233 A.D. 465. THE PBOPHECT OF MERLIN*. which will threaten mankind with death, and with its length will surround London, and will devour every one who passes by. The mountain ox will assume the head of a wolf, and will whiten his teeth in the workshop of the Severn. He will associate with himself the flocks of Albany and of Cambria, and they shall dry up the Thames, by drinking it. The ass shall call the goat a beast with a long beard, and shall change its form ; therefore the beast from the mountains shall be indignant, and having invoked the assistance of the wolf, shall become a horned bull against them ; and indulging its ferocity, it shall devour their flesh and bones, but shall be burnt itself on the top of Urianus. The ashes of its funeral pile shall be changed into swans, which shall swim on dry land, as if on a river. Fishes shall feed on fishes, and men shall devour men. But when old age comes on, they shall become lights* and shall devise submarine plots. They shall sink ships, and shall amass no small quantity of money. The Thames shall again be flooded, and, collecting all its streams, shall proceed beyond the bounds of its channel, shall bury the cities in its neighbourhood, overthrow the mountains that are in its way, and shall add to itself the spring of Galabes, full of treachery and wickedness. From that shall arise seditions exciting the Yenedoti to battle. The strength of the woods shall meet, and ehall combat with the rocks of the Gewissi ; the crow will fly with the hawks, and devour the bodies of the slain ; the ow l shall build its nest on the walls of Gloucester, and an ass shall be bred in its nest. A serpent at Malvern shall rear it, and shall teach it many tricks. Having assumed a crown, it shall ascend the high places, and with its horrid appearance1 it shall alarm the people of the country. In his days the Fachacian mountains shall shake, and the provinces shall be stripped of their groves. For there shall come a worm of fiery breath, who, with the vapour which he breathes forth, shall burn up the trees. From it there will go forth seven lions, defiled with the heads of goats ; with the foulness of his nostrils he shall corrupt the women, and shall make good women common. The father shall not know his own son, because they shall act wantonly like cattle. Therefore, the giant of wickedness shall succeed, who, with the brilliancy of * The Latin is racanatu, racanatus being, according to Ducange, a species of ragged garments, especially worn by monks.