uld not take my eyes from it, and I heartily wished I had an
Omen-book with me to tell me what it might mean.

When there were oracles on earth, before Pan died, this sight would
have been of the utmost use. For I should have consulted the oracle
woman for a Lira--at Biasca for instance, or in the lonely woods of
the Cinder Mountain; and, after a lot of incense and hesitation, and
wrestling with the god, the oracle would have accepted Apollo and,
staring like one entranced, she would have chanted verses which,
though ambiguous, would at least have been a guide. Thus:

_Matutinus adest ubi Vesper, et accipiens te
Saepe recusatum voces intelligit hospes
Rusticus ignotas notas, ac flumina tellus
Occupat--In sancto tum, tum, stans
Aede caveto Tonsuram Hirsuti
Capitis, via namque pedestrem
Ferrea praeveniens cursum, peregrine, laborem
Pro pietate tua inceptum frustratur, amore
Antiqui Ritus alto sub Numine Romae._

LECTOR. What Hoggish great Participles!

AUCTOR. Well, well, you see it was but a rustic oracle at 9 3/4 d. the
revelation, and even that is supposing silver at par. Let us translate
it for the vulgar:

When early morning seems but eve And they that still refuse receive:
When speech unknown men understand; And floods are crossed upon dry
land. Within the Sacred Walls beware The Shaven Head that boasts of
Hair, For when the road attains the rail The Pilgrim's great attempt
shall fail.

Of course such an oracle might very easily have made me fear too much.
The 'shaven head' I should have taken for a priest, especially if it
was to be met with 'in a temple'--it might have prevented me entering
a church, which would have been deplorable. Then I might have taken it
to mean that I should never have reached Rome, which would have been a
monstrous weight upon my mind. Still, as things unfolded themselves,
the oracle would have become plainer and plainer, and I felt the lack
of it greatly. For, I repeat, I had certainly received an omen.

The road now neared the end of the lake, and the town called Capo di
Lago, or 'Lake-head', lay off to my right. I saw also that in a very
little while I should abruptly find the plains. A low hill some five
miles ahead of me was the last roll of the mountains, and just above
me stood the last high crest, a precipitous peak of bare rock, up
which there ran a cog-railway to some hotel or other. I passed through
an old town under the now rising heat; I passed a c