CANTO XVII.

"BEHOLD the beast with barbed tail so keen,

Who passes Alps, whom walls nor arms can stay, Behold, who plagues the world with breath unclean!" Thus to myself began my guide to say,

And therewith beckoned him to come ashore

Nigh to the marbled limits of our way.
Then hitherward that foul resemblance bore

Of fraud, and landed all his head and chest,
But to the brink advanced his tail no more.
His face to be a just man's face profest,

So seeming-gentle was his outward hue, And like a serpent's shape was all the rest. His arms all hairy from the armpits grew,

10

His back and breast, and both his flanks beside, With rings and knosps were painted through and

through:

15

5

I

No ground and pattern with more colors dyed
Have Turks or Tartars borne in banner ever,
Nor by Arachne have such webs been tied.
And as the wherries hang beside the river,
Partly within the water, part on land,
And mid yon guzzling Germans, as the beaver,
To wage his fishy warfare, taketh stand;

So stood that beast pernicious on the rim
Of stone, that compast and confined the sand.
All in the void his tail was left to swim,

Whose point, with deadly barb accoutred, went
As 'twere a scorpion's twining over him.
"Now," said my master, "must our steps be bent
A little sideways; now we have to steer
Where couches yonder beast malevolent."
So to the right-hand we descended here,

And ten full steps athwart the margin traced,
That from the sands and flames we might be clear.
And as we came up where the beast was placed,

A little further on the sands I saw

A nation sitting nigh the empty waste.

30

35

"That from the present zone thou mayest draw
Full profit, go thy way to yonder throng,"
My master bade me, "and observe its law.
"Tis meet thy reasonings with them be not long;

By thy return I shall bespeak," he said,
"The ministration of those shoulders strong."

And so afresh, along the extremest head

Of the seventh circle, where the wretched bands Were sitting, unaccompanied I sped.

40

45

Their anguish gushed out from their eyes, their hands,

To rescue them, went plying to and fro,

Now from the flames, now from the glowing sands. Not otherwise the dogs in summer go,

When stung by wasps, or gadflies, or by fleas, When mouth or paw from side to side they throw. Now looking on the face of some of these,

On whom the excruciating flame descended,

I could not one remembered feature seize.

But from the neck of each I saw suspended

A purse, that certain crest and colors bore, And therein seemed their eyes' food comprehended.

50

55

And as I walked along, and looked them o'er,
I saw in yellow purse an emblem blue,
That shape and 'havior of a lion wore.

Then in the further carriage of my view

Another, ruddier than blood, I note,

That held a goose of more than cream-white hue.
And then a spirit, on whose argent coat

In azure tint a teeming sow was set,

Cried to me,
Now go thy way, and since thou livest yet,
Know that my neighbor, named Vitalian,
This place upon my right-hand side must get.
I'm here with Florentines a Paduan;

"What dost thou along this moat?

60

65

70

Full oft they shout, until I long to close My ear, 'Let come our sovereign lord, the man Who three male goats upon his budget shows." And at the word he writhed his mouth, and threw

His tongue out, like an ox that licks his nose.

Then fearing to provoke his anger, who

Had warned me but a little there to bide, From these forwearied spirits I withdrew.

75

Already mounted I beheld my guide

Upon the back of that fell reptile, whence,

"Now be thou bold and confident," he cried.

66

By such a staircase must we go down hence;
Get thou in front, and I between will sit,
That so the tail may do thee no offence."
As one who hath so nigh the chilling fit

Of ague, that with nails already white

He shivers in the shade he shrinks to quit,

Such, when those words were uttered, was my fright;

But shame fell on me from the threats he cast,

Which makes a servant valiant in the sight

Of a good lord. Upon those shoulders vast

90

I set myself; I would, but voice no more
Obeyed my thoughts, have said, "embrace me fast."
But he that oft had succored me before

In perilous time, soon as I'd mounted so,
Within his arms enwound me and upbore.
Then to the shape he said, "Now, Geryon, go;
Remember what new freight thou dost convey,
And make thy circuits large, thy sinking slow."

35

95