can change the colours of the animals that drink at them;
that others can turn wood dropped into them to stone. The human reason
is altogether unable to understand such things as these.

[Footnote 567: 'In Scyllatino territoris.' Transcribers, thinking of
the Arethusa at Syracuse, have tried to alter this into _Siciliano_;
but there can be little doubt that the above reading is right. As to
the situation of the Fountain of Arethusa, see Introduction, p. 72.]

'But let us return to the complaint of our suppliant. Nimfadius
asserts that, while he was resting, the country people artfully drove
off his beasts of burden.

'This kind of crime brings our times into disgrace, and turns the
charm of that quiet resting-place into disgust. Diligently enquire
into it, for the credit of our Comitatus is involved in our subjects
being able to journey to it in safety. At first, no doubt, the
offenders will lie close, and seem as silent as the unmoved Arethusa.
But begin your investigations, and they will soon break forth, like
that fountain, with angry exclamations, in the midst of which you will
discover the truth. Punish the offenders severely; for we should
regret that owing to the excesses of robbers that wonderful and
joy-bringing fountain should be deserted.'

33. KING ATHALARIC TO SEVERUS, VIR SPECTABILIS.

[Sidenote: The Feast of St. Cyprian.]

'We hear that the rustics are indulging in disorderly practices, and
robbing the market-people who come from all quarters to the chief fair
of Lucania on the day of St. Cyprian. This must by all means be
suppressed, and your Respectability should quietly collect a
sufficient number of the owners and tenants of the adjoining
farms[568] to overpower these freebooters and bring them to justice.
Any rustic or other person found guilty of disturbing the fair should
be at once punished with the stick[569], and then exhibited with some
mark of infamy upon him[570].

[Footnote 568: 'Spectabilitas vestra praedicto tempore, una cum
Possessoribus atque Conductoribus diversarum massarum ad quietem
convenientium ... reos inveniat,' &c.]

[Footnote 569: 'Inter ipsa initia comprehensus fustuariae subdatur
ultioni.']

[Footnote 570: 'Pompatus mala nota.']

'This fair, which according to the old superstition was named
Leucothea [after the nymph], from the extreme purity of the fountain
at which it is held, is the greatest fair in all the surrounding
country. Everything that industrious Ca