This text is part of:
Search the Perseus Catalog for:
View text chunked by:
[128]
And as for their piety towards God, it is very extraordinary; for
before sun-rising they speak not a word about profane matters, but put
up certain prayers which they have received from their forefathers, as
if they made a supplication for its rising. After this every one of them
are sent away by their curators, to exercise some of those arts wherein
they are skilled, in which they labor with great diligence till the fifth
hour. After which they assemble themselves together again into one place;
and when they have clothed themselves in white veils, they then bathe their
bodies in cold water. And after this purification is over, they every one
meet together in an apartment of their own, into which it is not permitted
to any of another sect to enter; while they go, after a pure manner, into
the dining-room, as into a certain holy temple, and quietly set themselves
down; upon which the baker lays them loaves in order; the cook also brings
a single plate of one sort of food, and sets it before every one of them;
but a priest says grace before meat; and it is unlawful for any one to
taste of the food before grace be said. The same priest, when he hath dined,
says grace again after meat; and when they begin, and when they end, they
praise God, as he that bestows their food upon them; after which they lay
aside their [white] garments, and betake themselves to their labors again
till the evening; then they return home to supper, after the same manner;
and if there be any strangers there, they sit down with them. Nor is there
ever any clamor or disturbance to pollute their house, but they give every
one leave to speak in their turn; which silence thus kept in their house
appears to foreigners like some tremendous mystery; the cause of which
is that perpetual sobriety they exercise, and the same settled measure
of meat and drink that is allotted them, and that such as is abundantly
sufficient for them.
This work is licensed under a
Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 3.0 United States License.
An XML version of this text is available for download, with the additional restriction that you offer Perseus any modifications you make. Perseus provides credit for all accepted changes, storing new additions in a versioning system.