Authors of the olden time used to puff their own works by affixing "taking titles" to them; such as "A right merrie and wittie interlude, verie pleasant to reade, &c.;" "A marvellous wittie treatise, &c.;" "A Delectable, Pithie and Righte Profitable Worke, &c." _Sibylline Books._ The Sibylline prophecies were of early Trojan descent, and the most celebrated of the Sibyls, or priestesses, plays an important part in the tales of Æneas. Her prophecies were supposed to be heard in dark caverns and apertures in rocks. They are thought by Varro to have been written upon palm leaves in Greek hexameters. They were largely circulated in the time of Crœsus, and the promises which they made of future empire to Æneas escaping from the flames of Troy into Italy, were remarkably realized by Rome. Of the nine books offered for sale by a Sibyl to Tarquinius Superbus, six were burnt, after which he purchased the remaining three for the price originally demanded for the nine. They were kept in a stone chest under ground in the temple of Jupiter Capitolinus, in the custody of certain officers, who only consulted the books at the special command of the Senate. Some Sibylline books appear to have been consulted until the tenth century. _Prophetic Almanacs._ The fame of the celebrated astrologer, Nostradamus, who prophesied minutely the death of Henry II. of France, the execution of Charles I. of England, the great fire of London, the Restoration, &c., gave such an impulse to predictions that, in 1579, Henry III. of France prohibited the insertion of any political prophecies in almanacs, a prohibition which was renewed by Louis XIII., in 1628. In the reign of Charles IX. a royal edict required every almanac to be stamped with the approval of the diocesan bishop. Prophetic almanacs still circulate to an incredible extent in the rural districts of France, and among the uneducated. The most popular of all these is the "Almanac Liègeois," a venerable remnant of superstition, first issued in 1636. It is a most convenient almanac for those who are unable to read, for by certain symbols attached to certain dates the most unlettered persons can follow its instructions. A rude representation of a phial announces the proper phase of the moon under which a draught of medicine should be taken; a pair of scissors points out the proper period for cutting hair; a lancet, for letting blood, &c. _Diaries._