a laudatory ode on
himself; the bard was haranguing upon his talent--"I can," said he,
"compare her to all the red and white under the sun, and say that her
hair is a hundredfold more yellow than gold; and as for your ode, I can
carry your genealogy through the bowels of an infinity of knights and
princes, and through the waters of the deluge, even as high up as Adam."
"Lo!" said I, "here is a bard who is a better inventor than myself."
"Come away, come away," said the angel, "these people are thinking to
bamboozle the woman, but when they go to her, they will be sure to obtain
from her as good as they bring."

On leaving these people, we caught a glimpse of some cells, where more
obscene practices were going on than modesty will suffer me to mention,
which caused my companion to snatch me away in wrath, from this palace of
whimsicality and wantonness, to the treasury of the princess, (because we
went where we pleased, in spite of doors and locks.) There we beheld a
multitude of beautiful damsels, all sorts of drink, fruit, and dainties;
all kinds of instruments and books of music, harps, pipes, poems, carols,
&c.; all kinds of games of chance, draught-boards, dice-boxes, dice,
cards, &c.; all kinds of models of banquets and mansions, figures of men,
contrivances and amusements; all kinds of waters, perfumes, colors and
salves to make the ugly handsome, and the old look young, and to make the
harlot and her putrid bones sweet for a time.

To be brief, there were here all kinds of _shadows_ of pleasure, all
kinds of _seeming_ delight; and to tell the truth, I believe this place
would have ensnared me, had not my friend, without ceremony, snatched me
far away from the three deceitful towers, to the upper end of the street,
and set me down by a castellated palace of prodigious size, and very
agreeable at first sight, but vile and terribly revolting on the farthest
side, though it was only seen with great difficulty on the side of its
deformity; it had a multitude of doors, and all the doors were splendid
on the outside, but filthy within. "Pray, my lord," said I, "if it
please you, what is this wonderful place?" "This," said he, "is the
palace of another daughter of Belial, who is called _Hypocrisy_; she here
keeps her school; there is not a youth or damsel within the whole city,
that has not been her scholar, and the people in general, have so well
imbibed what she has taught, that her lessons have become a second
nat