a method of looking into futurity, and of ascertaining,
as they imagined, by supernatural means, the course of future events,
which was peculiar to that people; at least no other nation seems ever
to have practiced it in the precise form which prevailed among them.
It was by means of the oracles. There were four or five localities in
the Grecian countries which possessed, as the people thought, the
property of inspiring persons who visited them, or of giving to some
natural object certain supernatural powers by which future events
could be foretold. The three most important of these oracles were
situated respectively at Delphi, at Dodona, and at the Oasis of
Jupiter Ammon.

Delphi was a small town built in a sort of valley, shaped like an
amphitheater, on the southern side of Mount Parnassus. Mount Parnassus
is north of the Peloponnesus, not very far from the shores of the Gulf
of Corinth. Delphi was in a picturesque and romantic situation, with
the mountain behind it, and steep, precipitous rocks descending to
the level country before. These precipices answered instead of walls
to defend the temple and the town. In very early times a cavern or
fissure in the rocks was discovered at Delphi, from which there issued
a stream of gaseous vapor, which produced strange effects on those who
inhaled it. It was supposed to inspire them. People resorted to the
place to obtain the benefit of these inspirations, and of the
knowledge which they imagined they could obtain by means of them.
Finally, a temple was built, and a priestess resided constantly in it,
to inhale the vapor and give the responses. When she gave her answers
to those who came to consult the oracle, she sat upon a sort of
three-legged stool, which was called the sacred tripod. These stools
were greatly celebrated as a very important part of the sacred
apparatus of the place. This oracle became at last so renowned, that
the greatest potentates, and even kings, came from great distances to
consult it, and they made very rich and costly presents at the shrine
when they came. These presents, it was supposed, tended to induce the
god who presided over the oracle to give to those who made them
favorable and auspicious replies. The deity that dictated the
predictions of this oracle was Apollo.

There was another circumstance, besides the existence of the cave,
which signalized the locality where this oracle was situated. The
people believed that this spot was the exact