Guthlac's throat, and install himself in his cell, that
he might have the honour and glory of sainthood? But St. Guthlac
perceived the inward temptation (which is told with the naive honesty
of those half-savage times), and rebuked the offender into
confession, and all went well to the end.
There we may read, too, a detailed account of a Fauna now happily
extinct in the fens: of the creatures who used to hale St. Guthlac
out of his hut, drag him through the bogs, carry him aloft through
frost and fire--'Develen and luther gostes'--such as tormented
likewise St. Botolph (from whom Botulfston=Boston, has its name), and
who were supposed to haunt the meres and fens, and to have an
especial fondness for old heathen barrows with their fancied treasure
hoards; how they 'filled the house with their coming, and poured in
on every side, from above, and from beneath, and everywhere. They
were in countenance horrible, and they had great heads, and a long
neck, and a lean visage; they were filthy and squalid in their
beards, and they had rough ears, and crooked nebs, and fierce eyes,
and foul mouths; and their teeth were like horses' tusks; and their
throats were filled with flame, and they were grating in their voice;
they had crooked shanks, and knees big and great behind, and twisted
toes, and cried hoarsely with their voices; and they came with such
immoderate noise and immense horror, that him thought all between
heaven and earth resounded with their voices.
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