ay, eating only a little. But the general community eat
twice, and the boys four times, that they might satisfy nature. The
length of their lives is generally one hundred years, but often they
reach two hundred.

As regards drinking, they are extremely moderate. Wine is never given to
young people until they are ten years old, unless the state of their
health demands it. After their tenth year they take it diluted with
water, and so do the women, but the old men of fifty and upwards use
little or no water. They eat the most healthy things, according to the
time of the year.

They think nothing harmful which is brought forth by God, except when
there has been abuse by taking too much. And therefore in the summer
they feed on fruits, because they are moist and juicy and cool, and
counteract the heat and dryness. In the winter they feed on dry
articles, and in the autumn they eat grapes, since they are given by God
to remove melancholy and sadness; and they also make use of scents to a
great degree. In the morning, when they have all risen they comb their
hair and wash their faces and hands with cold water. Then they chew
thyme or rock parsley or fennel, or rub their hands with these plants.
The old men make incense, and with their faces to the east repeat the
short prayer which Jesus Christ taught us. After this they go to wait
upon the old men, some go to the dance, and others to the duties of the
state. Later on they meet at the early lectures, then in the temple,
then for bodily exercise. Then for a little while they sit down to rest,
and at length they go to dinner.

Among them there is never gout in the hands or feet, no catarrh, nor
sciatica, nor grievous colics, nor flatulency, nor hard breathing. For
these diseases are caused by indigestion and flatulency, and by
frugality and exercise they remove every humour and spasm. Wherefore it
is unseemly in the extreme to be seen vomiting or spitting, since they
say that this is a sign either of little exercise or of ignoble sloth,
or of drunkenness or gluttony. They suffer rather from swellings or from
the dry spasm, which they relieve with plenty of good and juicy food.
They heal fevers with pleasant baths and with milk-food, and with a
pleasant habitation in the country and by gradual exercise. Unclean
diseases cannot be prevalent with them because they often clean their
bodies by bathing in wine, and soothe them with aromatic oil, and by
the sweat of exercise they d