a blaze, instead
of feet he had bony ankles without flesh, and from his body exhaled a
stinking and filthy heat. On seeing him I was alarmed, and cried out,
"Approach no nearer; tell me, whence are you?" He replied in a hoarse
tone of voice, "I am from below, where I am with two hundred in the most
supereminent of all societies. We are all emperors of emperors, king of
kings, dukes of dukes, and princes of princes; no one in our society is
barely an emperor, a king, a duke, or a prince. We sit there on thrones
of thrones, and despatch thence mandates through the whole world and
beyond it." I then said to him, "Do you not see that you are insane from
the phantasy of super-eminence?" and he replied, "How can you say so,
when we absolutely seem to ourselves, and are also acknowledged by each
other, to have such distinction?" On hearing this, I was unwilling to
repeat my charge of insanity, as he was insane from phantasy; and I was
informed that this devil, during his abode in the world, had been only a
house-steward, and at that time he was so lifted up in spirit, that he
despised all mankind in comparison with himself, and indulged in the
phantasy that he was more worthy than a king, and even than an emperor;
in consequence of which proud conceit, he had denied God, and had
regarded all the holy things of the church as of no concern to himself,
but of some to the stupid multitude. At length I asked him, "How long do
you two hundred thus glory among yourselves?" He replied "to eternity;
but such of us as torture others for denying our super-eminence, sink
under ground; for we are allowed to glory, but not to do mischief to any
one." I asked him again, "Do you know what befalls those who sink under
ground?" He said, "They sink down into a certain prison, where they are
called viler than the vile, or the vilest, and are set to work." I then
said to him. "Take heed therefore, lest you also should sink down."

264. After this the earth again opened, but now on the right; and I saw
another devil rising thence, who had on his head a kind of turban,
wrapped about with spires as of a snake, the head of which stood out
from the crown; his face was leprous from the forehead to the chin, and
so were his hands; his loins were naked and as black as soot, through
which was discernible in dusky transparence the fire as of a furnace;
and the ankles of his feet were like two vipers. The former devil, on
seeing him, fell on his knees, and a