hority, nor endeavor to outshine his subjects either in his
garments, or any other finery; that he will be perpetually a lover of
truth, and propose to himself to reprove those that tell lies; that he
will keep his hands clear from theft, and his soul from unlawful gains;
and that he will neither conceal any thing from those of his own sect,
nor discover any of their doctrines to others, no, not though anyone
should compel him so to do at the hazard of his life. Moreover, he
swears to communicate their doctrines to no one any otherwise than as
he received them himself; that he will abstain from robbery, and will
equally preserve the books belonging to their sect, and the names of
the angels [5] [or messengers]. These are the oaths by which they secure
their proselytes to themselves.

8. But for those that are caught in any heinous sins, they cast them out
of their society; and he who is thus separated from them does often die
after a miserable manner; for as he is bound by the oath he hath taken,
and by the customs he hath been engaged in, he is not at liberty to
partake of that food that he meets with elsewhere, but is forced to eat
grass, and to famish his body with hunger, till he perish; for which
reason they receive many of them again when they are at their last gasp,
out of compassion to them, as thinking the miseries they have endured
till they came to the very brink of death to be a sufficient punishment
for the sins they had been guilty of.

9. But in the judgments they exercise they are most accurate and just,
nor do they pass sentence by the votes of a court that is fewer than
a hundred. And as to what is once determined by that number, it is
unalterable. What they most of all honor, after God himself, is the name
of their legislator [Moses], whom if any one blaspheme he is punished
capitally. They also think it a good thing to obey their elders, and the
major part. Accordingly, if ten of them be sitting together, no one of
them will speak while the other nine are against it. They also avoid
spitting in the midst of them, or on the right side. Moreover, they are
stricter than any other of the Jews in resting from their labors on the
seventh day; for they not only get their food ready the day before, that
they may not be obliged to kindle a fire on that day, but they will not
remove any vessel out of its place, nor go to stool thereon. Nay, on
other days they dig a small pit, a foot deep, with a paddle [which