Page:The geography of Strabo (1854) Volume 1.djvu/261

 fc. in. c. iv. 18. SPAIN. particularly those towards the north, not only their bravery, but likewise their cruelty and bruta For in the war against the Cantabrians, mothers their children sooner than suffer them to be captured ; and a young boy, having obtained a sword, slew, at the command of his father, both his parents and brothers, who had been made prisoners and were bound, and a woman those who had been taken together with her. A man being invited by a party of drunken [soldiers] to their feast, threw himself into a fire. These feelings are common both to theTel7ic, Thracian, and Scythian nations, as well as the valour not only of their men, but likewise of their women. These till the.. ground, 1 and after parturition, having ]3ut their husbands instead of them- selves tcTlbed, they wait upon them. Frequently in their employment they wash and swathe their infants, sitting down by some stream. JPosidonius tells us that In Liguria, his host Charmoleon, a man who came from Marseilles, related to him, that having hired some men and women to dig hisjand, one of the women was seized with the pains_ of _ labour, and going to a littlejlistance from where they were at work, she brought forth, and returned immediately to her work, for fear she might lose her pay. He observed that she was evidently working in considerable pain, but was not aware of the cause till towards evening, when he ascertained it, and sent her away, having given her her wages. She then carried her infant to a small spring, and having washed it, wrapped it up in as good swaddling clothes as she could get, and made the best of her way home. 18. Another practice, not restricted to the Iberians alone, is for two to mount on one horse, so that in the event of a conflict, one may be there to fight on foot. Neither are they the only sufferers in being tormented with vast swarms of mice, from which pestilential diseases have frequently ensued. This occurred to the Romans in Cantabria, so that they caused it to be proclaimed, that whoever would catch the mice should receive rewards according to the number taken, and [even with this] they were scarcely preserved, as they were suffering besides from want of corn and other necessaries, it being difficult to get supplies of corn from Aquitaine on account of 1 At the present day in Bilboa, the capital of Biscay, the vcmigfl_stufjc far more than the men ; they* load and unload vessels, anc ITeacts' burden^ which require two men to place there.