Thence he returned to the town, and in the evening held further conversation with Samuel on the house-top of his dwelling. Next morning at daybreak Samuel roused his guest, and accompanied him some little way to the end of the town. There the servant was bidden to pass on, and the two being left alone the Prophet taking a phial of oil poured it on Saul’s head, and kissed him, and assured him of his election to be the first King of Israel. To this assurance he added prophetic intimations of incidents which would occur on Saul’s return homewards, and which could not fail still further to confirm him in the conviction that his sudden elevation was indeed of the Lord. Two men would meet him at Rachel’s sepulchre, and inform him that the asses were found, and that his father’s anxieties now centred on himself; at the “plain,” or rather the “oak” of Tabor (1 Sam. x. 3) he would meet three men going to Bethel carrying gifts of kids, bread, and a skin bottle of wine; they would salute him, and offer him two loaves of bread, which he was to receive at their hand; then, thirdly, on reaching _the hill of God_, probably Gibeah, where the Philistines had posted a garrison, he would meet a company of the prophets coming down from the high place with psaltery, tabret, pipe, and harp, whose inspired strains would so affect him that he would join himself to them, and be turned into another man. After the fulfilment of these three signs, he was to go to Gilgal, and there tarry seven days till Samuel’s arrival to offer sacrifices, and tell him what he should do (1 Sam. x. 8). Then the two men parted, each of the three signs came to pass, and God gave the son of Kish _another heart_. Convinced of his call to inaugurate the kingly period of Israel’s history, his soul rose to the greatness of the occasion; the strains of the prophetic choir so wrought upon his spirit that he felt inspired to join them, and his appearance in their society became the occasion of a well-known proverb, _Is Saul also among the prophets?_ (1 Sam. x. 12).