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24 mortals as attempted the ascent without their permission. The nearer you approached the mountain, the more wonderful were the things you saw. For instance, there was an insect there which distilled an oil the use of which was to burn up the walls of an enemy's town with flames that could not be extinguished. Farther up a woman might be seen who was black from the head to the waist, and white from the waist to the feet, and had been so formed designedly by Nature that she might receive the worship offered to the Indian Venus. In other places there were fields of pepper-plants, cultivated by apes, and enormous serpents, which could be caught by merely placing a red rag, inscribed with certain magic characters, over the spots they usually frequented; and in the heads of these serpents there were precious stones which possessed the same virtue as the ring of Gyges. Then you came to the holy mountain: it was surrounded by a mist which could either be thickened or dissolved at the will of the wise men. As you ascended the mountain, you met with a fire which