6. But when he has made an end of this mockery a fiery Esculapius appears on the floor. Then having put in the midst a bowl of water,[128] he invokes all the gods and they are at hand. For if the spectator lean over and gaze into the bowl, he will see all the gods and Artemis leading on [Sidenote: p. 103.] her baying hounds. But we shall not hesitate to tell the story of these things and how they undertake them. For the magician plunges his hands in the cauldron of pitch which appears to be boiling; but he throws into it vinegar and soda[129] and moist pitch and heats the cauldron gently. And the vinegar having mingled with the soda, on getting a little hot, moves the pitch so as to bring bubbles to the surface and gives the appearance of boiling only. But the magician has washed his hands many times in sea-water, thanks to which it does not burn him much if it be really boiling. And if he has after washing them anointed his hands with myrtle-juice and soda and myrrh[130] mixed with vinegar he is not burned (at all). But the feet are not burned if he anoints them with icthyokolla and salamander.[131] And this is the true cause of the pyramid flaming like a torch, although it is of stone. A paste of Cretan earth[132] is moulded into the shape of a pyramid,--but the colour is like a milk-white stone,--in this fashion. He has soaked the piece of earth in much oil, has put it on the coals, and when heated, has again soaked it and heated it a second and third time and many a time afterwards, whereby he so prepares [Sidenote: p. 104.] it that it will burn even if plunged in water; for it holds much oil within itself. But the altar catches fire when the magician is making libation, because it contains freshly-burned lime instead of ashes and finely-powdered frankincense and much ... and of ... of anointed torches and self-flowing and hollow nutshells having fire within them.[133] But he also sends forth smoke from his mouth after a brief delay by putting fire into a nutshell and wrapping it in tow and blowing it in his mouth.[134] The linen cloth laid on the bowl of water whereon he puts the coals is not burned, because of the sea-water underneath, and its being itself steeped in sea-water and then anointed with white of egg and a solution of alum. And if also one mixes with this the juice of evergreens and vinegar and a long time beforehand anoint it copiously with these, after being dipped in the drug it remains altogether incombustible.[135]