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now mourning their captivity; having been like them as itwere taken in a net. The Gods therefore seem to com-mand me to take all the care I can of them; for perad-venture the souls of the Greeks who were cast by fate onthis land, have invited me hither for their benefit. Let usthen turn out of our way, and make enquiries for thatwell,* near which, it is said, they dwell. The well is com-posed of bitumen, oil, and water, and when drawn upand poured on the ground, its component parts separate,and may be distinguished from each other. That Apollo-nius was in Cissia is witnessed by himself in his letter tothe Clazoineuian Sophist, for he was of such a mild ge-nerous disposition, that the moment he saw the Eretrians ,he put the Sophist in mind of them, and gave him an ac-count of their situation, which he afterwards referred to inhis letters. Through the whole of the epistle he exhortshim to pity the Eretrians , and not to omit shedding tearsfor them, whenever he made their condition the subjectof a declamation.
CHAP. XXIV.
THE account we are to give of the Eretrians , correspondsexactly with what Damis has written of them. Theydw'ell in the country of the Medes, not farther from Babylonthan what a speedy messenger might go in one day. Thecountry is without cities, for in Cissia are to be foundonly villages and hamlets: the wandering tribes by W'hich itis inhabited are called Nomades, who seldom or ever alightfrom their horses. That part of it occupied by theEretrians , lies in the interior of the country, and is in-