At last they discover a church, and in it three coffins.

Over the Holy Virgin's, the birds are warbling or flowers are blossoming; over John the Baptist's, lights are burning; over Christ's, angels are singing.
As might be expected, the Holy Virgin is a very popular subject of song.
In numerous ballads she delivers a temperance lecture to St.Vasily the Great on his drunkenness, putting to him various questions, such as, "Who sleeps through matins?
Who walks and riots during the liturgy ?" [St.Vasily being the author of a liturgy which is used on certain important occasions during the church year.] "Who has unwashed hands?
Who is a murderer ?" and so on, through a long list of peccadilloes and crimes.

The answer to each question is, "The drunkard." Poor St.Vasily dashes his head against a stone, and threatens to put an end to himself on the spot, if his one lapse in five and twenty years be not forgiven.
Accordingly the Holy Virgin steps down from her throne, gives him her hand, and informs him that the Lord has three mansions: one is the House of David, where the Last Judgment will take place; through the second flows a river of fire, the destination of wizards, drunkards, and the like; and the third is Paradise, the home of the elect.

The imagery in the very numerous and ancient poems on the Last Judgment, by the way, is purely heathen in character.

The ferryman over the river of fire sometimes acts as the judge, and the punishments to which sinners are condemned by him recall those mentioned in the AEneid, and in Dante's Divina Commedia, the frescoes on the walls of churches bearing out the same idea.
Adam and Eve naturally receive a share of the minstrel's attention, and "Adam's Wail" before the gates of Paradise is often very touching.