little rock, which overlooks the Rhone, are three round holes, which Nature alone has formed, although it seem, at first sight, that Art has laboured after her. They say that they were formerly frequented by Fays; that they were full of water, when it rained; and that they there, frequently, took the pleasure of the bath; than which they had not one more charming.[1]
Pomponius Mela, an eminent geographer, and, in point of time, far anterior to Pliny, relates, that beyond a mountain in Æthiopia, called by the Greeks the high mountain, burning, he says, with perpetual fire, is a hill spread over a long tract by extended shores, whence they rather go to see wide plains, than to behold [the habitations] of Pans and Satyrs. Hence, he adds, this opinion received faith, that, whereas, in these parts is nothing of culture, no seats of inhabitants, no footsteps; a waste solitude in the day, and a more waste silence; frequent fires shine, by night; and
- ↑ Chorier, Recherches, &c. Oenone, in one of Ovids epistles, says—
"Edita de magno flumine Nympha fui."
See, also, Homers Odyssey, B. 13; and Porphyry De antro Nympharum. These watry nymphs were, likewise, called Naiades, others were, Oreades, &c. according to the objects to which they were attached or over which they presided.
