At the time of the death of the Hindoo Saviour _Crishna_, there came calamities and bad omens of every kind. A black circle surrounded the moon, _and the sun was darkened at noon-day_; the sky rained fire and ashes; flames burned dusky and livid; demons committed depredations on earth; at sunrise and sunset, thousands of figures were seen skirmishing in the air; spirits were to be seen on all sides.[207:1] When the conflict began between _Buddha_, the Saviour of the World, and the Prince of Evil, _a thousand appalling meteors fell; clouds and darkness prevailed_. Even this earth, with the oceans and mountains it contains, though it is unconscious, _quaked like a conscious being_--like a fond bride when forcibly torn from her bridegroom--like the festoons of a vine shaken under the blast of a whirlwind. The ocean rose under the vibration of this earthquake; rivers flowed back toward their sources; peaks of lofty mountains, where countless trees had grown for ages, rolled crumbling to the earth; a fierce storm howled all around; the roar of the concussion became terrific; _the very sun enveloped itself in awful darkness, and a host of headless spirits filled the air_.[207:2] When _Prometheus_ was crucified on Mount Caucasus, _the whole frame of nature became convulsed_. The earth did quake, thunder roared, lightning flashed, the wild winds rent the vexed air, the boisterous billows rose, and the dissolution of the universe seemed to be threatened.[207:3] The ancient Greeks and Romans, says Canon Farrar,[207:4] had always considered that the _births_ and _deaths_ of great men were announced by _celestial signs_. We therefore find that at the death of _Romulus_, the founder of Rome, the sun was darkened, _and there was darkness over the face of the earth for the space of six hours_.[207:5] When _Julius Cæsar_, who was the son of a god, was murdered, there was a darkness over the earth, _the sun being eclipsed for the space of six hours_.[207:6] This is spoken of by _Virgil_, where he says: "He (the Sun) covered his luminous head with a sooty darkness, And the impious ages feared eternal night."[207:7] It is also referred to by Tibullus, Ovid, and Lucian (poets), Pliny, Appian, Dion Cassius, and Julius Obsequenes (historians.)[207:8] When _Æsculapius_ the Saviour was put to death, _the sun shone dimly from the heavens_; the birds were silent in the darkened groves; the trees bowed down their heads in sorrow; and the hearts of all the sons of men fainted within them, because the healer of their pains and sickness lived no more upon the earth.[208:1]