It is said that those eyes and tongues of serpents are only found by the
Maltese when they dig into the earth, which is whitish throughout the
island, or draw up stone, especially about the cave of St. Paul. This
stone is so soft, that, like clay, it may be cut through with any sharp
instrument, and made to receive easily different figures, for building
the walls of their houses and ramparts; but, when it has been imbibed
with a sufficient quantity of rain or well water, it changes into a
flint that resists the cutting of the sharpest instrument: whence the
houses that are built of it in the two cities, appear as hewn out of one
solid rock, and become harder, the more they are exposed to the
inclemencies of the weather. This hardness may, with good reason, be
ascribed to the salt of nitre, which contracts a certain viscidity from
the rain wherewith it is mixed, and which easily penetrates into these
stones, because their substance is spongy and cretaceous, and adheres to
the tongue as hartshorn.
It is in these stones that not only the eyes and tongues of serpents are
found, but also their viscera and other parts: as lungs, liver, heart,
spleen, ribs, and so resembling life, and with such natural colours,
that one may well doubt whether they are the work of nature or art; the
figure of the eyes and tongues is very different.
Pages:
256
257
258
259
260
261
262
263
264
265
266
267
268
269
270
271
272
273
274
275
276
277
278
279
280