and Aristotle calls those of the Greek Archipelago "cements of society;" for at those places the young women were accustomed to meet every evening. While one drew water, another sung, and a third accompanied: then all the maids of the village followed in chorus; and the evening frequently closed with a dance.

De Pagès assures us, that the most beautiful subject for a painter, in the East, is that of a young female, on her way from a fountain: and one of the best pictures of Raphael is that, which personifies the servant of Abraham meeting Rebecca at the well. Berghem has a picture representing peasants driving their cattle to a fountain at the first glow of evening; and Gaspar de Witt has a beautiful landscape, animated by hunters halting at a well. But the most celebrated painter of fountains was Dubois, of Bois-le-Duc. And here we may observe, that the discovery of Portici is connected with the subject of fountains. A peasant, in the environs of that city, wanting water for his garden, resolved to sink a well. After he had laboured two or three days, he discovered several fragments of marble. This circumstance being related to the Prince D'Elbeuf, he immediately purchased the garden; when, setting several men to excavate, they soon discovered fragments of pillars; and, at length, an entire temple, formed of the best and finest marble; peopled as it were with statues, which had been buried under lava, issuing from Vesuvius in the time of Pliny the Naturalist.

FOUNTAINS CONTINUED.

One of the most remarkable fountains, in ancient times, was that of which Herodotus and Diodorus Siculus have transmitted an account. It was called "the Fountain of the Sun ;" and was situated near the temple of Jupiter Ammon. At the dawn of day this fountain was warm; as the day ad

vanced, it became progressively cool; at noon it was at the extremity of cold; at which time the Ammonians made use of it, to water their gardens and shrubberies. At the setting of the sun, it again became warm; and continued to increase, as the evening proceeded, till midnight; when it reached the extremity of heat: as the morning advanced it grew progressively cold. This fountain is described by Quintus Curtius, Diodorus Siculus, Arrian, and Solinus: Silius Italicus also alludes to ita.

There was a fountain, equally curious, in the forest of Dodona. It is said to have had the power of lighting a torch :at noon it was dry; at midnight full; from which time it decreased till the succeeding noon. A similar one is mentioned as being near Grenoble.

The celebrated Castalian fountain rushes from two precipitate rocks, and forms several romantic cascades; and Cashmire is said to abound in fountains, which the natives call miraculous. Pliny the youngerf describes one, near the Larian Lake, which increased and decreased three times every day. It still exists.

The ancients were never weary of attaching peculiar properties to fountains. That of Arethusa was supposed to have the power of forming youth to beautyh; and that at Colophon of enabling the priest of the Clavian Apollo to foretel future events. This oracle was visited by Germanicus, in his progress through Ionia. The priest inquired his name; then descending into a cavern, in which the secret spring was, he drank of it; and, returning to Germanicus, recited two or three verses, which foretold the premature death of that illus

a Stet fano vicina, novum et memorabile lympha,

Quæ nascente die, &c. &c.

с

b Mela, lib. ii. c. 3. c Mém. de l'Académ. des Sciences, Année 1699, p. 23.

d Vide Wheeler's Journey, B. iv. 314. Ionic Antiq. p. 35.

e Asiatic Miscell. vol. 2. f Lib. iv. Ep. 30.

h Apud Euseb. Præpar. Evang. v. c. 29.

Eustace, vol. 4.45.

trious prince. Pliny mentions this spring, and asserts, that whoever drank of it died soon after.

e

Of medicinal and detrimental fountains we have many instances, vouched for by writers modern as well as ancient. Some were said to produce barrenness; others fruitfulness. These are described by Theophrastus, Aristotle, Plutarch, and Solinus. Philostratus mentions one that occasioned the leprosy. Vitruviusd speaks of another near Zama in Numidia, that gave unwonted loudness to the voice; while the Macrobian Ethiopians, living to the age of 120, their longevity was ascribed to their bathing in a fountain, which perfumed them with an oil, which had the odour of violets. We read of some, that caused immediate death; some the loss of memory; and others that restored it. Plutarch relates, that there was one called Ciffusa, which being of a bright colour, and of an exceedingly pleasant taste, the inhabitants of the neighbourhood believed, that Bacchus had been washed in it immediately after his birth. It had something of the flavour of wine. Many of these have, doubtless, a fabulous origin; yet it would be too presuming to doubt the absolute possibility of their existence. Marcellinus, however, takes no little latitude, when he describes a fountain, called the water of oaths. "Its source," says he, "is cold; and yet it bubbles like boiling water, and possesses a faculty of ordeal Philostratus also alludes in respect to truth and falsehood."

to it.

h

In Epirus was a fountain, which at the last quarter of the moon was so much impregnated with sulphur, that it kindled any wood that was put into it and in the palatinate of Cracow there is a spring, which, upon applying a torch, flames like spirits of wine. This flame dances on the water, but it a Tacitus, Annal. ii. c. 54.

