or the proposition and result. The lot determines who shall
propose the competitors; and the result of the Senate, which of
the competitors shall be the magistrates. The whole, to begin
with the lot, proceeds in this manner:

The first secretary with an audible voice reads first the
list of the magistrates to be chosen for the day, then the oath
for fair election, at which the senators hold up their hands;
which done, another secretary presents a little urn to the
strategus, in which are four balls, each of them having one of
these four inscriptions: "First seat at the upper end," "First
seat at the lower end," "Second seat at the upper end," "Second
seat at the lower end." And look which of them the strategus
draws, the secretary pronouncing the inscription with a loud
voice, the seat so called comes accordingly to the urns: this in
the figure is the second seat at the upper end. The manner of
their coming to the side urns is in double files, that being two
holes in the cover of each side urn, by which means two may draw
at once. The senators therefore S, S-S, S are coming from the
upper end of their seats H, H-H, H to the side urns L, L. The
senators T T-T are drawing. The senator V has drawn a gold ball
at his side urn, and is going to the middle urn F, where the
senator W, having done the like at the other side urn, is already
drawing. But the senators X, X-X, X having drawn blanks at their
side urns, and thrown them into the bowls Y Y standing at the
feet of the urns, are marching by the lower end into their seats
again; the senator a having done the like at the middle urn, is
also throwing his blank into the bowl b and marching to his seat
again: for a man by a prize at a side urn gains no more than
right to come to the middle urn, where, if he draws a blank, his