7. Their enumeration was by tens; the people were divided into decades
and hundreds, like the Anglo-Saxons; and the whole nation into bodies of
500, 1000, and 10,000, with a governor over each.
8. They possessed castes; and the trade of the father descended to the
son, as in India.
9. They had bards and minstrels, who sung at the great festivals.
10. Their weapons were the same as those of the Old World, and made
after the same pattern.
11. They drank toasts and invoked blessings.
12. They built triumphal arches for their returning heroes, and strewed
the road before them with leaves and flowers.
13. They used sedan-chairs.
14. They regarded agriculture as the principal interest of the nation,
and held great agricultural fairs and festivals for the interchange of
the productions of the farmers.
15. The king opened the agricultural season by a great celebration, and,
like the kings of Egypt, he put his hand to the plough, and ploughed the
first furrow.
16. They had an order of knighthood, in which the candidate knelt before
the king; his sandals were put on by a nobleman, very much as the spurs
were buckled on the European knight; he was then allowed to use the
girdle or sash around the loins, corresponding to the toga virilis of
the Romans; he was then crowned with flowers.
Pages:
541
542
543
544
545
546
547
548
549
550
551
552
553
554
555
556
557
558
559
560
561
562
563
564
565