23. Then suddenly the eyes of the novitiates were opened, and they saw flowing down from that cloud hail mixed with fire, and they saw upon the earth as a result of that rain something sticky, and in that sticky substance worms. And farther towards the north they saw descending from the cloud, as it were, bruchi* and locusts, which consumed the grass of the earth. And eagles appeared flying out of a desert, and also birds of the evening, which devoured the worms and licked up that sticky substance as though it were water. Amazed by these things, the novitiates besought the angels to tell what they signified. They said, "The abomination of desolation upon the earth. The hail signifies falsified truths; the fire mingled with it, evils of life; the sticky substance upon the earth, coherence; the worms, life from those things; the bruchi and locusts, the falsities of faith; the birds signify men of the earth who eat no other food flowing down from the spiritual world; and the eagles signify ratiocinations and confirmations. * A species of locust.