The Pilgrim overtook a strange traveler on the way to the great city. "Wither do you go, O Death?" asked the man in dread. "I go to slay a thousand." On his flight from the blighted city, the man overtook the same traveler, and chided him, "You said you went to slay a thousand, but I found ten thousand dead there!" "True, astute Pilgrim," said Death, "I slew a thousand with plague, and nine thousand died of fright."