5 
 J70 
 
 886 
 
 E SIBYL AND THE DREAM OF 
 ONE HUNDRED SUNS: 
 
 AN OLD APOCRYPHON. 
 
 BY 
 
 M. GASTER. 
 
 [From thy JOUKNAI. or TIIK ROYAT. ASIATIC SOCIKTV, July, 1910.1
 
 XIV 
 
 THE SIBYL AND THE DREAM OF ONE HUNDRED SUNS 
 AN OLD APOCEYPHON 
 
 BY M. GASTEB 
 
 TN addition to the more or less accredited ancient 
 Sibylline oracles, others circulated, under the name of 
 the one or the other of the Sibyls, which also claimed to be 
 of equal authority. The name was a recommendation for 
 a special kind of apocalyptic literature, and the example 
 set of old of foretelling the future was thereby continued 
 for many centuries. The character of this Sibylline Oracle 
 was akin to some of the old Apocalypses, in which the 
 future was revealed in a symbolical form, and the events to 
 come foretold by allegories and signs, which were inter- 
 preted by the Sibyl as by one of the prophets of old. By 
 connecting such apocalyptic revelations with some ancient 
 name and ascribing to men or women of the past works 
 composed at a much later time, these compositions entered 
 into the domain of that apocryphal Christian literature 
 which made use of old formulas for disseminating new 
 teaching and thus prepared the mind of the people for 
 untoward incidents. These oracles were soon drawn into 
 the cycle of the Doomsday ; the legends of Antichrist and 
 of the Last Judgment were incorporated with the older 
 oracle ; and thus an oracle which originally may have 
 been a mere forecast of purely political events became 
 a religious manifesto, a prophetic pronouncement on the 
 course of events, leading up to the final drama. 
 
 Such an apocryphal oracle was then ascribed to the Sibyl 
 of Tibur. This was one of the best known among the 
 nations of Europe and has been preserved in two ancient 
 Latin versions, known as the Sibyl of Beda, one, however, 
 dependent upon the other. According to the researches
 
 610 THE SIBYL AND THE DREAM OF ONE HUNDRED SUNS 
 
 of Sackur, it had assumed its last form in the ninth 
 century, though its origin must be much older and is to 
 be sought in the East. The most prominent feature in 
 this oracle is a dream seen by one hundred noblemen on 
 one and the same night, in which they saw seven or 
 nine suns appearing on the horizon, each one distinguished 
 from the other by some peculiarity. The Sibyl is called 
 upon to explain the dream and what the seven or nine 
 suns portend. This symbolical multiplication of the sun 
 and its diverse aspects and manifestations, by which the 
 future was to be foretold, and which required an expert 
 interpreter, is of Oriental origin. Important events in 
 the life of men and nations have often been connected 
 with wonderful apparitions and signs in the skies. The 
 appearance of the star which led the Magi from the East 
 to the cave in Bethlehem is only one of numerous similar 
 examples in Oriental literature. The Rabbinical literature 
 knows of a brilliant star appearing at the birth of 
 Abraham ; and of four stars fighting, three of which 
 were swallowed up by one at the birth of Moses. In 
 both cases astrologers are called in to interpret their 
 significance in the one case to Nimrod, in the other to 
 Pharaoh. 
 
 In the interpretation of those nine suns there was 
 a wide scope given to the imagination of the successive 
 interpreters and adaptors of the old oracle. For, after 
 a lapse of time the same nine suns were represented as 
 signifying some such series of events as the writer of 
 the time took a more personal interest in. In the West, 
 e.g., the history of the Frankish kingdom was read into 
 it, and, as will be seen later on, in the East at a later 
 period Muhammedan history had to do duty and become 
 the object of the prophecy. The authors of these oracles 
 were invariably Christians, and therefore the eschatological 
 element was joined with the history of the appearance and 
 spread of Christianity.
 
