8 And behold! coming toward us in a boat, an old man, white with ancient hair, 84 crying: “Woe to you, wicked souls! hope not ever to see the Heavens! I come to carry you to the other bank, 87 into the eternal darkness, into heat and into frost. And thou who art there, living soul, depart from these that are dead.” 90 But when he saw that I did not depart, he said: “By another way, by other ports thou shalt come to the shore, not here, for passage; 93 a lighter bark must carry thee.’” And my Leader to him: “Charon, vex not thyself; it is thus willed there where is power 96 for that which is willed; and ask no more.” Thereon were quiet the fleecy jaws of the ferryman of the livid marsh, 99 who round about his eyes had wheels of flame. But those souls, who were weary and naked, changed color and gnashed their teeth, 102 soon as they heard his cruel words. They blasphemed God and their parents, the human race, the place, the time and the seed 105 of their sowing and of their birth. Then, all of them drew together, bitterly weeping, to the evil bank, 108 which awaits every man who fears not God.
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