eion erain.] And Aristotle
alludes to practices still more shocking: as if they tore open the bodies
big with child, that they might get at the infant to devour it. _I speak_,
says he, _of people, who have brutal appetites_. [660][Greek: Lego de tas
theriodeis, hoion ten anthropon, ten legousi tas kuousas anaschizousan ta
paidia katestheein.] These descriptions are perhaps carried to a great
excess; yet the history was founded in truth: and shews plainly what
fearful impressions were left upon the minds of men from the barbarity of
the first ages.

One of the principal places in Italy, where the Lamia seated themselves,
was about Formiae; of which Horace takes notice in his Ode to AElius Lamia.

[661]AEli, vetusto nobilis ab Lamo, &c.
Authore ab illo ducis originem,
Qui Formiarum moenia dicitur
Princeps, et innantem Maricae
Littoribus tenuisse Lirim.

The chief temple of the Formians was upon the sea-coast at Caiete. It is
said to have had its name from a woman, who died here: and whom some make
the nurse of AEneas, others of Ascanius, others still of [662]Creusa. The
truth is this: it stood near a cavern, sacred to the God Ait, called Ate,
Atis, and Attis; and it was hence called Caieta, and Caiatta. Strabo says,
that it was denominated from a cave, though he did not know the precise
[663]etymology. There were also in the rock some wonderful subterranes,
which branched out into various apartments. Here the antient Lamii, the
priests of Ham, [664]resided: whence Silius Italicus, when he speaks of the
place, styles it [665]Regnata Lamo Caieta. They undoubtedly sacrificed
children here; and probably the same custom was common among the Lamii, as
prevailed among the Lacedaemonians, who used to whip their children round
the altar of Diana Orthia. Thus much we are assured by Fulgentius, and
others, that the usual term among the antient Latines for the whipping of
children was Caiatio. [666]Apud Antiquos Caiatio dicebatur puerilis caedes.

The coast of Campania seems to have been equally infamous: and as much
dreaded by mariners, as that of Rhegium, and Sicily. Here the Sirens
inhabited, who are represented, as the bane of all, who navigated those
seas. They like the Lamii were Cuthite, and Canaanitish priests, who had
founded temples in these parts; and particularly near three small islands,
to which they gave name. These temples were rendered more than ordinary
famous on account of the women, who officiate