Giles says, "Think on it now, it's a deep thing, and dark as a pit." To what is he referring literally and symbolically?

Giles is referring to how everybody in the village doesn't seem to think twice about suing, double crossing and accusing their neighbour of all manner of things, "It suggest to the mind what the trouble be among us all these years...Think on it. Wherefore is everybody suing everybody else?" Symbolically Giles is saying that people's greed and lust for vengeance on their own neighbours is creating a pit of despair that will eventually swallow everybody.