Moreover they take cow-dung and burn it, and make a powder
thereof; and make an ointment of it, and daub themselves withal, doing
this with as great devotion as Christians do show in using Holy Water.
[Also if they meet any one who treats them well, they daub a little of
this powder on the middle of his forehead.[NOTE 6]]
They eat not from bowls or trenchers, but put their victuals on leaves of
the Apple of Paradise and other big leaves; these, however, they use dry,
never green. For they say the green leaves have a soul in them, and so it
would be a sin. And they would rather die than do what they deem their Law
pronounces to be sin. If any one asks how it comes that they are not
ashamed to go stark naked as they do, they say, "We go naked because naked
we came into the world, and we desire to have nothing about us that is of
this world. Moreover, we have no sin of the flesh to be conscious of, and
therefore we are not ashamed of our nakedness, any more than you are to
show your hand or your face. You who are conscious of the sins of the
flesh do well to have shame, and to cover your nakedness."
They would not kill an animal on any account, not even a fly, or a flea,
or a louse,[NOTE 7] or anything in fact that has life; for they say these
have all souls, and it would be sin to do so.