 THE SIBYL AND THE DREAM OF ONE HUNDRED SUNS 611 
 
 The vaticination of the Sibyl did not stop at a list of 
 succeeding kings, but the last of them was to lay 
 down his crown at the gates of Jerusalem and thereupon 
 was to follow the time of the Antichrist and the final 
 struggle, until the Day of Judgment would put an end 
 to the rule of evil, and then would be ushered in the 
 kingdom of heaven. It was this final portion which 
 assured to the Sibyl the popularity which her prophecy 
 enjoyed. Professor Bousset, in his exhaustive study on 
 the Antichrist (Der Antichrist in d. Ueberlieferung d. 
 Judenthums, etc., Gottingen, 1895), has devoted a special 
 chapter to the investigation of the relation in which the 
 Latin Sibyl of Beda stands to other compilations of 
 a similar nature. He compared it with that of Adso, 
 Pseudo-Methodius, the Syriac homily of Pseudo-Ephraem on 
 the Antichrist, and the genuine writings of Ephraem. The 
 date of this apocalyptic prophecy he thus moved upwards, 
 first to the time of the irruption of the Arabs into the 
 West of Asia and their spread far and wide, then higher 
 up to the epoch of Leo the Isaurian (eighth century), then 
 the period of Heraclius, the time of the invasion of the 
 Huns, the allied nations from Asia, and still higher up to 
 the time of the establishment of a Christian emperor on 
 the throne of Byzantium. We are thus led back as far 
 as the fourth century for the latter part of the prophecy. 
 Curiously enough, the first part, the vision of the hundred 
 suns, is missing in those ancient texts, even in Pseudo- 
 Methodius (Orthodoxographa, Basel, 1555, fols. 387 ff., an 
 edition unknown to Bousset and others), and must have 
 been lost at an early period, so soon as the legend had 
 reached the West of Europe. In the light of Arabic 
 versions of the legend it cannot be doubted that the 
 dream of the hundred suns was not only an integral part, 
 but the very starting-point. In it lay the justification for 
 ascribing the prophecy to the Sibyl and ensuring to it 
 a wide circulation. It is precisely this first part which
 
 612 THE SIBYL AND THE DREAM OF ONE HUNDRED SUNS 
 
 claims our attention. Thus far no old parallels nor any 
 link have been shown to exist between the oracle of the 
 Sibyl of Beda and such Oriental versions as are preserved 
 in Arabic and Ethiopian. 
 
 Dr. J. Schleifer 1 has now published for the first time 
 these Oriental texts of the Sibylline apocryphon in Arabic 
 and Ethiopian. One of them is a Karshuni text, of 
 course Arabic, but written in Syriac characters. The 
 editor confines himself primarily to a critical edition of 
 these various texts, none of them very old, and yet each 
 one interesting in its own way. The Karshuni text, 
 the Ethiopian, and then three Arabic texts, are printed 
 in five parallel columns, and so arranged that the 
 relation between these texts should be seen at a glance. 
 In the foot-notes various readings are carefully noted. 
 A minute description of the MSS. used is given, and 
 a German translation in three columns. In this trans- 
 lation Dr. Schleifer has combined the three Arabic versions 
 into one, and given the result of the critical emendation of 
 these texts. In the foot-notes to the translation reference 
 is made to the Latin Tiburtan Sibyl (Beda), and the book 
 concludes with an examination of the relation in which 
 these versions stand to one another. They all go back to 
 one ancient original, to which the Karshuni text is most 
 closely related, and almost of equal value as the Arabic, 
 though differing from the latter sufficiently not to be its 
 immediate source. The latest is the Ethiopian, which 
 rests on a text closely akin, though not identical with, 
 Arabic iii. 
 
 This edition of the Oriental versions is of great 
 importance for the history of the apocryphal tale, which 
 has exercised so great an influence upon popular imagina- 
 tion, and was at the same time a reflex of the popular 
 
 1 Die Erzaehlung der Sibylle. Ein Apokryph nach den Karschunischen, 
 Arabischen, und Aethiopischen Handschriften zu London, Oxford, Paris, 
 und Rom veroeffentlicht von. (Denkschriften der Kais. Akad. d. 
 Wissensch. Wien, vol. liii. ) 4to ; pp. 80. Wien, 1908.
 
 THE SIBYL AND THE DREAM OF ONE HUNDRED SUNS 613 
 
 naive philosophy of history, which sees in the present the 
 realization of events foretold in the past, and finds in 
 it a source of comfort and hope for the future, lifting 
 the people above the temporary trials and holding out 
 a promise of reward and of peace everlasting. For it is all 
 fore-ordained, and it is part and parcel of the divine 
 economy which shapes human life and leads the world 
 on irresistibly to a final day of judgment, when the 
 actions of man will be weighed the good rewarded, the 
 evil punished, and the destroyed harmony of the world 
 re-established. 
 
