Coming and passing onward, gazed upon us A crowd of spirits silent and devout. Each in his eyes was dark and cavernous, Pallid in face, and so emaciate That from the bones the skin did shape itself. I do not think that so to merest rind Could Erisichthon have been withered up 986 By famine, when most fear he had of it. Thinking within myself I said: “Behold, This is the folk who lost Jerusalem, When Mary made a prey of her own son.” 987 Their sockets were like rings without the gems; 988 Whoever in the face of men reads omo 989 Might well in these have recognized the m . Who would believe the odor of an apple, Begetting longing, could consume them so, And that of water, without knowing how?

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