Page:Africa by Élisée Reclus, Volume 2.djvu/32

 the populations of the uplands on whom they depended for their supplies; here also they found a fertile soil, abundance of timber, and especially a copious fountain, whence the city itself took its name, and which, like the marine station, was consecrated to Apollo.

In the eyes of the natives the chief glory of the ruined city is still this perennial source welling up at the foot of the cliffs. Hence Krennah, the little-used Arabic form of Cyrene, has been replaced by the expression Ain-esh-Shehad, the "eternal spring," which has also been applied to the surrounding district. Nevertheless the quantity of water has diminished not only since ancient times, but even since the beginning of the century, as is sufficiently evident from the marks left

on the rock above the present level of the stream. The cliff whence it flows to the surrounding thickets had been carved into the shape of a wall, on the white surface of which are still visible the traces of the roof of a temple, which sheltered the stream at its outlet in the mountain. The gallery whence it escapes has been artificially excavated for a distance of about 440 yards; but Europeans were long prevented from entering it by the natives, who pretended that it led to a wheel set with knives continually revolving, and guarding the approach to a treasure. Besides the great fountain associated with the myth of Cyré, daughter of the king of the Lapithæ, Cyrene possessed other springs, such as that by the Arabs now called Bu-Gadir, or "Father of Verdure," which flows through a wooded dale