Page:Omniana 2.djvu/302

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292
OMNIANA.

cepts this odious part, commonly retains the name of Judas for life.[1]

Judas serves in Brazil for a Guy Faux to be carried about by the boys, and made the subject of an auto-da-fe. The Spanish sailors hang him at the yard arm. It is not long since a Spaniard lost his life at Portsmouth, during the performance of this ceremony, by jumping overboard after the figure.

The Armenians, who believe hell and limbo to be the same place, say that Judas, after having betrayed our lord, resolved to hang himself, because he knew Christ was to go to limbo, and deliver all the souls which he found there, and therefore he thought to get there in time. But the Devil was cunninger than he, and knowing his intent, held him over limbo till the Lord had past through, and then let him fall plum into hell[2].

  1. Hasselquist, p. 43.
  2. Thevenot.