above ground, his soul is down here in Ptolomea, undergoing the
penalty for his sins. Hearing this, Dante refuses to clear away the
ice, and excuses himself to his readers by stating "ill manners were
best courtesy to him." _Canto XXXIV._ Virgil now directs Dante's
glance ahead, until our poet dimly descries what looks like an immense
windmill. Placing Dante behind him to shield him a little from the
cruel blast, Virgil leads him past countless culprits, declaring they
have reached Judecca, a place where it behooves him to arm his heart
with strength. So stiff with cold that he is hovering between life and
death, Dante now beholds Dis or Satan,--Emperor of the Infernal
Regions,--sunk in ice down to his waist, and discovers that the wind
is caused by the constant flutter of his bat-like wings. He also
perceives that Satan is as much larger than the giants just seen, as
they surpass mankind, and states that, were the father of evil as fair
as he is foul, one might understand his daring to defy God.

"If he were beautiful
As he is hideous now, and yet did dare
To scowl upon his Maker, well from him
May all our misery flow."

Then Dante describes Satan's three heads, one red, one yellow and
white, and one green, declaring that the arch-fiend munches in each
mouth the sinners Judas, Cassius, and Brutus. After allowing Dante to
gaze a while at this appalling sight, Virgil informs his charge that,
having seen all, it behooves them to depart. With a brief order to
Dante to cling tightly around his neck, Virgil, seizing a moment when
Satan's wings are raised, darts beneath them, and clutching the
demon's shaggy sides painfully descends toward the centre of the
earth. Down, down they go until they reach the evil spirit's thighs,