struck down screamed, shrieked, and roared; those who were walking near ran a little farther off, and soon again took no notice. Some coming near gazed at the wounded man, who was rattling in the throat, and when he contracted his feet and ceased breathing, they called each other together, sang round him, ate, drank, and shouted,[1] and some somewhat mocked at this. Then they seized the dead man and threw him over the boundaries into that gloomy pit which surrounds the world, and returning thence they again revelled; but none escaped Death, though they diligently endeavoured not to heed her, even when she closely brushed against them.
(Various Diseases.)
12. I then saw that not all whom she (Death) struck fell dead to the ground; some she merely wounded, lamed, blinded, deafened, or stunned. Some after their wound swelled out like a blister, others dried up as a splinter, others trembled like an aspen-leaf, and so forth. Thus did a larger number of men walk to and fro wounded, and with rotting and soured limbs, than there were healthy people.
(Help against this is vainly sought.)
13. And I saw many running to and fro who sold plasters, ointments, waters, as remedies for
- ↑ It is perhaps scarcely necessary to mention that Komensky here alludes sarcastically to the feasting at funerals that was particularly prevalent in his time.
