In consequence of certain traditions, they consider many indifferent
actions as criminal. One is, to thrust a knife into the fire, or any way to
touch a fire with a knife, to take meat from the pot with a knife, or even
to hew any thing with an axe near a fire; as they consider all these things
as taking away the force of the fire. Another is, to lean upon a whip, for
they use no spurs, or to touch arrows with their whip, to strike their
horse with their bridle, to take or kill young birds, or to break one bone
upon another. Likewise, to spill milk, or any drink, or food, on the
ground, or to make water in a house; for the last offence, if intentional,
a man is slain, or he must pay a heavy fine to the soothsayers to be
purified; in which case, the house, and all that it contains, has to pass
between two fires, before which ceremony no person must enter the house,
nor must any thing be removed from it. If any one takes a bit of meat that
he cannot swallow and spits it out, a hole is made in the floor of the
house, through which he is dragged and put to death. If any one treads on
the threshold of a house belonging to one of their dukes, he is put to
death. Many such things they account high offences.
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