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Since we were in the dark, Mithrobarzanes led the way and I followed after, keeping hold of him, until we reached a very large meadow overgrown with asphodel, where the shades of the dead flitted squeaking about us. Going ahead little by little, we came to the court of Minos. As it chanced, he himself was sitting on a lofty throne, while beside him stood the Tormentors, the Furies, and the Avengers. From one side a great number of men were being led up in line, bound together with a long chain; they were said to be adulterers, procurers, tax-collectors, toadies, informers, and all that crowd of people who create such confusion in life. In a separate company the millionaires and the money-lenders came up, pale, pot-bellied, and gouty, each of them with a neck-iron and a hundred-pound “crow” upon him.We are left to conjecture as to the nature of Lucian’s “crow,” for the word does not seem to be used elsewhere in a similar application. The extreme weight, however, suggests something resembling ball-and-chain, a weight attached by a hook to a chain which perhaps was fastened to the neck-iron. It would have to be carried in the and. Standing by, we looked at what was going on, and listened to the pleas of the defendants, who were prosecuted by speakers of a novel and surprising sort. FRIEND Who were they, in Heaven’s name? Don’t hesitate to tell me that also.
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MENIPPUS You know these shadows that our bodies cast in the sunshine?
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FRIEND Why, to be sure!
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MENIPPUS Well, when we die, they prefer charges and give evidence against us, exposing whatever we have done in our lives; and they are considered very trustworthy because they always keep us company and never leave our bodies.
