Kitap 11
4.6
Their kings, also, are excellent. At the present time, indeed, one king rules all the tribes, but formerly the several tribes were ruled separately by kings of their own according to their several languages. They have twenty-six languages, because of the fact that they have no easy means of intercourse with one another. The country produces also certain of the deadly reptiles, and scorpions and phalangia.Members of the spider family; but here, apparently, tarantulas (see Tozer, op. cit., p. 265). Some of the phalangia cause people to die laughing, while others cause people to die weeping over the loss of their deceased kindred.
4.7
As for gods, they honor Helius,The Sun. Zeus, and Selene,The Moon. but especially Selene;Cf. 12. 3. 31. her temple is near Iberia. The office of priest is held by the man who, after the king, is held in highest honor; he has charge of the sacred land, which is extensive and well-populated, and also of the temple slaves, many of whom are subject to religious frenzy and utter prophecies. And any one of those who, becoming violently possessed, wanders alone in the forests, is by the priest arrested, bound with sacred fetters, and sumptuously maintained during that year, and then led forth to the sacrifice that is performed in honor of the goddess, and, being anointed, is sacrificed along with other victims. The sacrifice is performed as follows: Some person holding a sacred lance, with which it is the custom to sacrifice human victims, comes forward out of the crowd and strikes the victim through the side into the heart, he being not without experience in such a task; and when the victim falls, they draw auguries from his fallAs among he Luistanians (3. 3. 6) and the Gauls (4. 4. 5). and declare them before the public; and when the body is carried to a certain place, they all trample upon it, thus using it as a means of purification.
