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295 PERSIAN CUSTOMS 295

until they learnt the capture but too certainly. Such, then, were the circumstances of the first taking of Babylon. (^Book /., Chaptera 190, 191.)

PERSIAN CUSTOMS

The customs which I know the Persians to observe are the following. They have no images of the gods, no temples nor altars, and consider the use of them a sign of folly. This comes, I think, from their not believing the gods to have the same nature with men, as the Greeks imagine. Th^ir wont, however, is to ascend the summits of the loftiest mountains, and there to offer sacrifice to Jupiter, which is the name they give to the whole circuit of the firmament. They i likewise offer to the sun and moon, to the earth, to fire, to water, and to the winds. These are the only gods whose worship has come down to them from an- cient times. At a later period they began the wor- ship of Urania, which they borrowed from the Ara- bians and Assyrians. Mylitta is the name by which the Assyrians know this goddess, whom the Arabians call Alilat, and the Persians Mitra.

To these gods the Persians offer sacrifice in the fol- lowing manner : they raise no altar, light no fire, pour no libations ; there is no sound of the flute, no put- ting on of chaplets, no consecrated barley-cake ; but the man who wishes to sacrifice brings his victim to a spot of ground which is pure from pollution, and there calls upon the name of the god to whom he in- tends to offer. It is usual to have the turban encir- cled with a wreath, most commonly of myrtle. The sacrificer is not allowed to pray for blessings on him- self alone, but he prays for the welfare of the kind.