[60] were formerly held in equal veneration, but not with a servile
flattery, nor as though they made them goddesses. [61]

9. Of the gods, Mercury [62] is the principal object of their adoration;
whom, on certain days, [63] they think it lawful to propitiate even with
human victims. To Hercules and Mars [64] they offer the animals usually
allotted for sacrifice. [65] Some of the Suevi also perform sacred rites
to Isis. What was the cause and origin of this foreign worship, I have not
been able to discover; further than that her being represented with the
symbol of a galley, seems to indicate an imported religion. [66] They
conceive it unworthy the grandeur of celestial beings to confine their
deities within walls, or to represent them under a human similitude: [67]
woods and groves are their temples; and they affix names of divinity to
that secret power, which they behold with the eye of adoration alone.

10. No people are more addicted to divination by omens and lots. The
latter is performed in the following simple manner. They cut a twig [68]
from a fruit-tree, and divide it into small pieces, which, distinguished
by certain marks, are thrown promiscuously upon a white garment. Then, the
priest of the canton, if the occasion be public; if private, the master of
the family; after an invocation of the gods, with his eyes lifted up to
heaven, thrice takes out each piece, and, as they come up, interprets
their signification according to the marks fixed upon them. If the result
prove unfavorable, there is no more consultation on the same affair that
day; if propitious, a confirmation by omens is still required. In common
with other nations, the Germans are acquainted with the practice of
auguring from the notes and flight of birds; but it is peculiar to them to
derive admonitions and presages from horses also. [69] Certain of these
animals, milk-white, and untouched by earthly labor, are pastured at the
public expense in the sacred woods and groves. These, yoked to a