DOGS BARKING:
These are heard when Will is at the river bank. Barking or howling dogs are specifically connected with initiation into the Mysteries. Virgil tells us in the Aeneid VI that Aeneas hears dogs howling in the woods, and the Sybil - who is conducting him through the course towards his Initiation, tells the animals to be gone: "Hence, O ye profane", echoing the cry to exile the uninitiated from the ceremonies of Lesser and Greater Initiation. Aeneas must "march boldly forward" and ignore the dogs, so that howling or barking dogs are a test of his focus. Shakespeare has spirits in the shape of dogs appear at the entrance to Prospero's cell, and deter Stephano and Trinculo from their mischief. Ghostly dogs are connected with the ancient pagan rites of Initiation towards the final stages.