; save one, which having seldom or never any rain, but only dews, which would soon be spent in a great fire, slighted her power: The Empress being desirous to make it stoop as well as the rest, knew that every year it was watered by a flowing tide, which lasted some weeks; and although their houses stood high from the ground, yet they were built upon supporters which were fixed into the ground. Wherefore she commanded both her Bird- and Worm-men to lay some of the fire-stones at the bottom of those supporters, and when the tide came in, all their houses were of a fire, which did so rarify the water, that the tide was soon turned into vapour, and this vapour again into air; which caused not only a destruction of their houses, but also a general barrenness over all their country that year, and forced them to submit, as well as the rest of the world had done.