The fixth Book of the E N E I D. 37 



rites of fepulture, were obliged to wander in a melancholy con- 

 dition for the fpace of an hundred years, before they could be 

 permitted to pafs the river, or appear before any of the in- 

 fernal judges. Here Eneas met with his old pilot Palinurus, 

 who, in their laft voyage, having fallen overboard in the night, 

 and fwam to the main land of Italy, was there murdered by 

 the natives, who did not give themfelves the trouble to bury 

 him, but threw his body into the fea. He begged Eneas to 

 take him under his protection, and procure him a pafTage over 

 the Styx. " It cannot be, faid the Sybil ; you mud have pa- 

 " tience. In the place where you were murdered, there will 

 " foon be prodigies, which will induce the natives to perform 

 " your funeral rites, and call a promontory after your name ; 

 " and then you may pafs the river, but not before." Pali- 

 nurus acquiefced ; well pleafed to hear that fuch honours 

 awaited him. 



To inculcate this doctrine, that the foul would fuffer for 

 fome time in another world, if the body were not decently bu- 

 ried in this, and that the neglect of the funeral ceremonies is* 

 ofFenfive to fuperior beings, was a very warrantable fraud in the 

 lawgivers of Greece and Egypt ; as it would no doubt make 

 the people attentive to a duty, whereof we find that favage na- 

 tions are too apt to be forgetful. 



Our two adventurers were now approaching the river, when 

 Charon the ferryman, alarmed at the fight of a living man in 

 complete armour, called to the Trojan to flop, and give an 

 account of himfelf. The Sybil pacified Charon, by declaring 

 the name and quality of her fellow-traveller, and fhowing the 

 golden bough. They were then ferried over ; and the three- 

 headed dog Cerberus, preparing to attack them, was quieted 

 with a cake which the prieftefs had got ready for him, and which 

 he had no fooner fwallowed than he fell fait afleep. 



What could have given rife to this fable of Charon and his- 

 boat, it is not very material to enquire. Mythological writers' 



have 



