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[145]
But in the judgments they exercise they are most accurate and just,
nor do they pass sentence by the votes of a court that is fewer than a
hundred. And as to what is once determined by that number, it is unalterable.
What they most of all honor, after God himself, is the name of their legislator
[Moses], whom if any one blaspheme he is punished capitally. They also
think it a good thing to obey their elders, and the major part. Accordingly,
if ten of them be sitting together, no one of them will speak while the
other nine are against it. They also avoid spitting in the midst of them,
or on the right side. Moreover, they are stricter than any other of the
Jews in resting from their labors on the seventh day; for they not only
get their food ready the day before, that they may not be obliged to kindle
a fire on that day, but they will not remove any vessel out of its place,
nor go to stool thereon. Nay, on other days they dig a small pit, a foot
deep, with a paddle (which kind of hatchet is given them when they are
first admitted among them); and covering themselves round with their garment,
that they may not affront the Divine rays of light, they ease themselves
into that pit, after which they put the earth that was dug out again into
the pit; and even this they do only in the more lonely places, which they
choose out for this purpose; and although this easement of the body be
natural, yet it is a rule with them to wash themselves after it, as if
it were a defilement to them.
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