sacred bread baked for them and they have each great quantity of flesh
of oxen and geese coming in to them each day, and also wine of grapes is
given to them; but it is not permitted to them to taste of fish: beans
moreover the Egyptians do not at all sow in their land, and those which
they grow they neither eat raw nor boil for food; nay the priests do not
endure even to look upon them, thinking this to be an unclean kind of
pulse: and there is not one priest only for each of the gods but many,
and of them one is chief-priest, and whenever a priest dies his son is
appointed to his place.

The males of the ox kind they consider to belong to Epaphos, and on
account of him they test them in the following manner:--If the priest
sees one single black hair upon the beast he counts it not clean for
sacrifice; and one of the priests who is appointed for the purpose makes
investigation of these matters, both when the beast is standing upright
and when it is lying on its back, drawing out its tongue moreover, to
see if it is clean in respect of the appointed signs, which I shall tell
of in another part of the history: he looks also at the hairs of the
tail to see if it has them growing in a natural manner; and if it
be clean in respect of all these things, he marks it with a piece of
papyrus, rolling this round the horns, and then when he has plastered
sealing-earth over it he sets upon it the seal of his signet-ring, and
after that they take the animal away. But for one who sacrifices a beast
not sealed the penalty appointed is death. In this way then the beast
is tested; and their appointed manner of sacrifice is as follows:--they
lead the sealed beast to the altar where they happen to be sacrificing,
and then kindle a fire: after that, having poured libations of wine over
the altar so that it runs down upon the victim and having called upon
the god, they cut its throat, and having cut its throat they sever the
head from the body. The body then of the beast they flay, but upon the