Why Haue They Not Imagined The Same To Be In The Mountaines Of Ephesus, Which Being Touched With A Burning

Torch, are reported to conceiue so much fire, that the very stones & sand lying in the water are caused to

Burne, & from the which (a staffe being burnt vpon them, & trailed after a man on the ground) there proceede whole riuers of fire, as Plinie testifieth? Why not in Cophantrus a mountaine of Bactria, alwayes burning in the night? Why not in the Isle of Hiera, flaming in the midst of the sea? Why not in Aeolia in old time likewise burning for certaine daies in the midst of the sea? Why not in the field of Babylon burning in the day season? Why not in the fields of Aethiopia glittering alwaies like stars in the night? Why not in the hill of Lipara opening with a wide and bottomlesse gulfe (as Aristotle beareth record) whereunto it is dangerous to approch in the night: from whence the sound of Cymbals and the noyse of rattles, with vnwonted and vncouth laughters are heard? Why not in the field of Naples, neare vnto Puteoli? Why not in the Pike of Teneriffa before mentioned, like Aetna continually burning and casting vp stones into the aier, as Munster himselfe witnesseth? Why not in that Aethiopian hill, which Plinie affirmeth to burne more then all the former? And to conclude, why not in the mountaine of Vesuuius, which (to the great damage of al the countrey adioyning, & to the vtter destruction of Caius Plinius prying into the causes of so strange a fire) vomiting out flames as high as the clouds, filling the aire with great abundance of pumistones, and ashes, & with palpable darknesse intercepting the light of the sunne from al the region therabout? I wil speake, & yet speake no more then the truth: because in deede they foresaw, that men would yeeld no credite to those things as being too well knowen, though they should haue feined them to haue beene the flames of hell: but they thought the burning of Hecla (the rumour whereof came more slowly to their eares) to be fitter for the establishing of this fond fable. But get ye packing, your fraud is found out: leaue off for shame hereafter to perswade any simple man, that there is a hel in mount Hecla. For nature hath taught both vs & others (maugre your opinion) to acknowledge her operations in these fire workes, not the fury of hell. But now let vs examine a few more such fables of the common people, which haue so vnhappily misledd our historiographers & cosmographers.

SECTIO OCTAUA.

[Sidenote: Frisius Zieglerus, Olauus Magn.] Iuxta hos montes (tres pradictos Heclam, &c.) sunt tres hiatus immanes, quorum altitudinem apud montem Heclam potissimum, ne Lynceus quidem perspicere queat: Sed apparent ipsum inspicientibus, homines primum submersi, adhuc spiritum exhalantes, qui amicis suis, vt ad propria redeant, hortantibus, magnis suspirijs se ad montem Heclam proficisci debere respondent: Sicque subito euanescunt.

Ad confirmandum superius mendacium de Inferno terrestri ac visibili, commentum hoc, non minus calumniosum (etsi facile largiar, Frisium non tam calumniandi, quam noua & inaudita pradicandi animo ista scripsisse) quam falsum ac gerris Siculis longe vanius ac detestabilius, excogitarunt homines ignaui, nec coelum ec infernum scientes.

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