“When we come to consult thee, either thou knowest Things to come or not. If thou knowest them, why dost not thou speak so as to be understood? If thou knowest not, why dost thou pretend to it? If Things necessarily come to pass, why dost thou amuse us with Ambiguities?[[156]]”
[156]. Eusebius.
F. BALTHUS, a learned Jesuit, and F. Bouchet, say there were real Oracles, and such that can never be attributed to Priests and Priestesses; and that the Devil still gives Oracles in the Indies, and that not by Idols, which would be liable to Imposture, but by the Mouths of Priests, and By-Standers; and that the Devil becomes mute, in proportion as the Gospel prevails.——
“It is generally believed among the more Learned, that the Pagan Oracles were mere Frauds and Impostures, and calculated to serve the political Views of Princes, and covetous Ends of Pagan Priests.”
According to the learned Bayle, they were meer human Artifices; and he is seconded by Vandale and Fontenelle. But to return to the Oracle at Delphos, which was very antient and much in vogue before the Trojan War: The Situation of the Place, where People were made to believe God spoke, was at the Mouth of a certain Cavern, whence they received their Intelligence. The Prophetess sat upon a Tripodium, a three-footed Stool, assisted in her Function by divers Priests.
Under her Seat, ’tis said, that some time there appeared a Dragon, through whose Throat Responses were audibly deliver’d, with a loud and strong Voice: According to Eusebius, a Serpent rolled itself about the Tripod, on which the Priest sat.
Of all Oracles, that of Apollo Pythius at Delphos, in the Ægean Sea, was the most celebrated, and consulted as the dernier Resort by the Princes of those Times; yea, all the Greeks resorted thither for Counsel in Matters of Importance. At the first opening of that Oracular Office, Answers were given to the Querist in Verse; but upon People’s ridiculing the Poorness of the Verification, the Oracle fell to Prose. ’Tis strange, that what they made a God, could not make a good Verse, but not strange to see the old Serpent adhering to its first Scheme of Politicks, by making the weaker Vessel the Vehicle to convey his strong Delusions to the World.
Some of these Draconick Serpents excel in the Sensations of Hearing and Seeing, as well as in the Art of Killing; and therefore a Dragon was made the Conservator of their Treasures and Curiosities; e. g. Mauritania in Africa, was famous for the Gardens of the Hesperides (so called from three Sisters and Daughters of King Hesperius) that produced Golden Apples, and were guarded by a Dragon, which Hercules having killed or charm’d into a profound Sleep, he robbed the Golden Orchard.
The Rod of Moses, ’tis said, was turned into a Serpent. The Syriack, Arabick, and Septuagint Translations, say, twas turned into a Dragon; and so the Rods of the Magicians became Dragons.
XII. The Basilisk or Cockatrice, is a Serpent of the Draconick Line, the Property of Africa, says Ælian, and denied by others: In shape, resembles a Cock, the Tail excepted. Authors differ about its Extraction; the Egyptians say, it springs from the Egg of the Bird Ibis; and others, from the Eggs of a Cock: Other Conjectures about its Descent, being as ridiculous, I forbear to mention them. Nor are they agreed whether it more inclines to the black or yellow Colour; nor are their Sentiments less various about its Stature.