in silver mines ; it creeps unobserved and brings destruction upon those
who imprudently sit on it. But, as the same writer tells us, springs of warm
and salubrious waters gush out in certain places, which neutralise the venom
inserted by the ants.
In some of our mines, however, though in very few, there are other
pernicious pests. These are demons of ferocious aspect, about which I have
spoken in my book De Animantibus Subterraneis. Demons of this kind
are expelled and put to flight by prayer and fasting.26
Some of these evils, as well as certain other things, are the reason why
pits are occasionally abandoned. But the first and principal cause is that
they do not yield metal, or if, for some fathoms, they do bear metal they
become barren in depth. The second cause is the quantity of water which
flows in ; sometimes the miners can neither divert this water into the
tunnels, since tunnels cannot be driven so far into the mountains, or they
cannot draw it out with machines because the shafts are too deep ; or if they
could draw it out with machines, they do not use them, the reason
undoubtedly being that the expenditure is greater than the profits of a
moderately poor vein. The third cause is the noxious air, which the owners
sometimes cannot overcome either by skill or expenditure, for which reason
the digging issometimes abandoned, not only of shafts, but also of tunnels. The
fourth cause is the poison produced in particular places, if it is not in our
power either completely to remove it or to moderate its effects. This is the
reason why the caverns in the Plain known as Laurentius27 used not to be
2*The presence of demons or gnomes in the mines was so general a belief that Agricola
fully accepted it. This is more remarkable, in view of our author's very general scepticism
regarding the supernatural. He, however, does not classify them all as bad—some being
distinctly helpful. The description of gnomes of kindly intent, which is contained in the
last paragraph in De Animantibus is of interest :—
" Then there are the gentle kind which the Germans as well as the Greeks call cobalos,
" because they mimic men. They appear to laugh with glee and pretend to do much, but
" really do nothing. They are called little miners, because of their dwarfish stature, which
" is about two feet. They are venerable looking and are clothed like miners in a filleted
" garment with a leather apron about their loins. This kind does not often trouble the miners,
" but they idle about in the shafts and tunnels and really do nothing, although they pretend to
" be busy in all kinds of labour, sometimes digging ore, and sometimes putting into buckets
" that which has been dug. Sometimes they throw pebbles at the workmen, but they rarely
" injure them unless the workmen first ridicule or curse them. They are not very dissimilar
" to Goblins, which occasionally appear to men when they go to or from their day's work, or
" when they attend their cattle. Because they generally appear benign to men, the Germans
" call them guidi. Those called trulli, which take the form of women as well as men, actually
" enter the service of some people, especially the Suions. The mining gnomes are especially
" active in the workings where metal has already been found, or where there are hopes of
" discovering it, because of which they do not discourage the miners, but on the contrary
" stimulate them and cause them to labour more vigorously."
The German miners were not alone in such beliefs, for miners generally accepted
them—even to-day the faith in " knockers " has not entirely disappeared from Cornwall.
Neither the sea nor the forest so lends itself to the substantiation of the supernatural as does
the mine. The dead darkness, in which the miners' lamps serve only to distort every shape,
the uncanny noises of restless rocks whose support has been undermined, the approach of
danger and death without warning, the sudden vanishing or discovery of good fortune, all
yield a thousand corroborations to minds long steeped in ignorance and prepared for the
miraculous through religious teaching.
17The Plains of Laurentius extend from the mouth of the Tiber southward—say
twenty miles south of Rome. What Agricola's authority was for silver mines in this region we
cannot discover. This may, however, refer to the lead-silver district of the Attic Peninsula,
Laurion being sometimes Latinized as Laurium or Laurius.
