event which comes of it,
and if ever afterwards anything resembling this happens, they believe
that the event which comes of it will be similar.

83. Their divination is ordered thus:--the art is assigned not to any
man, but to certain of the gods, for there are in their land Oracles of
Heracles, of Apollo, of Athene, of Artemis, of Ares, and of Zeus, and
moreover that which they hold most in honour of all, namely the Oracle
of Leto which is in the city of Buto. The manner of divination however
is not yet established among them according to the same fashion
everywhere, but is different in different places.

84. The art of medicine among them is distributed thus:--each physician
is a physician of one disease and of no more; and the whole country is
full of physicians, for some profess themselves to be physicians of the
eyes, others of the head, others of the teeth, others of the affections
of the stomach, and others of the more obscure ailments.

85. Their fashions of mourning and of burial are these:--Whenever any
household has lost a man who is of any regard amongst them, the whole
number of women of that house forthwith plaster over their heads or even
their faces with mud. Then leaving the corpse within the house they go
themselves to and fro about the city and beat themselves, with their
garments bound up by a girdle 72 and their breasts exposed, and with
them go all the women who are related to the dead man, and on the other
side the men beat themselves, they too having their garments bound up by
a girdle; and when they have done this, they then convey the body to the
embalming.

86. In this occupation certain persons employ themselves regularly and
inherit this as a craft. These, whenever a corpse is conveyed to them,
show to those who brought it wooden models of corpses made like reality
by painting, and the best of the ways of embalming they say is that of
him whose name I think it impiety to mention when speaking of a matter
of such a kind; 73 the second which they show is less good than this and
also less expensive; and the third is the least expensive of all. Having
told them about this, they inquire of them in which way they desire the
corpse of their friend to be prepared. Then they after they have agreed
for a certain price depart out of the way, and the others being left
behind in the buildings embalm according to the best of these ways
thus:--First with a crooked iron tool they draw out the brain thr