 These Oriental texts start with the dream, and the 
 interpretation given by the Sibyl brings us down to 
 the time of the rule of Al-Ma'mun and his successors 
 (ninth century), possibly also to that of the Crusaders 
 and Richard Cceur de Lion. The king immediately before 
 the appearance of the Antichrist will be the " son of 
 the Lion " from the land of the Franks. In some points 
 there is a close resemblance between these versions and 
 the oldest Latin text. The question naturally arises : 
 Where is the connecting link between the Eastern tale 
 and its Western parallels, and which is their ultimate 
 source ? Dr. Schleifer might have turned his attention 
 to this question, the importance of which for the history 
 of this apocryphon cannot be gainsaid, but he scarcely 
 touches it. The Arabic version rests probably on an 
 older Syriac text, for that the book is of Oriental 
 origin there cannot be any doubt. The whole setting 
 and the detailed history of the Muhammedan Empire 
 down to the tenth century and later, exclude the 
 possibility of an Occidental origin. No old Arabic book 
 has been translated from the Latin. But the Syriac 
 itself could hardly be anything but a translation from 
 a Greek text. That the Arabic may have been translated 
 from the Greek is rather a remote probability, for if the 
 book was originally written in Greek it has no doubt 
 .IRAS. 1910. 40
 
 614 THE SIBYL AND THE DREAM OF ONE HUNDRED SUNS 
 
 reached the Arabs through Syriac mediation. A Greek 
 text would be the natural link between East and West. 
 Unfortunately, hitherto no such Greek text has come to 
 light ; at any rate, I am not aware of its existence. 
 I have now discovered another version, which may safely 
 be taken to represent the hitherto undiscovered Greek 
 original. As far back as 1883, in my History of the 
 Rumanian Popular Literature (pp. 338-9), I have dis- 
 cussed at some length an old Rumanian legend of " The 
 Sivila and the dream which was seen of one hundred 
 Senators in one night ", the very same dream of nine 
 suns and of the " Sivila " interpreting the dream to the 
 emperor. This Rumanian version in its turn is only 
 a literal translation of a much older Slavonic version, 
 which again rests ultimately on a Greek original. All 
 the Slavonic and Rumanian apocrypha go back to older 
 Greek originals which were as a rule literally translated, 
 and then only slightly altered in those details that affected 
 their own nation. At times they ventured also but 
 very rarely upon some small interpolations. A 
 comparison between these texts and the oldest Latin 
 form of the Tiburtan Sibyl shows the closest possible 
 parallelism. No room for doubt is left that the one 
 must be dependent on the other, and the internal evidence 
 goes far to prove the dependence of the Latin on the 
 Greek ( = Slavonic) version. Moreover, the whole Slavo- 
 Rumanian text is very short, and all the eschatological 
 portions, as well as every reference to the Antichrist 
 and the Last Judgment, are entirely missing. The intro- 
 duction is also very brief, and differs entirely from all 
 other versions. Every apocryphal story or legend must 
 be an addition to the history of the Bible. In one way 
 or another it must embellish the narration of Holy Writ. 
 By these means the apocryphal story enters the holy 
 cycle and forms henceforth part of the " Historiated Bible ". 
 Only in the Slavonic version this connexion with the
 
