"Did who answer their questions?"
"The oh, to be sure," said Ellen, "there were no such gods. But what made people think they answered them? and how could they ask questions?"
"I suppose it was a contrivance of the priests, to increase their power and wealth. There was always a temple built near, with priests and priestesses; the questions were put through them; and they would not ask them except on great occasions, or for people of consequence, who could pay them well, by making splendid gifts to the god."
"But I should think the people would have thought the priest or priestess had made up the answers themselves."
"Perhaps they did, sometimes. But people had not the Bible then, and did not know as much as we know. It was not unnatural to think the gods would care a little for the poor people that lived on the earth. Besides, there was a good deal of management and trickery about the answers of the oracle, that helped to deceive."
"How was it?" said Ellen; "how could they manage, and what was the oracle?"
"The oracle was either the answer itself, or the god who was supposed to give it, or the place where it was given; and there were different ways of managing. At one place the priest hid himself in the hollow body or among the branches of an oak-tree, and people thought the tree spoke to them. Sometimes the oracle was delivered by a woman, who pretended to be put into a kind of fit tearing her hair and beating her breast."
"But suppose the oracle made a mistake what would the people think then?"
"The answers were generally contrived so that they would seem to come true in any event."
"I don't see how they could do that," said Ellen.