most loved by their husband; and she who is preferred by the decision
and so honoured, is first praised by both men and women, then her
throat is cut over the tomb by her nearest of kin, and afterwards she
is buried together with her husband; and the others are exceedingly
grieved at it, for this is counted as the greatest reproach to them.
6. Of the other Thracians the custom is to sell their children to be
carried away out of the country; and over their maidens they do not
keep watch, but allow them to have commerce with whatever men they
please, but over their wives they keep very great watch; and they buy
their wives for great sums of money from their parents. To be pricked
with figures is accounted a mark of noble rank, and not to be so
marked is a sign of low birth.[4] Not to work is counted most
honourable, and to be a worker of the soil is above all things
dishonourable: to live on war and plunder is the most honourable
thing. 7. These are their most remarkable customs; and of the gods
they worship only Ares and Dionysos and Artemis. Their kings, however,
apart from the rest of the people, worship Hermes more than all gods,
and swear by him alone; and they say that they are descended from
Hermes. 8. The manner of burial for the rich among them is this:--for
three days they expose the corpse to view, and they slay all kinds of
victims and feast, having first made lamentation. Then they perform
the burial rites, either consuming the body with fire or covering it
up in the earth without burning; and afterwards when they have heaped
up a mound they celebrate games with every kind of contest, in which
reasonably the greatest prizes are assigned for single combat.[5] This
is the manner of burial among the Thracians.

9. Of the region lying further on towards the North of this country no
one can declare accurately who the men are who dwell in it; but the
parts which lie immediately beyond the Ister are known to be