18 THE HISTORY OF HERODOTVS.

Savour has reached my sense from afar of a strong- skinned tortoise Simmering, mixed together with flesh of lamb, in a caldron ; Brazen the bed is beneath, and brazen the coverlet over." Croesus, when he received this answer, judged the god of Delphi to be the wisest, since he alone could tell exactly what he was doing for he had been cooking the flesh of a tortoise, mixed with lamb's flesh, in a brass caldron with a brass lid. Accordingly he sent rich presents to the shrine of Apollo, and ordered all his sub- jects to pay him especial honours. Thus having satis- fied himself that this oracle at least was true, he next sent to inquire if he should go to war with the Per- sians. The answer was, that if he did so "he would ruin a great empire;" at which answer Croesus rejoiced greatly, for he expected to destroy the empire of the Persians. He sent a third time and inquired of the oracle if his reign would be long] And the oracle answered : " When it shall come to pass that the Medes have a mule for monarch, Lydian, tender of foot, then along by the pebbles of Hermus Flee, and delay not then, nor shame thee to quail as a coward." Crossus rejoiced still more when he heard this, for he thought that, as a mule could never reign over men, the rule of himself and his descendants would never come to an end. His next step, still under the advice of the oracle, was to make friends of the most powerful Greek states. At this point Herodotus, having wound his readers up to the expectation of a catastrophe, like some