are public brothels for males, and, actually, marriages; where the women go to war along with their husbands, and have their place, not in battle only, but also in command; where not only are rings worn in the nose, the lips, the cheeks, and the big toe, but rods of gold, very heavy, are thrust through the breasts and the buttocks; where, while eating, they wipe their fingers on their thighs, their private parts, and the soles of their feet; where children do not inherit, but brothers and nephews, and elsewhere nephews alone, except in succession to the prince; where, in order to regulate the community of goods which is customary there, certain magistrates with sovereign power have entire charge of the cultivation of the land and of the distribution of crops according to each one’s need; where they weep over the deaths of children and make rejoicing over those of old men; where they lie ten or twelve in a bed with their wives; where women who lose their husbands by a violent death may remarry, but not others; where they think so ill of the condition of women that they kill all the female children who are born there, and buy from their neighbours women for breeding; where husbands can repudiate [their wives] without cause, but not wives [their husbands] for any cause whatsoever; where husbands can lawfully sell their wives if they be sterile; where they have the body of the dead boiled and then pounded until it is like a broth, which they mix with their wine, and drink; where the most desirable sepulture is to be eaten by dogs, elsewhere by birds;[1] where they believe that the souls of the blessed live in perfect freedom, in delightful fields, supplied with all pleasures, and that it is they who make the echo we hear; where they fight in water, and discharge their arrows with sure aim while swimming; where, in token of submission, a man must raise his shoulders and hang his head, and remove his shoes when he enters the king’s palace; where the eunuchs who have the nuns in their charge lack nose and lips as well, so that they cannot be loved, and the priests put out their own eyes in order to become acquainted with the demons and to receive oracles; where every one makes a god of whatever he
- ↑ Gomara does not mention being eaten by birds; but see Plutarch, That vice alone is enough to make a man miserable.
