And There Is Not One Priest Only For Each Of The Gods But Many, And Of Them One Is Chief-Priest, And Whenever A Priest Dies His Son Is Appointed To His Place.

The males of the ox kind they consider to belong to Epaphos, and on account of him they test them in the following manner:

- If the priest sees one single black hair upon the beast he counts it not clean for sacrifice; and one of the priests who is appointed for the purpose makes investigation of these matters, both when the beast is standing upright and when it is lying on its back, drawing out its tongue moreover, to see if it is clean in respect of the appointed signs, which I shall tell of in another part of the history: he looks also at the hairs of the tail to see if it has them growing in a natural manner; and if it be clean in respect of all these things, he marks it with a piece of papyrus, rolling this round the horns, and then when he has plastered sealing-earth over it he sets upon it the seal of his signet-ring, and after that they take the animal away. But for one who sacrifices a beast not sealed the penalty appointed is death. In this way then the beast is tested; and their appointed manner of sacrifice is as follows: - they lead the sealed beast to the altar where they happen to be sacrificing, and then kindle a fire:

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