|
Off their coast, as the Carthaginians report, lies an island, by
name Cyraunis, the length of which is two hundred furlongs, its
breadth not great, and which is soon reached from the mainland. Vines
and olive trees cover the whole of it, and there is in the island a
lake, from which the young maidens of the country draw up gold-dust,
by dipping into the mud birds' feathers smeared with pitch. If this
be true, I know not; I but write what is said. It may be even so,
however; since I myself have seen pitch drawn up out of the water from
a lake in Zacynthus. At the place I speak of there are a number of
lakes; but one is larger than the rest, being seventy feet every way,
and two fathoms in depth. Here they let down a pole into the water,
with a bunch of myrtle tied to one end, and when they raise it again,
there is pitch sticking to the myrtle, which in smell is like to
bitumen, but in all else is better than the pitch of Pieria. This
they pour into a trench dug by the lake's side; and when a good deal
has thus been got together, they draw it off and put it up in jars.
Whatever falls into the lake passes underground, and comes up in the
sea, which is no less than four furlongs distant. So then what is
said of the island off the Libyan coast is not without likelihood.
|
|