392. THAT IDOLATERS, SUCH AS THE AFRICANS AND THOSE LIKE THEM, AFTER THE LIFE OF THE BODY ARE GOVERNED BY WONDERFUL PHANTASIES, AND ARE THUS DEVASTATED There was shown me by a vision what kinds of phantasies remain after death, or what kind of life follows those who are idolaters. They seem to themselves to be turned into dusky little animals, and to inhabit little houses built of clay, from which they go out and return; thus they live contentedly enough, if only they are not infested by those who destroy their little mud hovels, whom they call devils, who indeed appeared before me as human in face, but still they were savage and implacable. These, as they say, destroy their little houses, and lacerate them, and like cats pursue and bite them; they greatly fear them. So they depart thence and build little houses elsewhere; but they are infested in like manner as before, and this until they become weary of that lowest kind of life. In the meanwhile they have a worship corresponding to their idolatrous worship; for there is a marble platform upon which [images] like those they had in their lifetime are carried around, which they adore from the heart.