One generation of watchers succeeded another, scanning the heavens nightly from our _ziggurats_,[90] and we have learned the laws of the constellations; the laws of Sin the moon, the laws of Samas the sun, the laws of the planets, the laws of the fixed stars.

Their motions and their influence on the affairs of men our fathers discovered, and have handed their wisdom down to us." [90] Babylonian temple towers.
"But the word of the stars to _us_ ?" broke in Pompeius, in extreme disquietude, and trying to shake off the spell that held him in mastery.
"Know, lord, that thy slave has not been disobedient unto thy commandment.

Look, yonder burneth a bright red planet, called by us Nergal, which ye Westerns call by the name of Mars.

Who denieth that when Mars shines in the heavens, war will break forth among men?
Know that I have carefully compared the settings, risings, and movements of the planets at this season with their settings, risings, and movements at the time when my lord was born; and also at the time of the birth of his great enemy.

I have made use of the tables which my wise predecessors among the Chaldees have prepared; and which I myself, thy slave, copied from those at the Temple of Bel, in Babylon." "And they say ?" breathlessly interrupted Lentulus.
"This is the message from the planets," and Ulamhala's form grew higher, his voice firmer; he raised his long bony arms above his head, and stood in the dull light like a skeleton arisen in all its white grave clothes to convey a warning to the living.