Page:The geography of Strabo (1854) Volume 1.djvu/260

 246 STRABO. CASAUB. 164. impulse, and living most corruptly. They do not attend to ease or luxury, unless any one considers it can add to the happiness of their lives to wash themselves and their wives in, ptale urine kept in tanks, and to rinse their teeth with it, which ""they say is the custom both with the Cantabrians and their neighbours. 1 This practice, as well as that of sleeping on the ground, is common both among the Iberians and Kelts. Some say that the Gallicians are atheists, but that the Keltiberians, and their neighbours to the north, [sacrifice] to a nameless god, every full moon, at night, before TKeir doors, the whole family passing the night in dancing and festival. The Vet- tones, the first tinifTTTiey came to a Roman camp, and saw certain of the officers walking up and down the roads for the mere pleasure of walking, supposed that they were mad, and offered to show them the way to their tents. For they thought, when not fighting, one should remain quietly seated at ease. 2 17. What Artemidorus relates concerning the adornment of certain of theirjvomen, must likewise be attributed to their barbarous customs. He says that they wear iron collars having crows fixed to them which bend over the head^andfall forward considerably over the forehead. When they wish they draw their veil over these .crows, so as to shade the whole face : this they consider an ornament. Others wear a tym- T pahium 3 surrounding the occiput, and fitting tight to the head as far as the ears, turning over [and increasing] little by little in height and breadth. Others again make bald the front of the head, in order to display the foreliead to greater advantage. Some twist their flowing hair round a small style, ajoot_j]igh, and afterwards cover it with a black veil. Of singularities like these many have been observed and recorded as to all the Iberian nations in common, but 1 Apuleius, Catullus, and Diodorus Siculus all speak of this singular custom. 2 A note in the French edition says, " This surprise of the Vettones is nothing extraordinary. Amongst all barbarous nations, savages especially, the promenade is an unknown exercise. When roused by necessity or passion, they will even kill themselves with fatigue ; at other times they remain in the most perfect inaction. The first thing which strikes a Turk on coming to any of the polished nations of Europe, is to see men pro- menading without any other aim but that of pleasure or health." 3 Head-dress shaped like a drum.