Another wonderful thing I saw in the palace. Suspended over a rather shallow well there is a large mirror, and anyone who goes down into this well will hear every word that is spoken on earth, while, if he gazes on the mirror, he will see there every city and every nation just as clearly as though he were looking down upon them from a slight elevation. At the time I was there, I saw my native country and its inhabitants. Whether I myself was seen by them in turn, I am not sure. Lucian adds, with a fine touch of irony, “Anyone who doubts this assertion needs only to go there himself and he will find out that I speak the truth.” As no one has yet made a trip to the moon, the assertion is still uncontradicted. In their religious legends the ancient Mexicans taught that their god Tezcatlipuco had a magic mirror in which he saw everything that happened in the world.[268] He was sometimes named Necocyautl, “sower of discord,” because he often stirred up war and strife among men, but he was also lord of riches and prosperity, which he bestowed and took away again at his will. To the influence of this divinity were attributed many omens and certain strange visions, announced by repeated knockings.[269] In the Orphic poem “Lithica,” a magic sphere of stone is described. The substance is called “sideritis” or “ophitis,” and is said to be black, round, and heavy; possibly some metal, rather than a stone, is designated by these names. Helenus, the Trojan soothsayer, is said to have used this sphere to foretell the downfall of his native city. He fasted for twenty-one days and then wrapped the sphere in soft garments, like an infant, and offered sacrifices to it until, by the magic of his prayers, “a living soul warmed the precious substance.” A strange variety of divination by means of mirrors placed on the heads of boys, who, with eyes blindfolded, were supposed to perceive forms or signs of some description in the mirrors, is noted by Spartianus in his life of the Emperor Didius Julianus (ca. 133-193). This ruler is said to have resorted to this form of divination, and the boy entrusted with the task is asserted to have announced the approaching accession of Septimius Severus (146-211) and the dethronement of Didius Julianus.[270] An indication that the usage of divination by means of a silver cup existed among the primitive Hebrews has been found in the story of Joseph and his brethren. In Genesis xliv, 1-5, we read that Joseph concealed a silver cup in the sack of grain borne away by Benjamin, making of this a pretext for requiring the return of his brethren. He sent messengers to overtake them and directed them to demand the return of the cup, using these words: “Is not this it in which my lord drinketh, and whereby indeed he divineth?”