of those liba, or cakes, which the
young virgins of Babylonia and Persis, used to offer at the shrine of their
God, when they were to be first prostituted: for, all, before marriage,
were obliged to yield themselves up to some stranger to be deflowered. It
was the custom for all the young women, when they arrived towards maturity,
to sit in the avenue of the temple, with a girdle, or rope, round their
middle; and whatever passenger laid hold of it was entitled to lead them
away. This practice is taken notice of, as subsisting among the
Babylonians, in the epistle ascribed to the prophet Jeremiah; which he is
supposed to have written to Baruch. v. 43. [Greek: Haide gunaikes
perithemenai schoinia en tais hodois enkathentai thumiosai ta PITYRA; hotan
de tis auton aphelkotheisa hupo tinos ton paraporeuomenon koimethei, ten
plesion oneidizei, hoti ouk exiotai, hosper aute, oute to schoinion autes
dierrhage]. This is a translation from an Hebrew or Chaldaeic original; and,
I should think, not quite accurate. What is here rendered [Greek:
gunaikes], should, I imagine, be [Greek: parthenoi]; and the purport will
be nearly this: _The virgins of Babylonia put girdles about their waist;
and in this habit sit by the way side, holding their Pitura, or sacred
offerings, over an urn of incense: and when any one of them is taken notice
of by a stranger, and led away by her girdle to a place of privacy; upon
her return she upbraids her next neighbour for not being thought worthy of
the like honour; and for having her zone not yet broken or [909]loosed_. It
was likewise a Persian custom, and seems to have been universally kept up
wherever their religion prevailed. Strabo gives a particular account of
this practice, as it was observed in the temple of Anait in Armenia. This
was a Persian Deity, who had many places of worship in that part of the
world. _Not only the men and maid servants_, says the author, _are in this
manner prostituted at the shrine of the Goddess; for in this there would be
nothing extraordinary_: [910][Greek: Alla kai thugateras hoi epiphanestatoi
tou ethnous anierousi parthenous, hais nomos esti, kataporneutheisais polun
chronon para tei Theoi meta tauta dedosthai pros gamon; ouk apaxiountos tei
toiautei sunoikein oudenos.] _But people of the first fashion in the nation
used to devote their own daughters in the same manner: it being a religious
institution, that all young virgins shall, in honour of the Deity, be
prostit