'Have you been in the next one?' asked the worms. 'The wood is still hard.'
The first worm denied it. 'He wants to keep the find to himself,' said Pluizer to Johannes in a low voice.
Then they went forward again; Pluizer explained everything, and pointed out persons whom Johannes had known. They came to an ugly face with prominent, staring eyes, and thick dark lips and cheeks.
'This was a very fine gentleman,' said he in high glee. 'You should have seen him—so rich, so fashionable, so arrogant. He is as much puffed up as ever!'
And so they went on. There were lean and haggard faces with white hair that shone blue in the feeble light, and little children with large heads and old-looking, anxious features.
'These, you see, died first and grew old afterwards,' said Pluizer.
They came to a man with a flowing beard and parted lips, showing glistening white teeth. There was a round black hole in the middle of his forehead.
'This one lent Death a helping hand. Why had he not a little patience? He would have come here in the end.'
Through passage after passage, one after another, they passed, no end of them—straight-laid figures, with rigid, grinning faces, and motionless hands laid one over the other.
'Now I can go no further,' said the ear-wig. 'I do not know my way beyond this.'