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Book IV Sulphur, amber, Pliny's gems, jet, bitumen, naphtha, camphor, maltha, Samothracian gem, thracius stone, obsidianus stone

Book IV Sulphur, amber, Pliny's gems, jet, bitumen, naphtha, camphor, maltha, Samothracian gem, thracius stone, obsidianus stone Page of 251 Book IV Sulphur, amber, Pliny's gems, jet, bitumen, naphtha, camphor, maltha, Samothracian gem, thracius stone, obsidianus stone Text size:minus plus Restore normal size   Mail page  Print this page
BOOK IV
75
comes to a very narrow point to the east. The shore bends a little to the north toward the peninsula which faces the west and extends thirty-two miles from Brusta to Lochsteda. Amber is cast on the shore of the penin­sula, especially around Brusta. Sometimes it is driven farther to the east by western winds, even to the shore of the country of the Curi and be­yond. A portion of this adjacent country is under the rule of the Prince of Livonia. In the same manner, an eastern wind will drive it to the west, and during northern storms it is thrown on the shore near the promontory of Friesland which extends as a narrow strip from the right side of the Vistula toward the peninsula. These same winds cast amber on the shores of Germany today, as always, at a place once inhabited by the Gotthones and Suebi, a small peninsula on which the towns of Puceca and Hela are situated, and along the shores of Pomerania. Almost all of these localities are near the mouth of the Vistula. Amber is found abundantly in Sudavia, in small quantities in Livonia and in smaller quantities in other places. Although the Germans rule all of these places which extend as far as the Narva river that separates Germany from Muscovy, the older Prussians, the Sudini, Curi and others, use a language which Cornelius Tacitus says is more closely related to that of the Britains than to ours. Many Greek words have been intermixed with it but these are used in such an untu­tored fashion that one cannot understand them unless one listens very carefully. There are about thirty villages of the Sudini who live on that portion of the peninsula near Brusta and these people today, as in the most ancient times, gather amber in small nets in the same manner as they catch fish. When they were freemen and had their own laws they gathered amber of their own free will but now as slaves under the alien laws of the Germans they, having been handed over to the holy military class, are ruled by them and are driven to their work by commands. Practical experience has taught these people the best method for collect­ing this mineral and this knowledge has been passed down from hand to hand as they say.
When Favonius, Corus or Trascias is shaken by storms at sea all the people of Sudini rush eagerly from their villages, at night as well as during the day, to the beach upon which the waves are driven by the winds. The men bring with them their nets woven from linen cord and fastened to the ends of long poles with two prongs. When spread out these nets are as long as a man's arm. The women act as helpers. When the wind dies down but with the sea still running high the men, completely naked, run into the sea in the wake of each wave and gather in their nets the amber which has been carried along the bottom. At the same time they pull up the plants, not unlike penny-royal, that grow on the bottom. They collect the amber and any plants as quickly as possible and when the next wave comes in they run for the beach where the wives empty the debris from the net and remove the seaweed and other materials. If they have children they help also. During the winter months of the year the wife warms the
Book IV Sulphur, amber, Pliny's gems, jet, bitumen, naphtha, camphor, maltha, Samothracian gem, thracius stone, obsidianus stone Page of 251 Book IV Sulphur, amber, Pliny's gems, jet, bitumen, naphtha, camphor, maltha, Samothracian gem, thracius stone, obsidianus stone
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