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Now the most shameful of the customs of the Babylonians is as follows.

Every woman of the country must sit down in the precincts of Aphrodite once in her life and have commerce with a man who is a stranger.

And many women who do not deign to mingle with the rest because they are made arrogant by wealth,

drive to the temple with pairs of horses in covered carriages, and so take their place,

and a large number of attendants follow after them, but the greater number do thus.

In the sacred enclosure of Aphrodite sit great numbers of women with a great wealth of cord

about their heads. Some come, and others go, and there are passages in straight lines going between

the women in every direction, through which the strangers pass by and make their choice.

Here, when a woman takes her seat, she does not depart again to her house until one of the strangers

has thrown a silver coin into her lap and has had commerce with her outside, the temple,

and after throwing it he must say these words only,

I demand thee in the name of the goddess Maelita.

Now Milita is the name given by the Assyrians to Aphrodite, and the silver coin may be of any

value, whatever it is, she will not refuse it, and for that is not lawful for her, seeing that

his coin is made sacred by the act. And she follows the

man who has first thrown and does not reject any. And after that she departs to her house,

...