When I beheld some of the
inhabitants (for till now I had not seen a single devil, though I had
heard their voices) I asked: "What, pray, my Guide, is the name of this
death-like stream?" "The river of the Evil One," answered he, "wherein
all his subjects are immersed to render them accustomed to the country;
its cursed waters changed their countenance, washing away every relic of
goodness, every shadow of hope and happiness." And on seeing the horde
pass through, I could perceive no difference in loathsomeness between the
devils and the damned. Some wished to crouch at the bottom of the river,
there to remain in suffocation to all eternity, rather than find further
on a worse dwelling; but as the proverb says: "He whom the devil urges
must run," so these damned beings, thrust on by the demons, were swiftly
borne along the stream of destruction to their eternal ruin; where I too
saw at the first glimpse more tortures and torments than man's heart can
imagine, far less a tongue repeat; to see one of which was enough to
cause one's hair to stand on an end, his blood to freeze, his flesh to
melt, his bones to give way, yea and his spirit to swoon within him.
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