PREFACE. XXXVI
in their lifetime, had worshipped idols. John, the son of sentios, used to go to take water to his father every bbath day, and one day when he came he heard «meone weeping sorrowfully and entreating his father, scying, “I beseech thee, my father and master, to Be herent the Lord for me that He may release me from itliese punishments, and may not cast me back again into jiem, for I have suffered greatly.” And I thought that it gas a man talking with my father, for the place was dark; yad I sat down and hstened to the mummy talking with ny father. Then my father said to the mummy, “From vhat nome comest thou?” and the mummy said, “I am om the town of Erment.” My father said to him, “Who ras thy father?” and the mummy said, “My father was \gricola, and my mother was Lustathia.” My father said, What god did they serve?” and the mummy said, “They Srorshipped Poseidon the god of the sea.” My father said to him, “Didst thou hear if Christ had come into the world ‘before thou diedst?” The mummy said, “No, my father, Yor my parents were pagans (gangeAunoc), and I followed heir manner of life. Woe, woe is me, that I was born nto the world. W hy did not my mother’s womb become /my grave? And it came to pass that when I came to the necessity of death the chief evil spirits (mmocmoxpaTwp) tame round about me, and they spoke of all the evil which if had wrought, saying, “Let me come now and deliver thee from the punishments into which thou wilt be thrown.” ‘And they had iron knives and iron goads pointed like spears in their hands, and they stuck them into me, and
