We hear of a number of marvels performed by Empedokles, which are for the most part nothing but inferences from his writings. Timaios told how he weakened the force of the etesian winds by hanging bags of asses’ skins on the trees to catch them. He had certainly said, in his exaggerated way, that the knowledge of science as taught by him would enable his disciples to control the winds (fr. 111); and this, along with the fabled windbags of Aiolos, is enough to account for the tale.[519] We are also told how he brought back to life a woman who had been breathless and pulseless for thirty days. The verse where he asserts that his teaching will enable Pausanias to bring the dead back from Hades (fr. 111) shows how this story may have arisen.[520] Again, we hear that he sweetened the pestilent marsh between Selinous and the sea by diverting the rivers Hypsas and Selinos into it. We know from coins that this purification of the marshes actually took place, but we may doubt whether it was attributed to Empedokles till a later time.[521] Footnote 519: I follow the wilder form of the story given by Diog. viii. 60, and not the rationalised version of Plutarch (_adv. Col._ 1126 b). The epithets ἀλεξανέμας and κωλυσανέμας were perhaps bestowed by some sillographer in mockery; cf. ἀνεμοκοίτης. Footnote 520: The Περὶ νόσων of Herakleides, from which it is derived, seems to have been a sort of medico-philosophical romance. The words are (Diog. viii. 60): Ἡρακλείδης τε ἐν τῷ Περὶ νόσων φησὶ καὶ Παυσανίᾳ ὑφηγήσασθαι αὐτὸν τὰ περὶ τὴν ἄπνουν. It was a case of hysterical suffocation. Footnote 521: For these coins see Head, _Historia Numorum_, pp. 147 sqq. [Sidenote: Rhetoric and medicine.]