Having said this, the body fell again prone on the ground. The old woman concluding that the strangers were the spectators meant, ran furiously, in all the disorder of her dress, and sword in hand, to seek for them among the dead, where she imagined they had concealed themselves; determined to destroy, if she could find them, the witnesses of her abominable incantations. But while searching incautiously among the carcases, and blinded by her fury, she stumbled, and fell headlong upon a fragment of a spear stuck upright in the earth, which, piercing through her body, soon put an end to her wicked life, and quickly fulfilled the fatal prophecy of her son. [Footnote 1: See Book V.] [Footnote 2: A bird, the brains and tongue of which were highly esteemed by Roman epicures. Rich men's slaves used to take lessons in carving this, and other choice dishes, practising upon wooden models. "Sumine cum magno lepus, atque aper et pygargus, Et Scythicæ volucres, et _phœnicopterus_ ingens, Et Gætulus oryx, hebeti lautissima ferro, Cæditur, et totâ sonat ulmea cœna Suburrâ." Juv. XI. 138. Those who are curious in the matter of good eating among the ancients, may read with advantage the Feast of Trimalcio, in Petronius Arbiter, and the concluding chorus in the Ecclesiazusæ of Aristophanes.] [Footnote 3: "... ye men, ye brittle things, mere images of clay, Ye flitting leaves, ye shadowy shapes, ye creatures of a day, Poor, wingless wretched mortals ye, like nothing but a dream." Aristoph. Birds, 676. Cary's Tr. ] [Footnote 4: ".... Whiles I may 'scape I will preserve myself, and am bethought To take the basest and the poorest shape That ever penury, in contempt of man, Brought near to beast. My face I'll grime with filth; Blanket my loins; elfe all my hair in knots; And with presented nakedness, out-face The winds, and persecutions of the sky."--King Lear. ] [Footnote 5: Σαγηνεύσοντας τὴν κώμην. See Book I.] [Footnote 6: See Lucan, Book vi., 667-761, where Erichtho brings the dead to life in order to obtain a response as to the future success of Pompey.] BOOK VII. On the other hand, Calasiris and his fair companion, having been in such danger, in order to be free from their present terrors, and hastening, on account of the prophecy they had heard, continued, with diligence, their journey to Memphis. They arrived at the city at the very time when those events were being fulfilled which had been foretold in the incantation scene.[1] The citizens of Memphis had just time to shut their gates, before the arrival of Thyamis and his robber band; a soldier from the army of Mithranes, who had escaped from the battle of Bessa having foreseen, and foretold, the attempt.