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They on the other hand who dwelt about Mount Pangaeum and in the
country of the Doberes, the Agrianians, and the Odomantians, and
they likewise who inhabited Lake Prasias, were not conquered by
Megabazus. He sought indeed to subdue the dwellers upon the lake,
but could not effect his purpose. Their manner of living is the
following. Platforms supported upon tall piles stand in the middle of
the lake, which are approached from the land by a single narrow
bridge. At the first the piles which bear up the platforms were fixed
in their places by the whole body of the citizens, but since that time
the custom which has prevailed about fixing them is this: they are
brought from a hill called Orbelus, and every man drives in three for
each wife that he marries. Now the men have all many wives apiece;
and this is the way in which they live. Each has his own hut, wherein
he dwells, upon one of the platforms, and each has also a trapdoor
giving access to the lake beneath; and their wont is to tie their baby
children by the foot with a string, to save them from rolling into the
water. They feed their horses and their other beasts upon fish, which
abound in the lake to such a degree that a man has only to open his
trap-door and to let down a basket by a rope into the water, and then
to wait a very short time, when he draws it up quite full of them.
The fish are of two kinds, which they call the paprax and the tilon.
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