The one fell prone, erect the other drew, With cruel eyes continuing to glare, 'Neath which their muzzles metamorphose knew. The erect to his brows drew his. Of stuff to spare Of what he upward pulled, there was no lack; So ears were formed on cheeks that erst were bare. Of that which clung in front nor was drawn back, Superfluous, on the face was formed a nose, And lips absorbed the skin that still was slack. His muzzle who lay prone now forward goes; 130 Backward into his head his ears he draws Even as a snail appears its horns to lose. The tongue, which had been whole and ready was For speech, cleaves now; the forked tongue of the snake Joins in the other: and the smoke has pause.[665] The soul which thus a brutish form did take, Along the valley, hissing, swiftly fled; The other close behind it spluttering spake, Then, toward it turning his new shoulders, said Unto the third: 'Now Buoso down the way 140 May hasten crawling, as I earlier sped.' Ballast which in the Seventh Bolgia lay Thus saw I shift and change. Be my excuse The novel theme,[666] if swerves my pen astray. And though these things mine eyesight might confuse A little, and my mind with fear divide, Such secrecy they fleeing could not use But that Puccio Sciancatto plain I spied; And he alone of the companions three Who came at first, was left unmodified. 150 For the other, tears, Gaville,[667] are shed by thee. FOOTNOTES: [649] _The robber, etc._: By means of his prophecy Fucci has, after a fashion, taken revenge on Dante for being found by him among the cheating thieves instead of among the nobler sinners guilty of blood and violence. But in the rage of his wounded pride he must insult even Heaven, and this he does by using the most contemptuous gesture in an Italian's repertory. The fig is made by thrusting the thumb between the next two fingers. In the English 'A fig for him!' we have a reference to the gesture. [650] _Pistoia_: The Pistoiese bore the reputation of being hard and pitiless. The tradition was that their city had been founded by such of Catiline's followers as survived his defeat on the Campo Piceno. 'It is no wonder,' says Villani (i. 32) 'that, being the descendants as they are of Catiline and his followers, the Pistoiese have always been ruthless and cruel to strangers and to one another.' [651] _Who down Thebes' wall_: Capaneus (_Inf._ xiv. 63). [652] _Maremma_: See note, _Inf._ xiii. 8. [653] _Cacus_: Dante makes him a Centaur, but Virgil (_Æn._ viii.) only describes him as half human. The pool was fed with the blood of his human victims. The herd was the spoil Hercules took from Geryon. In the _Æneid_ Cacus defends himself from Hercules by vomiting a fiery smoke; and this doubtless suggested the dragon of the text.