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Many of his other precepts also resembled those of the Pythagoreans. For instance, the Pythagoreans said:
‘Don't use a quart-measure as a seat’;
‘Don't poke the fire with a sword’;
‘When you set out for foreign parts, don't turn back’; and
‘To the celestial gods sacrifice an odd number, but an even number to the terrestrial’; and the meaning of all these precepts they would keep hidden from the vulgar. So in some of Numa's rules the meaning is hidden; as, for instance,
‘Don't offer to the gods wine from unpruned vines’ ;
‘Don't make a sacrifice without meal’;
‘Turn round as you worship’; and
‘Sit down after worship.’
Plutarch. Plutarch's Lives. with an English Translation by. Bernadotte Perrin. Cambridge, MA. Harvard University Press. London. William Heinemann Ltd. 1914. 1.
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