hot stones. Proud men were wrapped in flame, slanderers had their eyes plucked out by Hell’s ravens.
“68. All the horrors thou wilt not get to know
Which Hell’s inmates suffer.
Pleasant sins end in painful penalties :
Pains ever follow pleasure[1].”
Among the Greeks a descent into the cave of Trophonius occupied much the same place in their popular Mysticism that the Purgatory of S. Patrick assumed among Christians. Lustral rites, somewhat similar, preceded the descent, and the results were not unlike[2].
It is worthy of remark that the myth of S. Patrick’s Purgatory originated among the Kelts, and the reason is not far to seek. In ancient Keltic Mythology the nether world was divided into three circles, corresponding with Purgatory, Hell, and Heaven; and over Hell was cast a bridge, very narrow, which souls were obliged to traverse if they hoped to reach the mansions of light. This was—
“The Brig o’ Dread, na brader than a thread.”
And the Purgatory under consideration is a
