And he besought him much that he would not send them away out of the country. It would appear as though this evil spirit felt (speaking in the name of the other evil spirits) that if they were driven out from their present dwelling-places, their condition would be changed for the worse; and that until the time should come when they were to be cast into the abyss, their best relief was to possess some materialism, to occupy flesh and blood, and that flesh and blood tenanted by a spiritual being, through whom they might torment others.
They could find no rest, no relief, but in this. "The unclean spirit, when he is gone out of the man, passeth through waterless places, seeking rest, and findeth it not" (Matthew 12:43). Even the swine were better than nothing; but that dwelling did not serve the evil spirits long.