The vulcano's, or, Burning and fire-vomiting mountains, famous in the world, with their remarkables collected for the most part out of Kircher's Subterraneous world, and exposed to more general view in English : upon the relation of the late wonderful and prodigious eruptions of Ætna, thereby to occasion greater admirations of the wonders of nature (and of the God of nature) in the mighty element of fire.

Vulcan's Court described.

The Court of Vulcan, call'd the Phlegraean fields heretofore; for that Hercules here overthrew the Gyants, for their inhumanity and insolencies; assisted with Lightning from Heaven:

Th' Earth with imbowell'd Flames, yet fuming glows; And Water with Fire, Sulphur mixt, upthrows.

Whereupon grew the Fable of their warring with the Godds. But hear we Petronius describing it:

A place deep sunk in yawning Cliffs, 'twixt great Dicharchea and Parthenope, repleat With black Cocytus waves: For Winds that strain To rush forth there, a deadly heat contain. Th' Earth fruits in Autumn bears not, nor glad Field Once puts on Green; or sprouting branches yield Their Vernal Songs. But Chaos and ragg'd Stone, Smircht with black Pumice, there rejoyce, o'regrown With mournful Cypress. Dis his head here raises, Cover'd with Ashes pale, and Funeral blazes.

A naked Level it is, in form of an Oval, twelve hundred forty and six foot long, a thousand broad, and invironed with high cliffie hills,

that fume on each side, and have their Sulphurous savour transport∣ed by the Winds, to places far distant. You would think, and no doubt think truly, that the hungry Fire had made this Valley with continual feeding; which breaks out in a number of places. And strange it seemeth to a stranger, that men dare walk up and down with so great a security: The Earth as hot, as sufferable, being hollow underneath; where the Fire and Water make a horrible rumbling, conjoyning together, as if one were fuel to the other: here and there bubling up, as if in a Caldron over a Fornace; And sprouting aloft into the Air, at such time as the Sea is inraged with tempests. In some places; of the colour of Water, which is ming∣led with Soot; in others, as if with Lime, according to the com∣plexion of the several Minerals. The flames do many times shift places, abandoning the old, and making new Eruptions, (the mouths of the vents invironed with yellow cinders) arising with so strong a vapour, that Stones thrown in, are forthwith ejected. Yet for all these terrors, it is hourly trod upon both by men and horses: and resorted unto by the diseased in May, June and July, who re∣ceive the fume at their mouths, ears, nostrils, and such other parts of their bodies, as are ill affected; which heateth, but hurteth not: that being only sovereign that evaporateth from Brimstone: It mol∣lifieth the sinews, sharpneth the sight, asswageth the pains of the head and stomach, makes the barren pregnant, cures violent fea∣vers, itches, ulcers, &c. From January to October, the Husband-men hereabout do stir their Glebe at such time as much smoak doth arise, and that they know that it proceedeth from Sulphur: which doth add to the soyl a marvelous fertility. From hence they exact yearly three thousand pounds weight. Another kind of Sulphur is gotten here, not taken from the Fire; but found in the Earth: of especial use for the dying of Hair, and familiarly experimented by Women. White Salt-Armoniack is here found also. At the foot of this Mountain that regardeth the East, are Minerals of Allome, and the best of the World. In the top of the Mountain are certain little veins of a white matter like Salt; much used by Skinners: whereof a Water is made, that forthwith putteth out all characters that are written in Paper. The flower of Brass is here found every where, excellent, and transparent; with white and red Niter. This place is said by the Roman Catholicks to be disquieted with Devils: and that the fire underneath, is a part of Purgatory, where departed souls have a temporal punishment. The Fryers that dwell hard

by in the Monastery of Saint January, report that they often do hear fearful shreeks and groanings. They tell also a late story of a certain youth of Apulia, a Student in Naples; who desperate in his fortunes, advised with the Devil, and was perswaded by him to make him a Deed of Gift of himself, and to write it in his own Blood; in doing whereof he should in short time recover his losses. Believing the Deluder, according to appointment he came unto this place, with that execrable Writing: when afflighted with the mul∣titudes of Devils that appear'd unto him, he fled to the aforesaid Monastery, and aquainted the Prior with all that happened, He communicated it to the Bishop, (now or late living) who informed the Pope thereof: by whose command he was cast into Prison, and after condemned to the Gallies. Possible it is that this may be true; but Damianus the reporter of that which followeth, (though a Cardinal) might have had the Whetstone, if he had not alledged his Author: who telleth of a number of hideous Birds, which ac∣customed to arise from hence on a sudden in the evening of the Sab∣bath; And to be seen until the dawning of the day, stalking on the tops of the hills, stretching out their wings, and pruning their fea∣thers; never observ'd to feed, nor to be taken by the art of the Fow∣ler: when upon the croaking of the Raven that chased them, they threw themselves into these filthy waters: Said to be damned souls, tormented all the week long, and suffered to refresh themselves on the Sabbath, in honour of our Saviour's Resurrection. This he re∣ports from the mouth of the Archbishop Umbertus. But if this be Hell, what a desperate end made that unhappy German, who nor long since slipt into these Fornaces? or what had his poor Horse com∣mitted that fell in with him, that he should be damned; at least re∣tained in Purgatory? The matter that doth nourish these Subter∣ranean Fires, is Sulphure and Bitumen. But there it is fed by the latter, where the flame doth mix with the water, which is not by water to be extinguished: approved by the composition of those Ig∣nes Admirabiles, or Admirable Waters.

Nigh hereunto are the ruines of a magnificent Amphitheater, en∣vironing in an Oval, a Court, an hundred threescore and twelve feet long, and fourscore and eight over: thrown down by an Earth∣quake not many ages since; which here happen no, seldom, by the violence of enflamed and suppressed vapours. Dedicated it was to Vulcan; and not without cause, he seeming in these parts to have such a Sovereignty. A latter relation and account we have of these

—Plains by Kercher, which we will give you also; and is as follows.