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THE RISTASAMUCOAYA
Christ himself had also predicted that a nation would rise in revolt against a nation. There would be eclipses and earthquakes, terrors and tyrannies and famines and epidemics and many uncommon signs will be manifest in the sky. The 5 prophecy came out perfectly true. The year 65 saw the terrors of an epidemic in Rome and in the same year a great conflagration burnt Lyons. Famine visited the land in 68 and the flood from Tiber devastated the land in 69. The cyclones and the tornadoes took heavy toll of humanity in Campania. It seemed that nature was out of hinge everywhere. A belief that a Messianic kingdom was soon to come took firm root in the minds of the public by these omens and portents as well as by the hiding of the sun and moon and the waving of swords in the sky'. These perversities of nature prognosticated to the jews the appearance of a Messiah for many centuries after Christ. These and the similar interpretations and explanations were current till the Middle Ages. Cromwell's death was heralded by a storm and dangerous omens foretold the fast approaching death of Charlie Mapie.
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(IV) BIRDS: Foretelling through birds is not only referred to in classical cultures, but the practice of interpreting omens and portents through them can be traced back to primitive times also. (1) Crow: With the Romans the crow was an inauspicious bird. English villager took the croaking of a crow 26 as an index to trouble.
(2) Raven: In some countries it is believed that the raven is present where there is a dead body, while in other it is believed that its cry meant ill luck. In rustic England raven has always been taken as a symbol of bad luck. In 30 the western part of Africa also a similar notion is prevalent where the raven is condemned as a man-eater. It is also believed there that an efficient magic medicine can also be
appear crowns, swords and the streaks of blood, fantastic forms of clouds in time of heat with traces of battles or strange beasts, drew eager attention and seemed never to have been so vivid in these tragic years. All the talk was of showers of blood, of wonderful thunderbolts, of rivers flowing upstream or of bloody torrents.. A thousand things not noticed in ordinary times came to have a high importance in the feverish excitement of the public mind."
RENAN, ACh, chap. XIV.
1 G. F. FISHER, The Beginnings of Christianity, Edin., 1878, p. 250. 2 RENAN, ACh, chap. XIV.
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