 THE SIBYL AND THE DREAM OF ONE HUNDRED SUNS 615 
 
 Bible is found a proof of its great antiquity and its 
 independence of the Western versions. It is an attempt 
 to connect the Sibyl with David, whose offspring she is 
 in a marvellous manner. She is here the oldest form, 
 if not the origin, of the legend of Reine Pedauque, and 
 possibly the ancestor of " Mother Goose ". Professor 
 Vesselofsky has studied this cycle exhaustively in his 
 Opyty po istorii razvitiya hristianskoi legendy (ii, 
 pp. 351-3). There he refers also to the legend current 
 in the name of the Venerable Bede, and he shows that 
 it agrees in the main with the Sibylline oracle in 
 a Slavonic version, of which a copy had been placed at 
 his disposal by Buslaev and Drinov. Since then an old 
 Slavonic original and the Rumanian version, of which 
 I wrote in my Literatura populard romdnd (Bucharest, 
 1883, 337 pp.), have been published by L. Miletitch 
 in the Sborniku of the Bulgarian Minister of Public 
 Instruction (vol. ix, Sofia, 1893, pp. 177-80). According 
 to Miletitch the Slavonic MS. (now in the Library of the 
 State Archives in Bucharest) of the sixteenth century 
 is merely a copy of an older MS. which belongs at 
 latest to the fourteenth century. The Rumanian codex 
 (in the Library of the Rumanian Academy) from which 
 I published many years ago> also a portion of the 
 legend of Adam and Eve (Revista pentru Istorie si 
 filologie, ed. Tocilescu, Bucharest, i, pp. 78 ff.), belongs 
 to the end of the sixteenth century. It is an almost 
 literal translation of the Slavonic. In a few details it 
 differs from the text published by Dr. Miletitch and 
 supplements the latter. I have now translated these 
 texts into English, following in the main the Slavonian 
 version as the oldest, and adding in brackets the 
 variants of the Rumanian. I am also reprinting here 
 the Rumanian text, for it is preserved in an unique copy ; 
 the edition of Dr. Miletitch is unfortunately faulty in 
 many passages, and the text is practically inaccessible
 
 616 THE SIBYL AND THE DREAM OF ONE HUNDRED SUNS 
 
 in the Bulgarian Sbornik. Moreover, it is written in the 
 old Slavonic or Cyrillian alphabet. I have transliterated 
 it and corrected the mistakes which have crept into the 
 last-mentioned publication. 
 
 The comparison between these texts and the Latin 
 versions of the Sibylline oracles mentioned before proves 
 identity of origin and close resemblance in details. The 
 description of the nine suns in the Slavonic and in Beda 
 and their peculiar appearance agrees in many points. 
 The divergence begins with the interpretation, which 
 has undergone the greatest possible change. It had to be 
 adapted to local exigencies if it was to be of any use, and 
 if it was to be believed in as an old prophecy of coming 
 events. In the Slavonian, unlike the Latin, the name 
 of the great emperor is called explicitly Constantin, which 
 might settle one of the difficulties of the Latin texts 
 where the names of the kings and emperors are not 
 fully given ; they are indicated only by the initial letter, 
 and it was left to the imagination of the reader to supply 
 the remainder, thus leaving an open field to fantastic 
 interpretation and interested guesswork. In other respects 
 the Slavonic also differs in the names of the various 
 nations that were to make incursions into the western 
 world and bring trouble upon the peoples. No doubt, as 
 often happens with texts in which the names of ancient 
 nations since extinct appear, more modern names are 
 substituted by the later copyists for those of the older 
 nations that had come arid gone. Thus, the Tartars have 
 no doubt taken the place of the ancient Huns, and the 
 Saracens that of the Persians in the older versions. These 
 names indicate the latest date for these Slavo-Rumanian 
 versions, and lead us to the time of the invasion of the 
 Mongols in the thirteenth century, known among the 
 nations of Eastern Europe mostly under the name of 
 " Tartars ". 
 
 Peculiar to these versions is the animosity against the
 
 THE SIBYL AND THE DREAM OF ONE HUNDRED SUNS 617 
 
 Greeks and the exaltation of the " Iberians " of Armenia, 
 whom they describe as a God-fearing, pious, and modest 
 nation, just the contrary to the rapacious, impious Greeks, 
 who have changed their faith three times, and are in- 
 hospitable and greedy. This no doubt reflects the feelings 
 of the Bulgarians, who were in constant warfare with the 
 Byzantine emperors. The author of the translation and 
 adaptation from the Greek probably belonged to the sect 
 of the Bogomils, whose chief literary activity centred in 
 the translation and dissemination of the old apocryphal 
 literature. This predilection for the " Iberians " is found 
 also in other apocryphal and popular writings which were 
 translated from the Greek by the same agencies, the 
 members of that famous sect, and then adapted to their 
 own peculiar teaching. This may also be the reason why 
 some of the eschatological details found in all. the other 
 versions, and which therefore formed part of the old 
 original, are missing in the Slavonic text, and why the 
 Archangel Gabriel, who was the special favourite of the 
 Bogomils, is introduced as the restorer of peace at the end 
 of days. I cannot here follow up in greater detail the 
 examination and comparison of these texts. Until a Greek 
 text of this apocryphal tale comes to light the Slavo- 
 Rumanian version forms the connecting link between 
 East and West. 
 
