, no one does work harmful to him, but only that
which is necessary for him. The occupations entailing less labour belong
to the women. All of them are expected to know how to swim, and for this
reason ponds are dug outside the walls of the city and within them near
to the fountains.

Commerce is of little use to them, but they know the value of money, and
they count for the use of their ambassadors and explorers, so that with
it they may have the means of living. They receive merchants into their
states from the different countries of the world, and these buy the
superfluous goods of the city. The people of the City of the Sun refuse
to take money, but in importing they accept in exchange those things of
which they are in need, and sometimes they buy with money; and the young
people in the City of the Sun are much amused when they see that for a
small price they receive so many things in exchange. The old men,
however, do not laugh. They are unwilling that the state should be
corrupted by the vicious customs of slaves and foreigners. Therefore
they do business at the gates, and sell those whom they have taken in
war or keep them for digging ditches and other hard work without the
city, and for this reason they always send four bands of soldiers to
take care of the fields, and with them there are the labourers. They go
out of the four gates from which roads with walls on both sides of them
lead to the sea, so that goods might easily be carried over them and
foreigners might not meet with difficulty on their way.

To strangers they are kind and polite; they keep them for three days at
the public expense; after they have first washed their feet, they show
them their city and its customs, and they honour them with a seat at the
council and public table, and there are men whose duty it is to take
care of and guard the guests. But if strangers should wish to become
citizens of their state, they try them first for a month on a farm, and
for another month in the city, then they decide concerning them, and
admit them with certain ceremonies and oaths.

Agriculture is much followed among them; there is not a span of earth
without cultivation, and they observe the winds and propitious stars.
With the exception of a few left in the city all go out armed, and with
flags and drums and trumpets sounding, to the fields, for the purposes
of ploughing, sowing, digging, hoeing, reaping, gathering fruit and
grapes; and they set in order