As in anguish of travail, the while the woman with tender care
Doth nurse him and feed, and for him the child-birth bath doth prepare.
The Sacred Mountain thereafter, and that land passed they by
Wherein the Mossynœcians dwell amid mountains high
In their towers of timber goodly-wrought, and they call the same
‘Mossyni,’ wherefrom moreover the nation hath gotten its name.
Strange is the justice of these, and customs uncouth have they.
Whatsoe’er we be wont to do before men in the sight of the day, {1020}
Or the market-stead, all this they perform their houses within;
And whatso we do in our chambers apart, they account it not sin