herodotus

with them, while some of the men play the flute during the whole timeof the voyage, and the rest, both women and men, sing and clap theirhands; and when as they sail they come opposite to any city on the waythey bring the boat to land, and some of the women continue to do as Ihave said, others cry aloud and jeer at the women in that city, somedance, and some stand up and pull up their garments. This they do byevery city along the river-bank; and when they come to Bubastis theyhold festival celebrating great sacrifices, and more wine of grapes isconsumed upon that festival than during the whole of the rest of theyear. To this place (so say the natives) they come together year byyear[59] even to the number of seventy myriads[59a] of men and women,besides children. 61. Thus it is done here; and how they celebrate thefestival in honour of Isis at the city of Busiris has been told by mebefore:[60] for, as I said, they beat themselves in mourning after thesacrifice, all of them both men and women, very many myriads ofpeople; but for whom they beat themselves it is not permitted to me byreligion to say: and so many as there are of the Carians dwelling inEgypt do this even more than the Egyptians themselves, inasmuch asthey cut their foreheads also with knives; and by this it ismanifested that they are strangers and not Egyptians. 62. At the timeswhen they gather together at the city of Saïs for their sacrifices, ona certain night[61] they all kindle lamps many in number in the openair round about the houses; now the lamps are saucers full of salt andoil mixed, and the wick floats by itself on the surface, and thisburns during the whole night; and to the festival is given the name/Lychnocaia/ (the lighting of the lamps). Moreover those of theEgyptians who have not come to this solemn assembly observe the nightof the festival and themselves also light lamps all of them, and thusnot in Saïs alone are they lighted, but over all Egypt: and as to thereason why light and honour are allotted to this night,[62] about thisthere is a sacred story told. 63. To Heliopolis and Buto they go yearby year and do sacrifice only: but at Papremis they do sacrifice andworship as elsewhere, and besides that, when the sun begins to godown, while some few of the priests are occupied with the image of thegod, the greater number of them stand in the entrance of the templewith wooden clubs, and other persons to the number of more than athousand men with purpose to perform a vow, these also having all ofthem staves of wood, stand in a body opposite to those: and the image,which is in a small shrine of wood covered over with gold, they takeout on the day before to another sacred building. The few then whohave been left about the image, draw a wain with four wheels, whichbears the shrine and the image that is within the shrine, and theother priests standing in the gateway try to prevent it from entering,and the men who are under a vow come to the assistance of the god andstrike them, while the others defend themselves.[63] Then there comesto be a hard fight with staves, and they break one another's heads,