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In other countries the priests have long hair, in Egypt their heads
are shaven; elsewhere it is customary, in mourning, for near
relations to cut their hair close: the Egyptians, who wear no hair at
any other time, when they lose a relative, let their beards and the
hair of their heads grow long. All other men pass their lives separate
from animals, the Egyptians have animals always living with them;
others make barley and wheat their food; it is a disgrace to do so in
Egypt, where the grain they live on is spelt, which some call zea.
Dough they knead with their feet; but they mix mud, and even take up
dirt, with their hands. They are the only people in the world- they
at least, and such as have learnt the practice from them - who use
circumcision. Their men wear two garments apiece, their women but
one. They put on the rings and fasten the ropes to sails inside;
others put them outside. When they write or calculate, instead of
going, like the Greeks, from left to right, they move their hand
from right to left; and they insist, notwithstanding, that it is they
who go to the right, and the Greeks who go to the left. They have
two quite different kinds of writing, one of which is called sacred,
the other common.
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