 THE HISTORY OF THE SIBYL AND THE DREAM OF THE 
 
 HUNDRED SENATORS OF ROME. 
 Translated from the Old Slavonic and from the 
 
 Rumanian. 
 
 King David was a man of overpowering strength, and 
 it oozed out of him. The servant one day wiped the phial 
 with some grass, and threw it out, and a goose came and ate 
 
 O ' ' O 
 
 it. No sooner had it eaten it than it laid an egg, and the 
 egg burst, and out of the egg came a girl. They told it in 
 secret to David, who when he heard of it understood what
 
 618 THE SIBYL AND THE DREAM OF ONE HUNDRED SUNS 
 
 had happened, and gave orders to hide the child ; and they 
 hid her away in the land Gorskia (Rum. Ugorsku), (and 
 she grew up and studied), and she was wiser and more 
 beautiful than the whole world, and through her wisdom 
 (she obtained the rule over the whole land of Ugorsku), 
 and she became the ruler of Rome (Rimu), and she 
 considered (or, pondered over) the word of the prophets, 
 for God had said unto David : " Of thy seed will I place 
 upon thy throne ; " and she considered also what the 
 other prophecies foretold. And her name was Maria, 
 but for her wisdom they gave her the name Sivila. And 
 she hoped that from her Christ would be born, and she 
 kept her virginity for fifty years, until one hundred of 
 the great boyars saw a dream, and then Sivila understood 
 that it would not come to pass as she had hoped. 
 
 And the boyars came together and said : " Let us go to 
 the Queen and tell her the dream which we have seen." 
 And they came to her and said : " May it please your 
 Majesty. We the one hundred boyars have had one and 
 the same dream." And Sivila said : " Tell me the dream, 
 and I will endeavour to explain it." And the barons said : 
 " We have seen nine suns rising." Sivila replied : " Tell 
 me how these suns looked." And they said : " The first 
 sun rose clear and gentle, and it was a pleasure for us to 
 look at it. The second sun, its light was three times 
 darkened and hidden. The third was black, with dark 
 rays round about it. The fourth sun was like flaming 
 dark smoke. The fifth sun was (white) and burning hot ; 
 it was difficult for us to look at it. The sixth sun was 
 white as snow. The seventh sun had a blood-red glow, 
 and in the midst thereof there were hands. The eighth 
 sun had soft and clear rays. The ninth was the most 
 terrible and awe-inspiring, and hotter than all." 
 
 The Sivila replied : " The nine suns signify nine 
 generations (or, periods). The first sun is the generation 
 of the Bulgarians, who are good and hospitable and true
 
 THE SIBYL AND THE DREAM OF ONE HUNDRED SUNS 619 
 
 believers and worship in the Christian faith. The second 
 sun signifies the nation of the Greeks, for they have three 
 times changed their faith and mix with other nations ; 
 they are fond of money, publicans (or, taking bribes), 
 and they betray the kingdom of God. The third sun 
 signifies the Franks ; they will conquer all the nations, 
 and from among them will be born a man from two 
 nations (two origins or families ?), whose name will be 
 Constantin, and he will conquer many nations, and he 
 will wage great wars on the earth, and signs will be 
 shown to him in the heavens ; and he will lift up the 
 Greeks, and he will raise an empire among the Greeks, 
 and he will build among them a town, and he will call it 
 New Jerusalem, a fortress for the Greeks and a resting- 
 place for the Saints. And to his mother the crosses of 
 Christ will be revealed, and they will perform many 
 miracles in the world. The fourth sun signifies the 
 Arkadians, who will conquer the Franks and will take 
 Rome. And Rome will again be rebuilt (or, sacked ?), 
 and that man will be drowned (die) in the water. The 
 fifth sun signifies the Saracens, who will destroy 
 Jerusalem and take Syria. The sixth sun signifies the 
 Syrians, who held Jerusalem and lost their throne ; and 
 their country will be devastated for three hundred years. 
 The seventh sun signifies the Jews. A woman will arise 
 in their midst and give birth to a child from heaven, and 
 his name will be called Jesus, and the girl that will give 
 birth to him will remain a pure virgin. His throne is the 
 heaven, and the earth his footstool. The name of the 
 woman is Maria. And all the princes and judges will 
 gather together and will hand him over to be crucified, 
 and he will be buried, and on the third day he will rise 
 and ascend to heaven. And he will send twelve men who 
 will spread our faith, and that faith will grow strong, and 
 that faith will have dominion from the rising of the sun 
 to its setting."
 
