234 DELPHI. 
CHAP, steps to it, cut in a rock of marble ; once, no 
VI. 
»- doubt, the Caslalian Bath; where the Pijthia 
used to wash her whole body, and particularly 
her hair, before she placed herself upon the 
Tripod, in the Temple of Jpollo. Upon the 
opposite side is a stone seat, also hewn out of 
the same rock. This bason is filled with the 
water of the fountain. Above the bason rises 
the perpendicular precipice to its cloven summit 
before mentioned, which is at the height of 
about an hundred feet. In the face of this 
precipice are niches scooped in the rock, for 
the votive offerings; one very large receptacle of 
this kind being upon the right hand, and three 
smaller exactly in front of a person facing the 
precipice. Upon the left hand, a large wild 
fig-tree, sprouting above the water of the foun- 
tain upon that side of the bason, spreads its 
branches over the surface of the rock ; which 
is further ornamented by a most luxuriant gar- 
niture of shrubs, ivy, moss, brambles, and pen- 
sile plants ; some of which were now in flower, 
mingling together their varied hues over the red 
and grey masses of the marble'. The larger 
(1) We brought from the Fountain Castalios Ihe Silrne congesfa 
of Sibtkorpe : also " the Friar's Cowl," Arum Arisarum ol Lhinm-M ; 
and a non-descript species of " Gromwell," Lithospermum Linn. — cum 
nonnuUis 
