ame is written in the book of heroes. They do not
bury dead bodies, but burn them, so that a plague may not arise from
them, and so that they may be converted into fire, a very noble and
powerful thing, which has its coming from the sun and returns to it. And
for the above reasons no chance is given for idolatry. The statues and
pictures of the heroes, however, are there, and the splendid women set
apart to become mothers often look at them. Prayers are made from the
state to the four horizontal corners of the world. In the morning to the
rising sun, then to the setting sun, then to the south, and lastly to
the north; and in the contrary order in the evening, first to the
setting sun, to the rising sun, to the north, and at length to the
south. They repeat but one prayer, which asks for health of body and of
mind, and happiness for themselves and all people, and they conclude it
with the petition "As it seems best to God." The public prayer for all
is long, and it is poured forth to heaven. For this reason the altar is
round and is divided crosswise by ways at right angles to one another.
By these ways Hoh enters after he has repeated the four prayers, and he
prays looking up to heaven. And then a great mystery is seen by them.
The priestly vestments are of a beauty and meaning like to those of
Aaron. They resemble Nature and they surpass Art.

They divide the seasons according to the revolution of the sun, and not
of the stars, and they observe yearly by how much time the one precedes
the other. They hold that the sun approaches nearer and nearer, and
therefore by ever-lessening circles reaches the tropics and the equator
every year a little sooner. They measure months by the course of the
moon, years by that of the sun. They praise Ptolemy, admire Copernicus,
but place Aristarchus and Philolaus before him. They take great pains in
endeavouring to understand the construction of the world, and whether or
not it will perish, and at what time. They believe that the true oracle
of Jesus Christ is by the signs in the sun, in the moon, and in the
stars, which signs do not thus appear to many of us foolish ones.
Therefore they wait for the renewing of the age, and perchance for its
end. They say that it is very doubtful whether the world was made from
nothing, or from the ruins of other worlds, or from chaos, but they
certainly think that it was made, and did not exist from eternity.
Therefore they disbelieve in Aristotle, who