ion of the firmament and the force of the
sun, as it draws nearer or recedes in its course, that make these
diversities such as we find them in different countries and places,
through the nature of the soil and it's juices. And not only in the case
of the things mentioned, but also in that of sheep and cattle. These
diversities would not exist if the different properties of soils and
their juices were not qualified by the power of the sun.

14. For instance, there are in Boeotia the rivers Cephisus and Melas, in
Lucania, the Crathis, in Troy, the Xanthus, and certain springs in the
country of the Clazomenians, the Erythraeans, and the Laodiceans. When
sheep are ready for breeding at the proper season of the year, they are
driven every day during that season to those rivers to drink, and the
result is that, however white they may be, they beget in some places
whity-brown lambs, in other places gray, and in others black as a raven.
Thus, the peculiar character of the liquid, entering their body,
produces in each case the quality with which it is imbued. Hence, it is
said that the people of Ilium gave the river Xanthus its name because
reddish cattle and whity-brown sheep are found in the plains of Troy
near that river.

15. Deadly kinds of water are also found, which run through soil
containing a noxious juice, and take in its poisonous quality: for
instance, there is said to have been a spring at Terracina, called the
spring of Neptune, which caused the death of those who thoughtlessly
drank from it. In consequence, it is said that the ancients stopped it
up. At Chrobs in Thrace there is a lake which causes the death not only
of those who drink of it, but also of those who bathe in it. In Thessaly
there is a gushing fount of which sheep never taste, nor does any sort
of creature draw near to it, and close by this fount there is a tree
with crimson flowers.

16. In Macedonia, at the place where Euripides is buried, two streams
approach from the right and left of his tomb, and unite. By one of
these, travellers are in the habit of lying down and taking luncheon,
because its water is good; but nobody goes near the stream on the other
side of the tomb, because its water is said to be death-dealing. In
Arcadia there is a tract of land called Nonacris, which has extremely
cold water trickling from a rock in the mountains. This water is called
"Water of the Styx," and no vessel, whether of silver, bronze, or iron,
can stand