quenched with wine, and the ashes of the dead were carefully
collected and placed in a brazen urn. This urn was afterwards deposited in
a lofty tomb which AEneas erected on a promontory that henceforth bore the
name of Misenus.

The funeral ceremonies having thus duly been performed, the hero proceeded
to the cave of the Sibyl, and called upon her to fulfill her promise, and
accompany him to the kingdom of the dead. She led him to the mouth of the
black cavern at the side of Lake Avernus, and there offered up sacrifices
of black cattle and sheep, uttering various invocations. Presently the
ground began to rumble beneath their feet; upon which the Sibyl ordered
those of AEneas's followers who had attended him to withdraw from the spot,
and exhorted the chief himself, drawing his sword from its sheath, to
march firmly forward. So saying she plunged into the cave, nor did he
hesitate to follow.

At first they moved along through a region that was utterly waste, void,
and covered with an intense gloom, deep as that of a winter's night when
the moon is obscured by clouds. But this desolate tract was not wholly
untenanted, for AEneas saw flitting about certain hideous shadowy forms.
The spirits of Grief and Revenge and pale Disease, Fear and Famine and
deformed Indigence, had their abode in this vestibule of Hades; and so,
too, Death and Toil, and murderous War, and frantic Discord, her head
crowned with curling vipers and bound by a blood-dyed fillet. Here, also,
were the iron chambers in which dwelt the terrible Furies. In the midst
rose a gloomy elm, which was the haunt of vain Dreams, who dwelt under
every leaf. Beyond this tree were many huge and misshapen
monsters,--Centaurs, and double-formed Scyllas, and the great dragon of
the Lernaean lake, which, when it plagued the upper earth, was slain by
Hercules. Here, also, was the huge Chimaera, with its three heads vomiting
flames; Gorgons, Harpies, and other ghastly forms flitted about. At so
fearful a sight. AEneas was seized with sudden fear; he drew his sword, and
would have struck at the monsters, if the Sibyl had not restrained his
hand and reminded him that they were but disembodied shadows.

The path now led them to a place where the three infernal rivers, Acheron,
Cocytus, and Styx, met in one deep, black, and boiling flood. Here there
kept guard the grim ferryman Charon, an infernal deity of fearful aspect.
A long gray beard fell all tangled and neglected from h