Previous Page
| Next Page
|
victim]. They cut off the right hands of their prisoners, and consecrate them to the gods. 7
All the mountaineers are frugal, their beverage is water,
they sleep on the ground, and wear a profuse quantity of long
hair after the fashion of women, which they bind around the
forehead when they go to battle. note They subsist principally
on the flesh of the goat, which animal they sacrifice to Mars,
as also prisoners taken in war, and horses. They likewise
offer hecatombs of each kind after the manner of the Greeks,
described by Pindar,
To sacrifice a hundred of every [species]. note
They practise gymnastic exercises, note both as heavy-armed
soldiers, and cavalry, also boxing, running, skirmishing, and
fighting in bands. For two-thirds of the year the mountaineers
feed on the acorn, which they dry, bruise, and afterwards grind
and make into a kind of bread, which may be stored up for a long
period. They also use beer; wine is very scarce, and what is
made they speedily consume in feasting with their relatives. In
place of oil they use butter. Their meals they take sitting,
on seats put up round the walls, and they take place on these
according to their age and rank. The supper is carried round,
and whilst drinking they dance to the sound of the flute and
trumpet, springing up and sinking upon the knees. note
In Bastetania the women dance promiscuously with the men, each holding the other's hand. They all dress in black, the majority of them in cloaks called saga, in which they sleep on beds of straw. They make use of wooden vessels like the Kelts. The women wear dresses and embroidered garments. Instead of money, those who dwell far in the interior exchange merchandise, or give pieces of silver cut off
Previous Page
| Next Page
|
Strabo, Geography (English) (XML Header) [genre: prose] [word count] [lemma count] [Str.].