroleum,'^ rock-oil, or Barbadoes tar. 
So called from the Greek XiirapoQ^ " unctuous," 
■^^ A new reading given by Sillig in place of India," the former one. 
Tasitia is the name of a district mentioned by Ptolemy, iv. 7, 15, as being 
in a^lthiopia. He alludes to a burning spring, probably, of naphtha or of 
petroleuni. The burning springs of Bakou in the East are well known, 
Genoa is lighted with naphtha from the village of Amiano, in Parma. 
^"^ In Macedonia. ^s " Lacum insanum." 
Juba has been deceived, Ajasson remarks, by the tales of travellers, 
there being no serpents of this length in Africa, except boas. He tliinks 
that large congers, and other similar fishes, may be the animals really 
alluded to. 
