[[176]] Pietro della Valle, Voyage.
[[177]]
".... Obscurum verborum ambage nervorum
Ter novies carmen magico demurmurat ore.
Jam ciet infernas magico stridore catervas,
Jam jubet aspersum lacte referre pedem.
Cùm libet, hæc tristi depellit nubila cœlo;
Cùm libet, æstivo provocat orbe nives."
Ovid. Metamorph. 14.
[[178]]
"Naïs nam ut cantu, nimiumque potentibus herbis
Verterit in tacitos juvenilia corpora pisces."
[[179]]
"Vipereo generi et graviter spirantibus hydris
Spargere qui somnos cantuque manque solebat,"
CHAPTER XV.
OF THE PAGAN ORACLES.
If it were well proved that the oracles of pagan antiquity were the work of the evil spirit, we could give more real and palpable proofs of the apparition of the demon among men than these boasted oracles, which were given in almost every country in the world, among the nations which passed for the wisest and most enlightened, as the Egyptians, Chaldeans, Persians, Syrians, even the Hebrews, Greeks, and Romans. Even the most barbarous people were not without their oracles.
In the pagan religion there was nothing esteemed more honorable, or more complacently boasted of.
In all their great undertakings they had recourse to the oracle; by that was decided the most important affairs between town and town, or province and province. The manner in which the oracles were rendered was not everywhere the same. It is said[[180]] the bull Apis, whose worship was anciently established in Egypt, gave out his oracles on his receiving food from the hand of him who consulted. If he received it, say they, it was considered a good omen; if he refused it, this was a bad augury. When this animal appeared in public, he was accompanied by a troop of children, who sang hymns in his honor; after which these boys were filled with sacred enthusiasm, and began to predict future events. If the bull went quietly into his lodge, it was a happy sign;[[181]] if he came out, it was the contrary. Such was the blindness of the Egyptians.