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B. III. C. III. § 8.

SPAIN.

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from plates of that metal. Those condemned to death are executed by stoning; parricides are put to death without the frontiers or the cities. They marry according to the customs of the Greeks.^[1] Their sick they expose upon the highways, in the same way as the Egyptians^[2] did anciently, in the hope that some one who has experienced the malady may be able to give them advice. Up to the time of [the expedition of] Brutus they made use of vessels constructed of skins for crossing the lagoons formed by the tides; they now have them formed out of the single trunk of a tree, but these are scarce. Their salt is purple, but becomes white by pounding. The life of the mountaineers is such as I have described, I mean those bordering the northern side of Iberia, the Gallicians, the Asturians, and the Cantabrians,^[3] as far as the Vascons^[4] and the Pyrenees. The mode of life amongst all these is similar. But I am reluctant to fill my page with their names, and would fain escape the disagreeable task of writing them, unless perchance the Pleutauri, the Bardyetæ, the Allotriges,^[5] and other names still worse and more out of the way than these might be grateful to the ear of some one.

8. The rough and savage manners of these people is not alone owing to their wars, but likewise to their isolated position, it being a long distance to reach them, whether by sea or land. Thus the difficulty of communication has deprived

↑ This is said to distinguish them from their neighbours, the inhabitants of Majorca and Minorca, whose peculiar marriage ceremonies are thus described by Diodorus Siculus, lib. v. c. 18: Παράδοξον δέ τι καὶ κατὰ τοὺς γάμους νόμιμον παῤ αὐτοῖς ἐστιν· ἐν γὰρ ταῖς κατὰ τοὺς γάμους εὐωχίαις, οἰκείων τε καὶ φίλων κατὰ τὴν ἡλικίαν ὁ πρῶτος ἀεὶ καὶ ὁ δεύτερος, καὶ οἱ λοιποὶ κατὰ τὸ ἑξῆς, μίσγονται ταῖς νύμφαις ἀνὰ μέρος, ἐσχάτου τοῦ νυμφίου τυγχάνοντος ταύτης τῆς τιμῆς.
↑ The mention of Egyptians here seems surprising, inasmuch as no writer appears to have recorded this as one of their customs. Of the Assyrians it is stated, both by Herodotus, i. 197, and also by Strabo himself, xvi. cap. i. 746. It seems therefore most probable that Assyrians are intended, Egyptians being merely an error of the transcriber.
↑ Inhabitants of Biscay.
↑ People of Navarre.
↑ Who the Pleutauri were, we do not know. The Bardyetæ appear to be the same people whom Strabo afterwards speaks of as Bardyiti, or Bardyali, who occupied a narrow slip of land between the east of Alava and the west of Navarre. The Allotriges Casaubon supposes to be the same as the Autrigones, who occupied the coast from Laredo to the Gulf of Bilboa.

[1] This is said to distinguish them from their neighbours, the inhabitants of Majorca and Minorca, whose peculiar marriage ceremonies are thus described by Diodorus Siculus, lib. v. c. 18: Παράδοξον δέ τι καὶ κατὰ τοὺς γάμους νόμιμον παῤ αὐτοῖς ἐστιν· ἐν γὰρ ταῖς κατὰ τοὺς γάμους εὐωχίαις, οἰκείων τε καὶ φίλων κατὰ τὴν ἡλικίαν ὁ πρῶτος ἀεὶ καὶ ὁ δεύτερος, καὶ οἱ λοιποὶ κατὰ τὸ ἑξῆς, μίσγονται ταῖς νύμφαις ἀνὰ μέρος, ἐσχάτου τοῦ νυμφίου τυγχάνοντος ταύτης τῆς τιμῆς.

[2] The mention of Egyptians here seems surprising, inasmuch as no writer appears to have recorded this as one of their customs. Of the Assyrians it is stated, both by Herodotus, i. 197, and also by Strabo himself, xvi. cap. i. 746. It seems therefore most probable that Assyrians are intended, Egyptians being merely an error of the transcriber.

[3] Inhabitants of Biscay.

[4] People of Navarre.

[5] Who the Pleutauri were, we do not know. The Bardyetæ appear to be the same people whom Strabo afterwards speaks of as Bardyiti, or Bardyali, who occupied a narrow slip of land between the east of Alava and the west of Navarre. The Allotriges Casaubon supposes to be the same as the Autrigones, who occupied the coast from Laredo to the Gulf of Bilboa.

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