priests of each separate subordinate State confess
their sins in the presence of Hoh. Thus he is not ignorant of the
wrongdoings of the provinces, and forthwith he removes them with all
human and heavenly remedies.

Sacrifice is conducted after the following manner: Hoh asks the people
which one among them wishes to give himself as a sacrifice to God for
the sake of his fellows. He is then placed upon the fourth table, with
ceremonies and the offering up of prayers: the table is hung up in
a wonderful manner by means of four ropes passing through four cords
attached to firm pulley-blocks in the small dome of the temple. This
done they cry to the God of mercy, that he may accept the offering, not
of a beast as among the heathen, but of a human being. Then Hoh orders
the ropes to be drawn and the sacrifice is pulled up above to the centre
of the small dome, and there it dedicates itself with the most fervent
supplications. Food is given to it through a window by the priests, who
live around the dome, but it is allowed a very little to eat, until it
has atoned for the sins of the State. There with prayer and fasting he
cries to the God of heaven that he might accept its willing offering.
And after twenty or thirty days, the anger of God being appeased, the
sacrifice becomes a priest, or sometimes, though rarely, returns below
by means of the outer way for the priests. Ever after, this man is
treated with great benevolence and much honor, for the reason that he
offered himself unto death for the sake of his country. But God does not
require death.

The priests above twenty-four years of age offer praises from their
places in the top of the temple. This they do in the middle of the
night, at noon, in the morning and in the evening, to wit, four times a
day they sing their chants in the presence of God. It is also their work
to observe the stars and to note with the astrolabe their motions and
influences upon human things, and to find out their powers. Thus they
know in what part of the earth any change has been or will be, and at
what time it has taken place, and they send to find whether the matter
be as they have it. They make a note of predictions, true and false,
so that they may be able from experience to predict most correctly. The
priests, moreover, determine the hours for breeding and the days for
sowing, reaping, and gathering the vintage, and are, as it were, the
ambassadors and intercessors and connection betwee