There is one proverb (xiv. 32) which suggests a belief in immortality, or possibly in the Angel of Death: By his evil deeds the evil man is thrust downward, But the virtuous man hath confidence in his death. According to the Avesta every man is born with an invisible noose around his neck. When a good man dies the noose falls, and he passes to a beautiful region where he is met by a maid, to whom he says, "Who art thou, who art the fairest I have ever seen?" She answers, "O thou of good thoughts, good words, good deeds, I am thy actions." The evil man meets a leprous hag, embodiment of his actions, who by his noose drags him down through the evil-thought hell, the evil-word hell, the evil-deed hell, to the region of "Endless Darkness" (Yast xxii.). This darkness may be metaphorically spoken of in Proverbs xx. 20: He that curseth his father and mother, His lamp shall be put out in the blackest darkness. But generally the allusions to death in the Solomonic proverbs do not seem to allude to physical death. In x. 2 "virtue delivereth from death" is in antithesis to the unprofitableness of evil treasures, and in 16: The reward of a virtuous man is life; The gain of the wicked is sin. Here "life" and "sin" are in opposition. Other sentences to be compared are: The teaching of the wise is a fountain of life, To avoid the snares of death. (xiii. 14, cf. the Jahvist xiv. 27.) Understanding is a fountain of life to those who possess it, But the snare of fools is Folly. (xvi. 22.) He that hateth reproof shall die. (xv. 10.) The way of life is upward to the wise, So as to turn away from the grave (sheol) beneath. (xv. 24.) Death and life are in the power of the tongue, And they who love it shall eat its fruit. (xviii. 21.) (In the last clause "it" probably refers to "life," unless the pronoun be cancelled altogether.) The getting of treasures by a tongue of falsehood Is getting a fleeting vapour, delusions of death. (xxi. 6.) In the way of virtue is life, But the way of the by-path leadeth to death. (xii. 28.) The man who wandereth from the way of instruction Shall rest in the congregation of the phantoms. (xxi. 16.) The two proverbs last quoted may be usefully compared with the ancient Prologue (viii. ix.) already referred to in this chapter, as they are there reproduced pictorially in Wisdom and Dame Folly sitting at their respective doors. Wisdom offers long life and happiness: But he who wandereth from me doeth violence to his own life, All who hate me love death. (viii. 36.) Dame Folly tries to turn into her by-path those who are "proceeding straight in their course" (ix. 15), but her victim-- He knoweth not her phantoms are there, That her guests are in the underworld. (ix. 18.) The same Hebrew word Rephaim (phantoms or shades) is used here and in xxi. 16.