CHAP. XCIII.
¶ Of the strange wonders of the land. [unspec B]
FOr let vs speake no more of Earthquakes, and whatsoeuer else of that kind, as of graues and sepulchres of cities buried, and extant to be seen; but discourse we rather of the wonders, than the mischiefes wrought by Nature in the earth. And surely the story of coelestiall things was not more hard to be declared: the wèalth is such of mettals and mines, in such va∣rietie, so rich, so fruitfull, rising still one vnder another for so many ages, notwithstanding dai∣ly there is so much wasted and consumed throughout the world, with fires, ruines, shipwrecks, wars, and fraudulent practises: yea and so much spent in ryot and superfluous vanities, that it is infinite: yet see how many sorts of jemmes there be still, so painted and set out with colors? in precious stones what varieties of sundry colours, and how bespotted are they: and amongst [unspec C] them behold the brightnesse and white hue of some, excluding all else but onely light! The vertue and power of medicinable fountaines: the wonderfull burning so many hundred yeres together of fire issuing forth in so many places: the deadly dampes and exhalations in some places, either sent out of pits when they are sunke, or else from the very natiue seat and positi∣on of the ground; present death in one place to the birds and foules of the aire only (as at So∣racte, in a quarter neere the city:) in other, to all other liuing creatures saue only man: yea and sometimes to men also, as in the territories of Sinuessa and Puteoli. Which damp holes brea∣thing out a deadly aire some call Charoneae Scrobes, i. Charons ditches. Likewise in the Hirpines land, that of Amsanctus, a caue neere vnto the temple of Nephites, wherinto as many as enter dy presently. After the like manner at Hierapolis in Asia there is another such, hurting all that [unspec D] come to it, except the priest of Cybele, the great mother of the gods. In other places there be al∣so caues and holes of a propheticall power; by the exhalation of which men are intoxicate and as it were drunken, and so foretell things to come, as at Delphi that most renowned Oracle. In all which things what other reason can any mortall man make, than the diuine power of Na∣ture, diffused and spred through all, which breaketh forth at times in sundry sorts.