ABSTRACT
[Here all the people go naked, only they wear a cloth just enough to cover their nakedness, which they tie behind 2 .] All the people of this country worship the ox for their god [and they eat not his flesh 3 ]; for they say that he is, as it were, a sacred creature. Six years they make him to work for them, and the seventh year they give him rest from all labour, and tum him out in some appointed public place, declaring him thenceforward to be a consecrated animal 4 . And they observe the following abominable 138superstition. Every morning they take two basins of gold or silver, and when the ox is brought from the stall they put these under him and catch his urine in one and his dung in the other. With the former they wash their faces, and with the latter they daub themselves, first on the middle of the forehead; secondly, on the balls of both cheeks; and, lastly, in the middle of the chest. And when they have thus anointed themselves in four places they consider themselves to be sanctified (for the day). Thus do the common people; and thus do the king and queen likewise.
