Chap. 110.] 
YOLCAKOS. 
139 
to every solid body wliicli it touclies, and moreover, wlieri ' 
touched, it follows jou, if you attempt to escape from it. 
By means of it the people defended their walls against 
Lucullus, and the soldiers were burned in their armour\ It 
is even set on fire in water. "We learn by experience that 
it can be extinguished only by earth. 
CHAP. 109. (105.) — OF KAPHTHA. 
ISTaphtha is a substance of a similar nature^ (it is so called 
about Babylon, and in the territory of the Astaceni, in 
Parthia^), flowing like liquid bitumen. It has a great affi- 
nity to fire, which instantly darts on it wherever it is seen^. 
It is said, that in this way it was that Medea burned Ja- 
son's mistress ; her croAvn having taken fire, when she ap- 
proached the altar for the purpose of sacrificing^. 
CHAP. 110. (106.) PLACES WHICH AEE ALWAYS BTJBNIlSra. 
Among the wonders of mountains there is -/Etna, which 
always burns in the night ^, and for so long a period has 
always had materials for combustion, being in the winter 
buried in snow, and having the ashes which it has ejected 
covered with frost. Nor is it in this mountain alone that 
nature rages, threatening to consume the earth''; in Pha- 
face of the earth. Our author has exaggerated its properties and action 
upon other bodies. 
1 Respecting the transaction here mentioned, I shall refer to the note 
of Hardouin, Lemau*e, i. 452. 
2 The substance here mentioned may be considered as not differing 
essentially from the Maltha of the last chapter, except in being of a more 
fluid consistence. 
3 The Astaceni are supposed to have inhabited a district near the 
sources of the Indus, probably corresponding to the modern Cabul. 
^ We may conceive of a quantity of inflammable vapour on the surface 
of the naphtha, which might, in some degree, produce the effect here 
described. 
^ Horace, in one of his Epodes, where he refers to the magical arts of 
Medea, says, that it was a cloak, "palla," which was sent to Creiisa; 
V. 65. So far as there is any foundation for the story, we may suppose 
that some part of her dress had been impregnated with an inflarmnable 
substance, which took fire when she approached the blazing altar. 
® When the volcanos are less active the flame is visible in the night 
only, 
7 The observations of modem travellers and geologists have proved, 
