Page:Divine Comedy (Longfellow 1867) v1.djvu/201

Rh This on the belly, that upon the back

One of the other lay, and others crawling

Shifted themselves along the dismal road.

We step by step went onward without speech,

Gazing upon and listening to the sick

Who had not strength enough to lift their bodies.

I saw two sitting leaned against each other,

As leans in heating platter against platter,

From head to foot bespotted o'er with scabs;

And never saw I plied a currycomb

By stable-boy for whom his master waits,

Or him who keeps awake unwillingly,

As every one was plying fast the bite

Of nails upon himself, for the great rage

Of itching which no other succor had.

And the nails downward with them dragged the scab,

In fashion as a knife the scales of bream,

Or any other fish that has them largest.

"O thou, that with thy fingers dost dismail thee,"

Began my Leader unto one of them,

"And makest of them pincers now and then,

Tell me if any Latian is with those

Who are herein; so may thy nails suffice thee

To all eternity unto this work."