they always take note of the
courses of the moon and stars and thus reckon the measure of the days.
And when a time amounting to thirty-five days has passed in this long
night, certain men are sent to the summits of the mountains--for this is
the custom among them--and when they are able from that point barely to
see the sun, they bring back word to the people below that within five
days the sun will shine upon them. And the whole population celebrates a
festival at the good news, and that too in the darkness. And this is the
greatest festival which the natives of Thule have; for, I imagine, these
islanders always become terrified, although they see the same thing
happen every year, fearing that the sun may at some time fail them
entirely.

But among the barbarians who are settled in Thule, one nation only, who
are called the Scrithiphini, live a kind of life akin to that of the
beasts. For they neither wear garments of cloth nor do they walk with
shoes on their feet, nor do they drink wine nor derive anything edible
from the earth. For they neither till the land themselves, nor do their
women work it for them, but the women regularly join the men in hunting,
which is their only pursuit. For the forests, which are exceedingly
large, produce for them a great abundance of wild beasts and other
animals, as do also the mountains which rise there. And they feed
exclusively upon the flesh of the wild beasts slain by them, and clothe
themselves in their skins, and since they have neither flax nor any
implement with which to sew, they fasten these skins together by the
sinews of the animals, and in this way manage to cover the whole body.
And indeed not even their infants are nursed in the same way as among
the rest of mankind. For the children of the Scrithiphini do not feed
upon the milk of women nor do they touch their mother's breast, but they
are nourished upon the marrow of the animals killed in the hunt, and
upon this alone. Now as soon as a woman gives birth to a child, she
throws it into a skin and straightway hangs it to a tree, and after
putting marrow into its mouth she immediately sets out with her husband
for the customary hunt. For they do everything in common and likewise
engage in this pursuit together. So much for the daily life of these
barbarians.

But all the other inhabitants of Thule, practically speaking, do not
differ very much from the rest of men, but they reverence in great
numbers gods and demons