of moisture, the tongue swelled, and at length suffocated the stricken person, while the skin which had become hard and crisp, so that it cracked, was covered with blotches. This defied the doctors' skill, they said that the only remedy was water, and yet the sky continued as blue as ever, not a wind stirred. Sacrifices had been repeatedly offered to Marnas, but there was no answer.
This day was spent in making offerings of animals whose blood streamed from the altar into the gutter or drain round it in the marble floor.
"By the Twins, Claudius!" exclaimed a young citizen of the place, catching a friend by the end of his toga, as he was passing among the columns, "I thought you had to be at the port this time of day!".
"So I have, generally," answered he turning, but these times are so changed to bad that methought I might turn in here and say a prayer to Marnas;—why my mare is dying!"
"I thought you were not much given to the gods, Claudius, at least not to our Marnas, but as you say, it behoves every honest man and citizen of Gaza, to use his best prayers, (if they are of any good,) for the sorry condition of the place. We must trust to the gods in this matter, in sickness I trust to my physician rather than to Esculapius; on a journey I give a broken wheel to be mended by a chariot maker or smith, and offer no fruitless vows to Vulcan. The gods help those who help themselves, but
