A black-robed figure, wearing a mask, then appeared with a flickering
light, and Pythagoras was led into a stone cell.
His head was shaved, and he was given a coarse robe and then left alone.
Toward the end of the day he was given a piece of black bread and a bowl
of water. This he was told was to fortify him for the ordeal to come.
What that ordeal was we can only guess, save that it consisted partially
in running over hot sands where he sank to his waist. At a point where
he seemed about to perish a voice called loudly, "Do you yet desire to
go on?"