forbearance from injuries. The generals replied that they would
consult with the army about the matter. Meanwhile they gave them a
hospitable reception, to which they invited certain members of the
army whose claims were obvious. They sacrificed some of the captive
cattle and other sacrificial beasts, and with these they furnished
forth a sufficiently festal entertainment, and reclining on their
truckle beds, fell to eating and drinking out of beakers made of horn
which they happened to find in the country.

But as soon as the libation was ended and they had sung the hymn, up
got first some Thracians, who performed a dance under arms to the
sound of a pipe, leaping high into the air with much nimbleness, and
brandishing their swords, till at last one man struck his fellow, and
every one thought he was really wounded, so skilfully and artistically 6
did he fall, and the Paphlagonians screamed out. Then he that gave the
blow stripped the other of his arms, and marched off chanting the
"Sitalcas[1]," whilst others of the Thracians bore off the other, who
lay as if dead, though he had not received even a scratch.

[1] I.e. the national Thracian hymn; for Sitalcas the king, a national
hero, see Thuc. ii. 29.

After this some Aenianians[2] and Magnesians got up and fell to
dancing the Carpaea, as it is called, under arms. This was the manner
of the dance: one man lays aside his arms and proceeds to drive a yoke
of oxen, and while he drives he sows, turning him about frequently, as
though he were afraid of something; up comes a cattle-lifter, and no
sooner does the ploughman catch sight of him afar, than he snatches up
his arms and confronts him. They fight in front of his team, and all
in rhythm to the sound of the pipe. At last the robber binds the