MELPOMENE. 103

LX. Their mode of sacrifice in every place appoint­
ed for the purpose is precisely the same, and it is
this: the victim is secured with a rope, by its two fore
feet; the person who offers the sacrifice, standing be­
hind, throws the animal down by means of this rope;
asvit falls he invokes the name of the divinity, to
whom the sacrifice is offered; he then fastens a cord
round the neck of the victim, and strangles it, by
winding the cord round a stick; all this is done
without fire, without libations, or without any of the
ceremonies in use amongst us. When the beast is
strangled, the sacrificer takes off its skin, and pre­
pares to dress it.

LXI. As Scythia is very barren of wood, they have
the following contrivance to dress the flesh of the vic­
tim:—having flayed the animal, they strip the flesh
from the bones, and if they have them at hand, they
throw it into certain pots made in Scythia, and re­
sembling the Lesbian caldrons, though somewhat
larger; under these a fire is made with the bones. If
these pots cannot be procured, they enclose the flesh
with a certain quantity of water in the paunch of the
victim, and make a fire with the bones as before. The
bones being very inflammable, and the paunch with­
out difficulty made to contain the flesh separated from
the bone, the ox is thus made to dress itself, which
is also the case with the other victims. When the
whole is ready, he who sacrifices, throws down with
6ome solemnity before him the entrails, and the more
choice pieces. They sacrifice different animals, but
horses in particular.

LXII. Such are the sacrifices and ceremonies ob­
served with respect to their other deities; but to the
god Mars, the particular rites which are paid are
these:—in every district, they construct a temple to
this divinity, of this kind; bundles of small wood are
heaped together, to the length of three stadia, and
quite as broad, but not so high; the top is a regular
square, three of the sides are steep and broken, but
the fourth is an inclined plane forming the ascent.
To this place are every year brought one hundred
and fifty wagons full of these bundles of wood, to