In Vit. Apol. lib. ii.

f Lib. xxiii. c. 7.

b Plin. Nat. Hist. ii. s. 3. e In Vit. Lysander. 8 In Vit. Apol. i. c. 6.

d Lib. viii. c. 4.

h Pomp. Mela, ii. c. 3..

does not heat it. Plinya also speaks of two, one in Judea, the other in Ethiopia, which being impregnated with sulphur, had the property of oil in respect to burning. The same quality is given to a river in Cilicia, and to a fountain near Carthage, by Vitruvius. Herodotus relates, that in the country of the Atarantes was a hill of salt, on the summit of which bubbled a spring of fresh water. At Guildford, in Connecticut, is a fountain, the water of which will evaporate, if corked in a bottle ever so strictly. Some writers mention one rising in Mount Soractes, the waters of which boiled at the rising of the sun. In Greenland, most of the springs and fountains rise and fall with the tide. Many in Spain, in England, and in Wales, have similar periodical returns; and under the rocks of Giggleswick, in the West Riding of Yorkshire, there is a well, that ebbs and flows several times in the course of an hour. When the weather is

very wet or very dry, it ceases to flow.

Among the Romans, no person was allowed to swim near the head of a stream; as the body was supposed to pollute consecrated waters. In the early ages of popery, the common people, where fountains and wells were situated in retired places, were accustomed to honour them with the titles of saints and martyrs. Some were called Jacob's well; St. John's; St. Mary's; St. Winifred's, and St. Agnes': some were named after Mary Magdalen; and others derived their appellations from beautiful and pious virgins. Though this custom was forbidden by the canons of St. Anselm, many pilgrimages continued to be made to them; and the Romans long retained a custom of throwing nosegays into fountains, and chaplets into wells. From which practice originated the ceremony of sprinkling

a Nat. Hist. v. c. 7. b Lib. iv. c. 184. c Americ. Acad. Arts, vol. 1. d The inhabitants of the Loo-choo Islands also have guardian deities to wells. Vide Capt. Hall's Voy. 4to. p. 113.

e They also instituted a feast in honour of them; called Fontinalia: at which time they visited all the wells, and threw crowns of flowers into them.

the Severn with flowers; so elegantly described by Dyer; and so beautifully alluded to by Milton:

The shepherds at their festivals

Carol her good deeds loud in rustic lays;

And throw sweet garland-wreaths into her stream,

Of pansies, pinks, and gaudy daffodils.

Ancient heroes washed their hair in them. Horace alludes to this custom. The Hindoos frequently sprinkle blossoms of flowers on the surface of those streams in which they perform their ablutions; while on the Lake Masanawara, north of the Himalayah Mountains, the Tartar shepherds scatter upon its surface the ashes of their relatives.

In the province of

FOUNTAINS CONTINUED.

near the small town of

there is a spring, which wells from the side of a hill, below a cottage, in which Colonna has passed many a satisfied hour. This spring is as clear as crystal; it never rises higher than a certain height; nor ever sinks below it. In summer it is cool; in winter warm. White stones and sand filter the bottom; and ivy and lichens creep up the sides of the wall, that surrounds it.

Diana might have lov'd in that sweet spot

To take her noontide rest; and when she stopt,
Hot from the chase to drink, well pleas'd had seen
Her own bright crescent soft reflected there".

This spring is endeared to Helvidius from the following conversation having taken place in its neighbourhood. "While you lived in your cottage, at the mouth of the

a Fleece, b. i. 1. 693.

b When the Indians pass the promontory of Mussedum, they throw fruits and flowers into the sea, in order to secure a propitious voyage. Vide Notes to the Episode of Dashwanta and Sakuntalà, Asiat. Jour. vol. 4. 528.-At Argentoratum, now Strasburgh, a custom once prevailed of throwing human victims into wells.-Vide Schad. Descript. Templ. Argent. p. 35. Ed. 1617. C Lib. iii. od. iv. 1. 61.-iv. od. v. 1. 26.

d Southey.