"On the contrary, the souls who had sojourned in the subterranean region, and who had both the experience of their own sufferings, and the knowledge of the misfortunes of others, were cautious in their choice. This experience on one side, and that inexperience on the other, together with the fate which decided the rank for the choice, were the cause that the most of the souls exchanged a good condition for a bad one, and a bad one for a good one. He also said, that it was a strange spectacle to see in what manner each soul made her choice, nothing was more extraordinary, nor more pitiful; the most of them were guided in their choice by the habits they had contracted in their previous life. He had seen the soul of Orpheus choosing the condition of a swan, from hatred to women who had killed him, and from whom he did not wish to receive birth. He saw the soul of Thamyris choosing the condition of nightingale; likewise he saw a swan and several other birds choosing the human condition. "Another soul had chosen the condition of a lion; it was that of Ajax, son of Telamon, who, remembering the offense she had received in the judgments rendered about the arms of Achilles, refused to take again a human body. Then came the soul of Agamemnon, who, from antipathy against mankind on account of her past sufferings, chose the condition of an eagle. The soul of Atalante, desirous of the athletic honors, chose to be a champion. The soul of Epee, son of Panope, preferred the condition of a woman skillful in handiworks. The soul of the buffoon Thersite came one of the last, and entered the body of a monkey. There were, Her added, souls of animals which exchanged their condition against ours, and human souls which passed into bodies of beasts. The souls indistinctly passed from the bodies of animals into human bodies, and from human bodies into bodies of animals; those of the righteous into species of a higher order.