Page:Folk-lore - A Quarterly Review. Volume 13, 1902.djvu/142

 128 Storms will raise the sand in sandy places and will cover men until they be suffocated. A total eclipse of the sun will envelop the whole world in darkness, and the moon will appear ruddy and dark. All the nations will be seized with ignorance and doubt. The Saracen will relinquish his synagogues and "mahummerries." A mighty emperor will die seven months after the eclipse. The sea will overflow its border, and the winds will blow so strongly that no ship will be able to withstand their force. Trees will be uprooted and houses overthrown. The only way to escape will be to go into the open plain and to build houses of wooden beams, covering them with earthy and taking care to be far away from trees, so that they should not fall upon these habitations and crush them. Daniel had already foreseen the coming forth of the Ishmaelites at the end of the sixth sign of the centuries (sic), who would cause widespread misery and confusion. Many Christian nations would be delivered into their hands, because of their sins. The Ishmaelites will conquer and subdue Greece, Gallia, Hispania, Germania, Aquitania, the Islands of the Sea, even Jerusalem and the Land of Promise. (The cruelties to be perpetrated by the Ishmaelites when they break forth from the desert are then minutely described.) Their power will be the greatest in Spain, and they will go about decked in silver and gold and covered with precious stones. The elect of the Christians will then appear, and will show by their sufferings and martyrdom their steadfast adherence to their faith. God will then remember His promise and free them from the yoke of the Saracens. A Roman emperor will then be raised anew, who will smite the Ishmaelites with the edge of the sword and drive them away. In Persia, Egypt, and Spain he will visit on them their iniquities sevenfold, and peace will reign in the lands of the Christians. Then will appear the two nations Gog and Magog, and divide Asia among themselves. The frightened inhabitants will hide in the crevices of the mountains and in caverns.