llow asked how he should cure his gout? The oracle coolly
said: "Drink nothing but cold water!"

The Delphic oracle, and some of the others, used for a long time to give
their answers in verses. At last, however, irreverent critics of the
period made so much fun of the peculiarly miserable style of this
poetry, that the poor oracle gave it up and came down to plain prose.
Every once in a while some energetic and cunning man, of skeptical
character, insisted on having just such an answer as he wanted. It was
well known that Philip of Macedon bought what responses he wished at
Delphi. Anybody with plenty of money, who would quietly "see" the
priests, could have such a response as he chose. Or, if he was a
bull-headed, hard-fisted, fighting-man, of irreligious but energetic
mind, the priests gave him what he wished, out of fear. When
Themistocles wanted to encourage the Greeks against the Persians, he
"fixed" Delphi by bribes. When Alexander the Great came to consult the
same oracle, the Pythia was disinclined to perform. But Alexander rather
roughly gave her to understand that she must, and she did. The Greek and
Roman oracles finally all gave out not far from the time of Christ's
coming, having gradually become more or less disreputable for many
years.

All the heathen nations, as I have said, had their oracles too. The
heathen Scandinavians had a famous one at Upsal. The Getae, in Scythia,
had one. The Druids had them; so did the Mexican priests. The Egyptian
and Syrian divinities had them; in short, oracles were quite as
necessary as mysteries, and continue so in heathen religions. The only
exception, I believe, is in Mohammedanism, whose votaries save
themselves any trouble about the future by their thorough fatalism. They
believe so fully and vividly that everything is immovably predestinated,
being at the same time perfectly sure of heaven at last, that they
quietly receive everything as it comes, and don't take the least trouble
to find out how it is coming.

The Sibyls were women, supposed to be inspired by some divinity, who
prophesied of the future. Some say there was but one; some two, three,
four, or ten. All sorts of obscure stories are told about the time and
place of their activity. There was the Persian or Chaldean, who is said
to have foretold with many details the coming and career of Christ; the
Lybian, the Delphic, the Cumaean, much honored by the Romans, and half a
dozen more. Then there was Mantho