Page:Encyclopædia Britannica, Ninth Edition, v. 9.djvu/517

 FOUNTAIN 485 Pausanias arc frequent, but ho gives no full descriptions. That of Pirene at Corinth (mentioned also by Herodotus) was formed of white stone, and contained a number of cells from which the pleasant water flowed into an open basin. Legend connects it with the nymph Pirene, who shed such copious tears, when bewailing her son who had been slain by Diana, that she was changed into a fountain. The city of Corinth possessed many fountains. In one near the statues of Diana and Bellerophon, the water flowed through the hoofs of the horse Pegasus. The fountain of Glauce, inclosed in the Odeum, was dedicated to Glauce, because she was said to have thrown herself therein, believing that its waters could counteract the poisons of Medea. Another Corinthian fountain had a bronze statue of Neptune stand ing on a dolphin from which the water flowed. The fountain constructed by Theagenes at Mcgara was remark able for its size and decorations, and for the number of its columns. One at Lerna was surrounded with pillars, and the structure contained a number of seats affording a cool summer retreat. Near Phanw was a grove dedicated to Apollo, and in it a fountain of water. Pausanias gives a definite architectural detail when he says that a fountain at Patrae was reached from without by descending steps. Mystical, medicinal, surgical, and other qualities, as well as supernatural origin, were ascribed to fountains. One at Cyanoe near Lycia was said to possess the quality of endow ing all persons descending into it with power to see whatever they desired to see ; while the legends of fountains and other waters with strange powers to heal are numerous in many lands. The fountain Enneacrunus at Athens was called Callirrhoe before the time the water was drawn from it by the nine pipes from which it took its later name. Two temples were above it, according to Pausanias, one dedicated to Demeter and Proserpine, and the other to Triptolemus. The fountain in the temple of Erechtheus at Athens was supplied by a spring of salt water, and a similar spring supplied that in the temple of Poseidon Hippias at Mantinea. Though no doubt most tribes of other than nomadic habits of life must have contrived, in their settlements, appliances of some kind for maintaining the supply of water constant and pure, very few remains of these have been found that possess any degree of architectural importance. Layard mentions an Assyrian fountain, found by him in a gorge of the river Gomel, which consists of a series of basins cut in the solid rock, and descending in steps to the stream. The water had been originally led from one to the other by small conduits, the lowest of which was ornamented by two rampant lions in relief. The water-supply of Rome and the works auxiliary to it were on a scale to be expected from a people of such great practical power. The remains of the aqueducts which stretched from the city across the Campagna are amongst the most striking monuments of Italy. Vitruvius (book viii.) gives minute particulars concerning the methods to be employed for the discovery, testing, and distribution of water, and describes the properties of different waters with great care, proving the importance which was attached to these matters by the Romans. The aqueducts supplied the baths and the public fountains, from which last all the populace, except such as could afford to pay for a separate pipe to their houses, obtained their water. These fountains were therefore of large size and numerous. They were formed at many of the castella of the aqueducts (see AQUEDUCT). According to Vitruvius, each casteUum should have three pipes, one for public fountains, one for baths, and the third for private houses. Considerable revenue was drawn from the possessors of private water-pipes. The Roman fountains were generally decorated with figures and heads. Fountains were often also the ornament of Roman villas and country houses ; in those so situated the water generally fell from above into a large marble basin, with at times a second fall into a still lower re ceptacle. To the remains of Pompeii we are indebted for much exact knowledge of Roman antiquity in its minutest particulars; and not the least interesting of the disin terred forms are those of the public and private fountains which the city possessed. Two adjacent Louses in Pompeii had very remarkable fountains. One, says Gell, &quot; is covered with a sort of mosaic consisting of vitrified tesserae of different colours, but in which blue predominates. These are sometimes arranged in not inelegant patterns, and the grand divisions as well as the borders are entirely formed and ornamented with real sea-shells, neither calcined by the heat of the eruption nor changed by the lapse of so many centuries &quot; (Pompeiana, i. 196). Another of large size was similarly decorated with marine shells, and is sup posed to have borne two sculptured figures, one of which, a bronze, is said to be in the museum at Naples. This fountain projects 5 feet 7 inches from the wall against which it is placed, and is 7 feet wide in front, while the height of the structure up to the eaves of the pediment is 7 feet 7 inches. On a central column in the piscina was a statue of Cupid, with a dove, from the mouth of which water issued. Cicero had, at his villa at Formioe, a fountain which was decorated with marine shells. Fountains were very common in the open spaces and at the crossways in Pompeii. They were supplied by leaden pipes from the reservoirs, and had little ornament except a human or animal head, from the mouth of which it was arranged that the water should issue. Not only did simple running fountains exist, but the remains of jets cCeau have been found ; and a drawing exists representing a vase with a double jet of water, standing on a pedestal placed in what is supposed to have been the impluvium of a house. There was also a jet d eau at the eastern end of the peristyle of the Fullonica at Pompeii. As among the Greeks, so with the early Celts, traces of superstitious beliefs and usages with relation to fountains can be traced in monumental and legendary remains. Near the village of Primaleon in Brittany was a very remarkable monument, one possibly unique, as giving distinct proof of the existence of an ancient cult of fountains. Here, according to Freminville, is a dolmen composed of a horizontal table supported by two stones only, one at each end. All the space beneath this altar is occupied by a long square basin formed of large flat stones, which receives a fountain of water. At Lochrist is another vestige of the Celtic cult of fountains. Beneath the church, and at the foot of the hill upon which it is built, is a sacred fountain, near which is erected an ancient chapel, which with its ivy-covered walls has a most roman tic appearance. A Gothic vault protects this fountain. Miraculous virtues are still attributed to its water, and on certain days the country people still come with offerings to draw it (see La Poix de Freminville, Antiqidtcs tie la Bretagne, i. 101). In the enchanted forest of Broche- lande, so famous from its connexion with Merlin, was the fountain of Baranton, which was said to possess strange characteristics. Whoever drew water from it, and sprinkled the steps therewith, produced a tremendous storm of thunder and hail, accompanied with thick dark ness. The Christian missionaries could not easily overcome beliefs so planted in the heart of the people, and so strengthened by daily practices. By a wise stroke, whether of policy or instinct, finding themselves unable to eradi cate the superstitions which ascribed miraculous power to rocks and woods, streams and fountains, and connected