ne take and hang the root itself down from his hand,
and so carry it away. It may also be taken another way, without danger,
which is this: they dig a trench quite round about it, till the hidden
part of the root be very small, they then tie a dog to it, and when the
dog tries hard to follow him that tied him, this root is easily plucked
up, but the dog dies immediately, as if it were instead of the man that
would take the plant away; nor after this need any one be afraid of
taking it into their hands. Yet, after all this pains in getting, it
is only valuable on account of one virtue it hath, that if it be only
brought to sick persons, it quickly drives away those called demons,
which are no other than the spirits of the wicked, that enter into men
that are alive and kill them, unless they can obtain some help against
them. Here are also fountains of hot water, that flow out of this place,
which have a very different taste one from the other; for some of them
are bitter, and others of them are plainly sweet. Here are also many
eruptions of cold waters, and this not only in the places that lie
lower, and have their fountains near one another, but, what is still
more wonderful, here is to be seen a certain cave hard by, whose cavity
is not deep, but it is covered over by a rock that is prominent; above
this rock there stand up two [hills or] breasts, as it were, but a
little distant one from another, the one of which sends out a fountain
that is very cold, and the other sends out one that is very hot; which
waters, when they are mingled together, compose a most pleasant bath;
they are medicinal indeed for other maladies, but especially good for
strengthening the nerves. This place has in it also mines of sulfur and
alum.

4. Now when Bassus had taken a full view of this place, he resolved to
besiege it, by filling up the valley that lay on the east side; so he
fell hard to work, and took great pains to raise his banks as soon as
possible, and by that means to render the siege easy. As for the Jews
that were caught in this place, they separated themselves from the
strangers that were with them, and they forced those strangers, as an
otherwise useless multitude, to stay in the lower part of the city, and
undergo the principal dangers, while they themselves seized on the upper
citadel, and held it, and this both on account of its strength, and to
provide for their own safety. They also supposed they might obtain their
pardon