he 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 honour, 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 between God and
man. And it is from among them mostly that Hoh is elected. They write
very learned treatises and search into the sciences. Below they never
descend, unless for their dinner and supper, so that the essence of
their heads do not descend to the stomachs and liver. Only very seldom,
and that as a cure for the ills of solitude, do they have converse with
women. On certain days Hoh goes up to them and deliberates with them
concerning the matters which he has lately investigated for the benefit
of the state and all the nations of the world.

In the temple beneath one priest always stands near the altar praying
for the people, and at the end of every hour another succeeds him, just