In 598 came a portent.

In 590 wolves crossed the walls and ate the dogs.

In 591 the punishment was wet and rotten, since it had already been wet and rotten for decades.

It was a rainy spring that year.

Just after Easter this year it rained and hailed very heavily. Within the space of two or three hours great rivers began to flow along even the smallest windings of the valleys. Thefruit-trees flowered a second time in Autumn and gave a second crop as heavy asthe first. Roses bloomed in November. The rivers ran unusually high. They broke their banks and flooded areas which they had never reached before.

After the disastrous floods and the damage to the crops, decay took

hold, in the form of illness and malnutrition. But, he added:

I was told that all the sacred vessels were saved.