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West of Lake Tritonis the Libyans are no longer wanderers, nor do
they practise the same customs as the wandering people, or treat their
children in the same way. For the wandering Libyans, many of them at
any rate, if not all - concerning which I cannot speak with certainty
- when their children come to the age of four years, burn the veins at
the top of their heads with a flock from the fleece of a sheep: others
burn the veins about the temples. This they do to prevent them from
being plagued in their after lives by a flow of rheum from the head;
and such they declare is the reason why they are so much more healthy
than other men. Certainly the Libyans are the healthiest men that I
know; but whether this is what makes them so, or not, I cannot
positively say - the healthiest certainly they are. If when the
children are being burnt convulsions come on, there is a remedy of
which they have made discovery. It is to sprinkle goat's water upon
the child, who thus treated, is sure to recover. In all this I only
repeat what is said by the Libyans.
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