 620 THE SIBYL AND THE DREAM OF ONE HUNDRED SUNS 
 
 The Jewish priests and the princes exclaimed then : 
 " Be silent, O our Queen, for we wish to ask thee one 
 thing more. Is it possible that God should descend from 
 heaven and beget a son from a woman and destroy our 
 faith ? " And the Sivila answered : " O my foolish 
 people ! do not wonder at great and marvellous things. 
 Consider well in your minds on what do the heavens hang 
 and on what is the earth established that it does not 
 move ? Our law is not a good one, and I up till now 
 had hoped that the Christ would be born of me, and 
 I have kept my virginity for fifty ye&rs, but now I know 
 that he will not be born of me. 
 
 " The eighth sun signifies the Iberians, a righteous and 
 hospitable people (loving the stranger) ; they keep the 
 Church and fear God, and (observe His holy Word). 
 There is no guile among them, and it is of them that 
 God says : ' Blessed are the meek ones, (for they will 
 obtain salvation).' The ninth sun signifies the Tartars, 
 who shed blood upon the earth, and no one can withstand 
 them ; they will eat up the whole earth, and they will 
 destroy from among men the name of the archangels 
 (and for a time they will be so strong that no nation will 
 be able to stand up against them, but in the end they 
 will be destroyed from among men by the name of the 
 archangel Gabriel). Our God be praised for ever and 
 ever." 
 
 THE RUMANIAN TEXT 
 
 CUVANTU DE PRE INTEIJEPTA SAV1LA 
 
 Davidb prorocul lui dumnezau ave pohta inare cat esiea 
 vratutea lui adeca plodul lui si pune un vas si pica in 
 vasb. lara intr'o zi un inast al lui sterse plodul cu niste 
 buruiane, si le arunca afara. Si esi o gansca si manca 
 burueanele. Si cum le manca indata oo un ou. si crepa 
 oul si din 6u esi o prunca parte mueresca, si intru ascunsi, 
 spusera lui Davidh. (Cum) a auzath de acasta Davidi.
 
 THE SIBYL AND THE DREAM OF ONE HUNDRED SUNS 621 
 
 bine intelese precum se i'acu. Acieasi zise de ascunsera 
 fata aceea intru pamantul Ugorscului. Si ea crescu si 
 invata carte si fu intelepta mai vratos decatb toti 
 oamenii ce petrecea in toata lumea. Si cu intelepciune 
 ei dobandi tara Ugorscului toata, si inparati in Ramb, 
 si socotea zisele prorocilor, cum zise dumnezau lui Davidb : 
 <: Din samanta ta voi pune spre scaunul tau," si a altor 
 proroci zisele le socotea. Numele ei era Mariea, si pentru 
 intelepciune" ei ii zisera Sivila. Si trage nadejde ca dintru 
 dansa se va naste Hristos, si feri fecoriea sa in 50 de ani, 
 pana candr. vazura o suta de boeari mari toti un visi.. 
 Atuncea intelese Savila ca nu easte aceea ce nadajdueaste. 
 Si sa adunara toti boearii si zisera : " Blamati la 
 
 y' 
 
 inparatesa sa spunem visul ce am vazuti>." Si venira catra 
 insa si zisera : " Sa erti inparatiea ta, iata cum avuram 
 noi o suta de boeari ai tai un vis." Sivila zise : " Spuneti 
 visul si eu il voi dizlega." Dornnii zisera : " Vazut-am 
 noao sori rasarindh." lara Sivila zise : " Spuneti-mi cum 
 era acei sori." Ei zisera : " Soarele dintaiu curat si lin 
 rasariea si noi foarte cu drag il asteptam si-1 socotea(m). 
 
 2. Al doile scare de trei ori intuneca si se ascunse lumina. 
 
 3. Al treile scare cu zari negre pregiur dansul. 4. Al 
 patrule scare ca o para de fum negra. 5. Al cincile scare 
 albb si fierbinte era noao a-1 socoti. 6. Al sasele soare 
 lumina ave ca zapada. 7. Al saptele soare cu zare rosie 
 si in mijloci. mani ave. 8. Al optule soare zarile lui era 
 line si curate. 9. Al noole soare de toti era mai 
 groaznici, spairnati, era si fierbinte." 
 
