Histories

They eat bread, making loaves which they call “cyllestis,”[*](Loaves twisted to a point, apparently.) of coarse grain. For wine, they use a drink made from barley, for they have no vines in their country. They eat fish either raw and sun-dried, or preserved with brine.

Quails and ducks and small birds are salted and eaten raw; all other kinds of birds, as well as fish (except those that the Egyptians consider sacred) are eaten roasted or boiled.

After rich men's repasts, a man carries around an image in a coffin, painted and carved in exact imitation of a corpse two or four feet long. This he shows to each of the company, saying “While you drink and enjoy, look on this; for to this state you must come when you die.” Such is the custom at their symposia.

They keep the customs of their fathers, adding none to them. Among other notable customs of theirs is this, that they have one song, the Linus-song,[*](This is the hymn for a slain youth (said to typify the departure of early summer), Thammuz, Atys, Hylas, or Linus; the Semitic refrain ai lenu, “alas for us,” becomes the Greek ai)/linos, from which comes the name Linus.) which is sung in +Phoenicia (region (general)), Asia Phoenicia and Cyprus [33,35] (island), AsiaCyprus and elsewhere; each nation has a name of its own for this,