es shall obey no shore, but overwhelm the
continents with their mountainous billows, or the fire, now chafing in
volcanic craters and smoking springs, will leap forth on the forests and
grassy meadows, wrapping all things in a winding sheet of flame, and
melting the very elements with fervid heat. Then, in the language of the
Norse prophetess, "shall the sun grow dark, the land sink in the waters,
the bright stars be quenched, and high flames climb heaven
itself."[218-2] These fearful foreboding shave[TN-9] cast their dark
shadow on every literature. The seeress of the north does but paint in
wilder colors the terrible pictures of Seneca,[219-1] and the sibyl of
the capitol only re-echoes the inspired predictions of Malachi. Well has
the Christian poet said:--

Dies irae, dies illa,
Solvet saeclum in favilla,
_Testis David cum Sibyla_.

Savage races, isolated in the impenetrable forests of another continent,
could not escape this fearful looking for of destruction to come. It
oppressed their souls like a weight of lead. On the last night of each
cycle of fifty-two years, the Aztecs extinguished every fire, and
proceeded, in solemn procession, to some sacred spot. Then the priests,
with awe and trembling, sought to kindle a new fire by friction.
Momentous was the endeavor, for did it fail, their fathers had taught
them on the morrow no sun would rise, and darkness, death, and the
waters would descend forever on this beautiful world.

The same terror inspired the Peruvians at every eclipse, for some day,
taught the Amautas, the shadow will veil the sun forever, and land,
moon, and stars will be wrapt in the vortex of a devouring conflagration
to know no regeneration; or a drought will wither every herb of the
field, suck up the waters, and leave the race to perish to the last
creature; or the moon will fall from her place in the heavens and
involve all things in her own ruin, a figure of speech meaning that the
waters would submerge the land.[220-1] In that dreadful day, thought
the Algonkins, when in anger Michabo will send a mortal pestilence to
destroy the nations, or, stamping his foot on the ground, flames will
burst forth to consume the habitable land, only a pair, or only, at
most, those who have maintained inviolate the institutions he ordained,
will he protect and preserve to inhabit the new world he will then
fabricate. Therefore they do not speak of this catastrophe as the end of
the world, but