ity that they have
incited those who gazed on them to similar acts, and poetry could not
do this.

And if you write the description of certain deities the description
will not be held in the same veneration as the picture of the Deity,
because prayers and votive offerings will always be made to the
picture, and many peoples from diverse countries and from across the
Eastern seas will flock to it. And they will invoke the picture, and
not the writing, for succour. Who is he who would not lose hearing,
smell and touch rather than sight? Because he who loses his sight is
like the man who is driven from the world, because {125} he sees
neither it nor anything else any longer. And this life becomes the
sister of Death.

[Sidenote: Landscapes]

81.

I have been to see a variety of cloud effects, and lately over Milan
towards Lake Maggiore I saw a cloud in the form of a huge mountain full
of fiery scales, because the rays of the sun, which was already
reddening and close to the horizon, tinged the cloud with its own
colour. And this cloud attracted to it all the lesser clouds which
were around it; and the great cloud did not move from its place, but on
the contrary retained on its summit the light of the sun till an hour
and a half after nightfall, such was its immense size; and about two
hours after nightfall a great, an incredibly tremendous wind arose.

[Sidenote: Vegetation of a Hill]

82.

The grasses and plants will be paler in proportion as the soil which
nourishes them is leaner and devoid of moisture; the earth is leaner
and less rich in moisture on the rocks of which the mountains are
formed. And the trees will be smaller and thinner in proportion as
they are nearer to the summit of the mountain; and the soil is leaner
in proportion as it is nearer to the said summit, and it is richer in
proportion as it is nearer the hollow valleys. Therefore, O painter,
{126} thou shalt represent rocks on the summits of the mountains--for
they are composed of rocks--for the greater part devoid of soil, and
the plants which grow there are small and lean and for the greater part
withered and dry from lack of moisture, and the sandy and lean earth is
seen through the faded plants; and the small plants are stunted and
aged, exiguous in size, with short and thick boughs and few leaves;
they cover for the greater part the rust-coloured and dry roots, and
are interwoven in the strata and the fissures of the rugged roc