Page:Divine Comedy (Longfellow 1867) v1.djvu/176

156 Thereafter the hind feet, together twisted,

Became the member that a man conceals,

And of his own the wretch had two created.

While both of them the exhalation veils

With a new color, and engenders hair

On one of them and depilates the other,

The one uprose and down the other fell,

Though turning not away their impious lamps,

Underneath which each one his muzzle changed.

He who was standing drew it tow'rds the temples,

And from excess of matter, which came thither,

Issued the ears from out the hollow cheeks;

What did not backward run and was retained

Of that excess made to the face a nose,

And the lips thickened far as was befitting.

He who lay prostrate thrusts his muzzle forward,

And backward draws the ears into his head,

In the same manner as the snail its horns;

And so the tongue, which was entire and apt

For speech before, is cleft, and the bi-forked

In the other closes up, and the smoke ceases.

The soul, which to a reptile had been changed,

Along the valley hissing takes to flight,

And after him the other speaking sputters.