ns. The
majority of them do not quit the harem, and have no other ambition than
to become speedily the mother of a numerous offspring. Those who openly
reject the rigid constraints of such a life, and who seek to share the
rank of the gods, seem to lose all self-restraint when they put off
the veil: like Ishtar, they exchange a life of severe chastity for
the lowest debauchery, and they subject their followers to the same
irregular life which they themselves have led. "Every woman born in the
country must enter once during her lifetime the enclosure of the temple
of Aphrodite, must there sit down and unite herself to a stranger. Many
who are wealthy are too proud to mix with the rest, and repair thither
in closed chariots, followed by a considerable train of slaves. The
greater number seat themselves on the sacred pavement, with a cord
twisted about their heads,--and there is always a great crowd there,
coming and going; the women being divided by ropes into long lanes, down
which strangers pass to make their choice. A woman who has once taken
her place here cannot return home until a stranger has thrown into her
lap a silver coin, and has led her away with him beyond the limits of
the sacred enclosure. As he throws the money he pronounces these words:
'May the goddess Mylitta make thee happy! '--Now, among the Assyrians,
Aphrodite is called Mylitta. The silver coin may be of any value, but
none may refuse it, that is forbidden by the law, for, once thrown, it
is sacred. The woman follows the first man who throws her the money, and
repels no one. When once she has accompanied him, and has thus satisfied
the goddess, she returns to her home, and from thenceforth, however
large the sum offered to her, she will yield to no one. The women who
are tall or beautiful soon return to their homes, but those who are ugly
remain a long time before they are able to comply with the law; some
of them are obliged to wait three or four years within the enclosure."*
This custom still existed in the Vth century before our era, and the
Greeks who visited Babylon about that time found it still in full force.

* Herodotus, i. 199: of. Stabo, xvi. p. 1058, who probably
has merely quoted this passage from Herodotus, or some
writer who copied from Herodotus. We meet with a direct
allusion to this same custom in the Bible, in the _Book of
Barueh_; "The women also, with cords about them, sitting in
the ways, burn bra