Histories

Thus (they say) these offerings come to Delos [25.2833,37.4] (Perseus)Delos. But on the first journey, the Hyperboreans sent two maidens bearing the offerings, to whom the Delians give the names Hyperoche and Laodice, and five men of their people with them as escort for safe conduct, those who are now called Perpherees [*](That is, probably, the Bearers.) and greatly honored at Delos [25.2833,37.4] (Perseus)Delos.

But when those whom they sent never returned, they took it amiss that they should be condemned always to be sending people and not getting them back, and so they carry the offerings, wrapped in straw, to their borders, and tell their neighbors to send them on from their own country to the next;

and the offerings, it is said, come by this conveyance to Delos [25.2833,37.4] (Perseus)Delos. I can say of my own knowledge that there is a custom like these offerings; namely, that when the Thracian and Paeonian women sacrifice to the Royal Artemis, they have straw with them while they sacrifice.

I know that they do this. The Delian girls and boys cut their hair in honor of these Hyperborean maidens, who died at Delos [25.2833,37.4] (Perseus)Delos; the girls before their marriage cut off a tress and lay it on the tomb, wound around a spindle