seize the helm and put the ship about, when as they neared the ghost, they found the absurd cause of their fright was a broken mast from some wreck, which was floating after them in an upright position. If the captain had not boldly sailed up to the supposed ghost, the story of the dead cook walking upon the water would have continued to this day to terrify half the good inhabitants of Newcastle.
Such facts as these are innumerable, and we shall mention a few more which will explain a host of stories found in various ancient and modern authors.
Ajax was so angry at the arms of Achilles being awarded to Ulysses, that he became furious, and, seeing a herd of pigs, drew his sword and fell upon them, taking them for Greeks. He next seized a couple of them and beat them cruelly, loading them at the same time with insults, imagining one of them to be Agamemnon, his judge, and the other Ulysses, his enemy. When he came to himself, he was so ashamed at what he had done, that he stabbed himself with his sword.
Theodoric, blinded by jealousy and yielding to the base solicitations of his courtiers, ordered that Symmachus, one of the most upright men of his time, should be put to death. The cruel order had hardly been executed, when the king was seized with remorse, and bitterly reproached himself with his crime. One day a new kind of fish was put upon the table, when the king suddenly cried out that he saw in the head of the fish the absolute resemblance of that of his victim. This vision had the effect of plunging the king into a state of melancholy that lasted his whole life.
Bessus once, when surrounded by his guests and giving himself up to the enjoyment of the feast, ceased suddenly to listen to the flattering speeches of his courtiers. He apparently listened with great attention to some sound that was heard by no one else, and suddenly
