present, but as to the future he had no skill. For each question

answered he asked two reals, and for some he made a reduction, just as

he happened to feel the pulse of the questioners; and when now and

then he came to houses where things that he knew of had happened to

the people living there, even if they did not ask him a question,

not caring to pay for it, he would make the sign to the ape and then

declare that it had said so and so, which fitted the case exactly.

In this way he acquired a prodigious name and all ran after him; on