[596] “Ad ingressum ambulantium, et equorum cursus, terræ quoque tremere sentiuntur in Brabantino agro, quæ Belgii pars, et circa S. Audomari fanum.” Hardouin in Lemaire, i. 421, 422. [597] See Seneca, Nat. Quæst. iii. 25. [598] Martial speaks of the marshy nature of the Cæcuban district, xiii. 115. Most of the places mentioned in this chapter are illustrated by the remarks of Hardouin; Lemaire, i. 422, 423. [599] “Saltuares.” In some of the MSS. the term here employed is Saliares, or Saltares; but in all the editions which I am in the habit of consulting, it is Saltuares. [600] There is, no doubt, some truth in these accounts of floating islands, although, as we may presume, much exaggerated. There are frequently small portions of land detached from the edges of lakes, by floods or rapid currents, held together and rendered buoyant by a mass of roots and vegetable matter. In the lake of Keswick, in the county of Cumberland, there are two small floating islands, of a few yards in circumference, which are moved about by the wind or by currents; they appear to consist, principally, of a mass of vegetable fibres. [601] It has been observed, that there are certain places where bodies remain for a long time without undergoing decomposition; it depends principally upon a dry and cool condition of the air, such as is occasionally found in vaults and natural caverns. See the remarks of Alexandre in Lemaire, i. 424. [602] We may conceive of a large mass of rock being so balanced upon the fine point of another rock, as to be moved by the slightest touch; but, that if it be pushed with any force, it may be thrown upon a plane surface, and will then remain immovable. [603] Perhaps the author may refer to some kind of earth, possessed of absorbent or astringent properties, like the Terra Sigillata or Armenian Bole of the old Pharmacopœias. [604] A σὰρξ, caro, and φάγω, edo. We may conceive this stone to have contained a portion of an acrid ingredient, perhaps of an alkaline nature, which, in some degree, might produce the effect here described. It does not appear that the material of which the stone coffins are composed, to which this name has been applied, the workmanship of which is so much an object of admiration, are any of them possessed of this property. [605] Alexandre remarks on this statement, “Montes istæ videntur originem dedisse fabulæ quæ in Arabicis Noctibus legitur ...;” Lemaire, i. 425. Fouché, indeed, observes, that there are mountains composed principally of natural loadstone, which might sensibly attract a shoe containing iron nails. Ajasson, ii. 386. But I conceive that we have no evidence of the existence of the magnetic iron pyrites having ever been found in sufficient quantity to produce any sensible effect of the kind here described. [606] We may remark generally, that of the “miracula” related in this chapter, the greatest part are entirely without foundation, and the remainder much exaggerated.