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Chapter 10  
     
1.
 On certain days a multitude flocks into the temple, and the Galli in great numbers, sacred as they are, perform the ceremonies of the men and gash their arms and turn their backs to be lashed.
 
2.
 Many bystanders play on the pipes the while many beat drums; others sing divine and sacred songs. All this performance takes place outside the temple, and those engaged in the ceremony enter not into the temple.
  
3.
 During these days they are made Galli.
 
4.
 As the Galli sing and celebrate their orgies, frenzy falls on many of them and many who had come as mere spectators afterwards are found to have committed the great act.
 
5.
 I will narrate what they do. Any young man who has resolved on this action, strips off his clothes, and with a loud shout bursts into the midst of the crowd, and picks up a sword from a number of swords which I suppose have been kept ready for many years for this purpose.
 
6.
 He takes it and castrates himself and then runs wild through the city, bearing in his hands what he has cut off. He casts it into any house at will, and from this house he receives women's clothing and ornaments.
 
7.
 Thus they act during their ceremonies of castration.
  
8.
 The Galli, when dead, are not buried like other men, but when a Gallus dies his companions carry him out into the suburbs, and laying him out on the bier on which they had carried him they cover him with stones, and after this return home.
 
9.
 They wait then for seven days, after which they enter the temple. Should they enter before this they would be guilty of blasphemy.
  
10.
 The laws which they observe are the following: Anyone who has seen a corpse may not enter the temple the same day; but afterwards, when he has purified himself, he enters. But those who are of the family of the corpse wait for thirty days, and after shaving their heads they enter the temple, but before they have done this it is forbidden.
  
11.
 They sacrifice bulls and cows alike and goats and sheep; pigs alone, which they abominate, are neither sacrificed nor eaten.
 
12.
 Others look on swine without disgust, but as holy animals.
 
13.
 Of birds the dove seems the most holy to them, nor do they think it right to harm these birds, and if anyone have harmed them unknowingly they are unholy for that day, and so when the pigeons dwell with the men they enter their rooms and commonly feed on the ground.
  
14.
 I will speak, too, about those who come to these sacred meetings and of what they do.
 
15.
 As soon as a man comes to Hierapolis he shaves his head and his eyebrows; afterwards he sacrifices a sheep and cuts up its flesh and eats it; he then lays the fleece on the ground, places his knee on it, but puts the feet and head of the animal on his own head and at the same time he prays that the gods may vouchsafe to receive him, and he promises a greater victim hereafter.
 
16.
 When this is performed he crowns his head with a garland and the heads of all those engaged in the same procession.
 
17.
 Starting from his house he passes into the road, previously bathing himself and drinking cold water. He always sleeps on the ground, for he may not enter his bed till the completion of his journey.
  
18.
 In the city of Hierapolis a public host receives him, suspecting nothing, for there are special hosts attached to each city, and these receive each guest according to his country. These are called by the Assyrians teachers, because they teach them all the solemn rites.
  
19.
 They sacrifice victims not in the temple itself, but when the sacrificer has placed his victim at the altar and poured a libation he brings the animal home alive, and returning to his own house he slays his victim and utters prayers.
  
20.
 There is also another method of sacrifice, as follows: They adorn live victims with ribbons and throw them headlong down from the temple's entrance, and these naturally die after their fall.
 
21.
 Some actually throw their own children down, not as they do the cattle, but they sew them into a sack and toss them down, visiting them with curses and declaring that they are not their children, but are cows.
 
22.
 They all tattoo themselves--some on the hands and some on the neck--and so it comes that all the Assyrians bear stigmata.
 
23.
 They have another curious custom, in which they agree with the Trœzenians alone of the Greeks. I will explain this too.
 
24.
 The Trœzenians have made a law for their maidens and youths alike never to marry till they have dedicated their locks to Hippolytus; and this they do.
 
25.
 It is the same at Hierapolis. The young men dedicate the first growth on their chin, then they let down the locks of the maidens, which have been sacred from their birth; they then cut these off in the temple and place them in vessels, some in silver vessels, some in gold, and after placing these in the temple and inscribing the name on the vessel they depart.
 
26.
 I performed this act myself when a youth, and my hair remains still in the temple, with my name on the vessel.
  

 
 
 

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