“Some time after this, Typhos obtained the kingdom by fraud and force, and Osiris was banished: but during the evils arising from the tyrannical government of Typhos, some God manifestly appeared to a certain philosopher who was a stranger in Egypt, and who had received great benefits from Osiris, and ordered him to endure the present calamities, because they were months only, and not years, in which the Fates had destined that the Egyptian sceptres should raise the nails of the wild beasts[49], and depress the heads of the sacred birds[50]. But this is an arcane symbol. And the philosophic stranger above mentioned knew that a representation of this was engraved in obelisks and in the sacred recesses of the temples. The divinity also unfolded to him the meaning of the sacred sculpture, and gave him a sign of the time in which it would be verified. _For when those_, said he, _who are now in power, shall endeavour to make an innovation in our religion, then in a short time after expect that the GIANTS_ (meaning by these, men of another nation) _shall be entirely expelled, being agitated by their own avenging furies_. If, however, some remains of the sedition should still exist, and the whole should not be at once extinguished, but Typhos should still remain in the seat of government, nevertheless do not despair of the Gods. The following also is another symbol for you. _When we shall purify the air which surrounds the earth, and which is defiled with the breath of the impious, with fire and water, then the punishment of the rest will also follow, and then immediately expect a better order of things, Typhos being removed. For we expel such-like prodigies by the devastation of fire and thunder._ In consequence of this, the stranger considered that to be a felicitous circumstance, which had before appeared to him to be dreadful, and no longer bore with molestation a necessary continuance in life, through which he would be an eye-witness of the advent of the Gods; for it exceeded the power of human sagacity to conjecture, that so powerful a multitude as were then collected together in arms, and who even in time of peace were by law obliged to be armed, should be vanquished without any opposition. He considered with himself, therefore, how these things could be accomplished, for they appeared to surpass the power of reason. _But after no great length of time, a certain depraved fragment of religion, and an adulteration of divine worship, like that of money, as it were, prevailed, which the ancient law exterminated from cities, shutting the doors against impiety, and expelling it to a great distance from the walls._ Typhos, however, did not himself introduce this impiety, for he feared the Egyptian multitude, but for this purpose called in the assistance of the Barbarians, and erected a temple in the city, having previously subverted the laws of his country. When these things, therefore, came to pass, the stranger began to think that this