 Sivila zise : " Noao sori santi> noao roduri. Cel soare 
 dintai este rodul Balo-arilor, buni si lubitori la oaspeti si 
 
 CT * *- ' 
 
 credincosi, si cea drepta credinta crestinesca lui Dumnezau 
 au inchinatf). Al doile soare santb Grecii, ca ei de trei 
 ori credinta sa au lepadat-o si cu toate limbile sa 
 amesteca, iubitori de aro;intF, si luotori de adamana 
 
 O 
 
 inparatie lui Dumnezau dedera. Al treile soare santh 
 Francii, ce ei vor calca toate limbile, esi-va dintru dansii om
 
 622 THE SIBYL AND THE DREAM OF ONE HUNDRED SUNS 
 
 de 2 roduri, si numele lui va fi Constantin, si acela va calca 
 toate limbile si va face razboae mari pre pamantb si i sa 
 vor arata lui semne pre ceri si va radica Grecii, si va face 
 inparatie intru Greci, si va zidi intru dansii cetate si 
 sa va chiema lerusalimul nou, ograda Grecilor si rapaosul 
 svantilor, si mani-sa i sa vor arata crucile lui Hristos 
 ce iale vor face semne multe pre pamantb. Al patrule 
 scare acestea santb Arcadei ce vor birui Francii si vor 
 calca Rimul si iara va fi Rimul, si acela om intr'apa va 
 muri. Al cincile scare, acestea santb Saracinestii (-nenii ?), 
 ce vor pustii lerusalimul si vor calca Siriea. Al sesele 
 scare, acestea santb Sirieanii, ce tinura lerusalimul, si 
 pierdura scaunul sau si pamantul lor va fi pustii trei sute 
 de ani. Al saptele scare acestea santb Jidovbi. Esi-va 
 o mueare dintru dansii si va naste fiu din ceri si-i vor 
 zice numele lui Isus, si fata cea ce va naste va fi tot 
 fecoara curata ; scaunul lui iaste ceriul, iara pamantul 
 laste asternutb picoarelor lui. Numele fecoarei va fi 
 Mariea, aduna-sa-vor toti domnii si toti giudecatorii, 
 si-1 vor da spre rastignire, ingropa-1-vor pre dansul si 
 a treea zi va invie si sa va sui in ceri : si va trimite 
 12 barbati si aceea legea noastra vor rasapi, si a lor lege 
 vor intari, si aceea lege va inparati de la rasaritul soarelui 
 pana la apus." 
 
 Atuncea zisera popii jidovesti si toti boearii : " Nai, 
 taci inparatiea ta, ca inca una te vom intreba. Poate 
 aceea a fi, sa pogoara dumnezau din ceri si sa sa nasca 
 din fecoara si sa sparga lege noastra ? " Atuncea Savila 
 a zis : " O nebun rodul mieu eel mare si minunatb ! nu 
 va mirareti de acasta, ci socotiti cu intelepciune voastra, 
 ci socotiti pre ce sta ceriul aninati, si pamantul intaritb si 
 neclatib; iara legea voastra nu spre bine sta, ca si eu 
 pana acum m'am nadajduitb ca dintru mine sa va naste 
 Hristos si mie-am ferit fecoriea mea in 50 de ani, iara 
 acmu cunosci, ca nu-s eu aceea." 
 
 Al optule soare, acestea santb Iverii derepti si iubitori
 
 THE SIBYL AND THE DREAM OF ONE HUNDRED SUNS 623 
 
 la oaspeti, besereca pazascu, de dumnezau se tern si 
 cuvintele svintiei sale carca, si petrec fara de rautate, 
 i unora ca acestora le zice dumnezau : " Ferice la ceea 
 ce se pleca aceea vor dobandi spaseniea." Al noole scare, 
 aceea santi> Tatarii ce varsa sange pre pamanti, si nimea 
 inaintea lor nu vor sta, manca-vor toate tarale si pana 
 la o vreme atata putere vor ave catb innainte lor din 
 limbi nimea nu sa va pute protivi ; iara candb va fi pre 
 urma cu numele lui arhangel Gavriil lar de(n) oameni 
 vor peri. Slava parintelui si fiiului si duhului svaiith, 
 acurn si purure, si infcru vecii de vecii amin."
 
 A 000049366
 
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 Notice. 
 
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