Thus it was that the tidings of strange sails and bearded white men on their eastern border were received at the gay capital with mingled fear and joy. And marvel-mongers went about the streets talking of the good Quetzalcoatl and his pedigree, of the signs and wonders that had been seen, the prodigies, oracles, and occult divinations, as in ancient Athens the old families of Olympus, with their ape-gods and bull-gods of Memphis, and the dog-headed monster Anubis, were discussed; and as for Rome, Lucan has recorded no omens which the sages of Mexico could not now match. To what extent the Spanish chroniclers have assisted the natives in the manufacture of marvels I leave the reader to judge, simply recommending to his consideration the accompanying lengthy note; neither, however, fell into the madness of Canute, who chose the time the tide was rising, instead of when it was falling, to order the stay of waters. It was not alone in Mexico, but in distant parts, and on the islands, that man and nature were thus annoyed by the supernatural. There were found predictions centuries old, by priests widely separated, and the poems of wise men, all pointing in the one direction. The destruction of towns was predicted by a philosopher; the famine of 1505 spoke more plainly than words; Popocatepetl, choked by consternation, failed to emit his smoke for twenty days, which, however, was a good omen; an eclipse and an earthquake near together and the drowning of eighteen hundred soldiers were decidedly unfavorable. Most terrible of all, however, were a three-headed comet in open day, a pyramidal light at night, and other portentous scenes, such as the furious uprising of the lake, the awakening of the dead, and visits to the spirit world.[140] To us the most wonderful part of it is, not the wonders themselves, but that it should so happen, if indeed it did, that these fearful forebodings, running back for generations, should all converge toward the coming of the brethren of Quetzalcoatl at the very time the Spaniards appeared, and that the latter should be in so many respects as the good gods themselves were to have been. The prophecies of Isaiah are dim indeed and unfathomable as compared with these. To what end are signs that cannot be interpreted until after the occurrence, as is generally the case, when their interpretation is not needed, sages do not say. But in this instance the testimony is abundant and explicit that many of these prodigies were at the time received, not only by Montezuma and his people, but by the neighboring nations, as the distinct announcement of the coming of the gods, who did in good truth appear at the proper time in the person of the Spaniards. And what should be their doom, those stupid and profane men of Potonchan and Tabasco, who had raised their hands against these heavenly messengers!