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The following are some of their customs; - Each man has but one
wife, yet all the wives are held in common; for this is a custom of
the Massagetae and not of the Scythians, as the Greeks wrongly say.
Human life does not come to its natural close with this people; but
when a man grows very old, all his kinsfolk collect together and offer
him up in sacrifice; offering at the same time some cattle also.
After the sacrifice they boil the flesh and feast on it; and those who
thus end their days are reckoned the happiest. If a man dies of
disease they do not eat him, but bury him in the ground, bewailing his
ill-fortune that he did not come to be sacrificed. They sow no
grain, but live on their herds, and on fish, of which there is great
plenty in the Araxes. Milk is what they chiefly drink. The only god
they worship is the sun, and to him they offer the horse in sacrifice;
under the notion of giving to the swiftest of the gods the swiftest of
all mortal creatures.
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