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<TEI.2><text lang="en"><body><div1 type="book" n="11" org="uniform" sample="complete"><div2 type="chapter" n="4" org="uniform" sample="complete"><p><milestone ed="P" n="7" unit="section" /></p>
<p>The gods they worship are the Sun, Jupiter, and the

Moon, but the Moon above the rest. She has a temple near

Iberia. The priest is a person who, next to the king, receives the highest honours. He has the government of the

sacred land, which is extensive and populous, and authority

over the sacred attendants, many of whom are divinely inspired, and prophesy. Whoever of these persons, being violently possessed, wanders alone in the woods, is seized by the

priest, who, having bound him with sacred fetters, maintains

him sumptuously during that year. Afterwards he is brought

forth at the sacrifice performed in honour of the goddess, and

is anointed with fragrant ointment and sacrificed together with

other victims. The sacrifice is performed in the following

manner. A person, having in his hand a sacred lance, with

which it is the custom to sacrifice human victims, advances out

of the crowd and pierces the heart through the side, which he

does from experience in this office. When the man has fallen,

certain prognostications are indicated by the manner of the

fall, and these are publicly declared. The body is carried away

to a certain spot, and then they all trample upon it, performing this action as a mode of purification of themselves.

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