tely, and taking pity upon our first parents,
clothes them in the skins of beasts, to enable them to bear the
harsher air to which they are soon to be exposed.

Meantime Sin and Death peer forth through hell's open gateway, hoping
to each some glimpse of returning Satan. Weary of waiting, Sin finally
suggests to Death the folly of remaining idle, since Satan cannot fail
to succeed, and proposes that they follow him over the abyss, building
as they go a road to facilitate intercourse hereafter between hell and
earth. This proposal charms Death, whose keen nostrils already descry
the smell of mortal change, and who longs to reach earth and prey upon
all living creatures. These two terrible shapes, therefore, venture
out through the waste, and by making "the hard soft and the soft
hard," they fashion of stone and asphalt a broad highway from the
gates of hell to the confines of the newly created world.

They have barely finished this causeway when Satan--still in the
likeness of an angel--comes flying toward them, for after seducing Eve
he has lurked in the garden until from a safe hiding-place he heard
the threefold sentence pronounced by the judge. He too does not grasp
his doom, but, realizing that humanity is in his power, is hastening
back to Hades to make the joyful fact known. On encountering Sin and
Death, Satan congratulates them upon their engineering skill and sends
them on to work their will in the world, while he speeds along the
path they have made to tell the fallen angels all that has occurred.
In obedience to his orders a number of these are mounting guard, but
Satan, in the guise of a ministering spirit, passes through their
midst unheeded, and only after entering Pandemonium allows his native
majesty to shine forth. On becoming aware he is once more present, the
demons welcome him with a mighty shout. Then by an impressive gesture
Satan imposes silence and describes his journey, his success, and the
ease with which they can pass to and fro now that Sin and Death have
paved their way. To satisfy their curiosity he further depicts by what
means he tempted woman, and, although he admits he was cursed as well
as the fallen, does not appear dismayed. Raising their voices to
applaud him, his adherents are now surprised to hear themselves hiss,
and to discover they have all been transformed into snakes. Then Satan
himself, in the form of a dragon, guides them to a grove near by,
where they climb the trees and