h the body inverted, and put themselves in a
walking motion; or like beasts, which lie on their backs, and lift the
feet upwards, and from the head, which they plunge in the earth, look
towards heaven." We passed through the forest, and entered the
wilderness, which was not less terrible: it consisted of heaps of
stones, and ditches between them, out of which crept hydras and vipers,
and there flew forth venomous flying serpents. This whole wilderness was
on a continual declivity: we descended by a long steep descent, and at
length came into the valley inhabited by the people of that region and
age. There were here and there cottages, which appeared at length to
meet, and to be joined together in the form of a city: this we entered,
and lo! the houses were built of the scorched branches of trees,
cemented together with mud and covered with black slates. The streets
were irregular; all of them at the entrance narrow, but wider as they
extended, and at the end spacious, where there were places of public
resort: here there were as many places of public resort as there were
streets. As we entered the city, it became dark, because the sky did not
appear; we therefore looked up and light was given us, and we saw: and
then I asked those we met, "Are you able to see because the sky does not
appear above you?" They replied "What a question is this! we see
clearly; we walk in full light." On hearing this, the angel said to me,
"Darkness to them is light, and light darkness, as is the case with
birds of night; as they look downwards and not upwards." We entered into
some of the cottages, and saw in each a man with his woman, and we asked
them, "Do all live here in their respective houses with one wife only?"
And they replied with a hissing, "What do you mean by one wife only? Why
do not you ask, whether we live with one harlot? What is a wife but a
harlot? By our laws it is not allowable to commit fornication with more
than one woman; but still we do not hold it dishonorable or unbecoming
to do so with more; yet out of our own houses we glory in the one among
another: thus we rejoice in the license we take, and the pleasure
attending it, more than polygamists. Why is a plurality of wives denied
us, when yet it has been granted, and at this day is granted in the
whole world about us? What is life with one woman only, but captivity
and imprisonment? We however in this place have broken the bolt of this
prison, and have rescued ourselv