The Natural History of Pliny, Volume 6 (of 6)Pliny, the Elder
History
The Natural History of Pliny, Volume 6 (of 6)
Pliny, the Elder
Natural history -- Pre-Linnean works
Other writers, again, who are more guarded in their assertions, have
told us, though with an equal degree of untruthfulness, that, at the
extremity of the Adriatic Gulf, upon certain inaccessible rocks there,
there are certain trees[2959] which shed their gum at the rising of the
Dog-Star. Theophrastus[2960] has stated that amber is extracted from
the earth in Liguria;[2961] Chares, that Phaëthon died in the territory
of Hammon, in Æthiopia, where there is a temple of his and an oracle,
and where amber is produced; Philemon, that it is a fossil substance,
and that it is found in two different localities in Scythia, in one of
which it is of a white and waxen colour, and is known as “electrum;”
while in the other it is red, and is called “sualiternicum.”
Demostratus calls amber “lyncurion,”[2962] and he says that it
originates in the urine of the wild beast known as the “lynx;” that
voided by the male producing a red and fiery substance, and that by the
female an amber of a white and less pronounced colour: he also informs
us that by some persons it is called “langurium,” and that in Italy,
there are certain wild beasts known as “languri.” Zeuothemis, however,
calls these wild beasts “langæ,” and gives the banks of the river Padus
as their locality. Sudines says, that it is a tree in reality, that
produces amber, and that, in Etruria, this tree is known by the name
of “lynx;” an opinion which is also adopted by Metrodorus. Sotacus
expresses a belief that amber exudes from certain stones in Britannia,
to which he gives the name of “electrides.” Pytheas says that the
Gutones,[2963] a people of Germany, inhabit the shores of an estuary
of the Ocean called Mentonomon, their territory extending a distance
of six thousand stadia; that, at one day’s sail from this territory,
is the Isle of Abalus, upon the shores of which, amber is thrown up by
the waves in spring, it being an excretion of the sea in a concrete
form; as, also, that the inhabitants use this amber by way of fuel, and
sell it to their neighbours, the Teutones. Timæus, too, is of the same
belief, but he has given to the island the name of Basilia.[2964]
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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