Well, as I say, Alexander made predictions and
gave oracles, employing great shrewdness in it and
combining guesswork with his trickery. He gave
responses that were sometimes obscure and ambiguous, sometimes downright unintelligible, for
this seemed to him in the oracular manner. Some
people he dissuaded or encouraged as seemed best
to him at a guess. To others he prescribed medical
treatments and diets, knowing, as I said in the
beginning, many useful remedies. His “cytmides”
were in highest favour with him—a name which he
had coined for a restorative ointment compounded
of bear’s grease. It is a nice question whether this reading or that of the other group of MSS., “goat’s grease,” is to be preferred. Galen in his treatment of these ointments (Kuhn xiii, p. 1008) does not mention bear’s grease. But he considers goat’s grease only moderately good; and every Yankee knows that in America bear’s grease only gave place to goose grease (also mentioned by Galen) when bears became scarce. Expectations, however, and




 

advancements and successions to estates he always
put off to another day, adding: “It shall all come
about when I will, and when Alexander, my prophet,
asks it of me and prays for you.”