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The same king, I was also informed by the priests, afterwards
descended alive into the region which the Greeks call Hades, and
there played at dice with Ceres, sometimes winning and sometimes
suffering defeat. After a while he returned to earth, and brought
with him a golden napkin, a gift which he had received from the
goddess. From this descent of Rhampsinitus into Hades, and return
to earth again, the Egyptians, I was told, instituted a festival,
which they certainly celebrated in my day. On what occasion it was
that they instituted it, whether upon this or upon any other, I
cannot determine. The following are the ceremonies: On a certain day
in the year the priests weave a mande, and binding the eyes of one of
their number with a fillet, they put the mantle upon him, and take him
with them into the roadway conducting to the temple of Ceres, when
they depart and leave him to himself. Then the priest, thus
blindfolded, is led (they say) by two wolves to the temple of
Ceres, distant twenty furlongs from the city, where he stays awhile,
after which he is brought back from the temple by the wolves, and left
upon the spot where they first joined him.
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