=24.= At all their gatherings there is one and the same kind of amusement. This is the dancing of naked youths amid swords and lances that all the time endanger their lives. Experience gives them skill, and skill in turn gives grace. They scorn to receive profit or pay, for, however reckless their pastime, its reward is only the pleasure of the spectators. Strangely enough, they make games of chance a serious employment, even when sober, and so venturesome are they about winning or losing that, when every other resource has failed, on the final throw of the dice they will stake even their own freedom. He who loses goes into voluntary slavery and, though the younger and stronger of the players, allows himself to be bound and sold. Such is their stubborn persistency in a bad practice, though they themselves call it honor. Slaves thus acquired the owners trade off as speedily as possible to rid themselves of the scandal of such a victory. FOOTNOTES: [1] In chapters 11-20, immediately preceding the present passage, Caesar gives a comparatively full and minute description of Gallic life and institutions. He knew more about the Gauls than about the Germans, and, besides, it was his experiences among them that he was writing about primarily. [2] The Druids were priests who formed a distinct and very influential class among the Gauls. They ascertained and revealed the will of the gods and were supreme in the government of the tribes. Druids existed also among the Britons. [3] By Vulcan Caesar means the German god of fire. [4] Of the Suevi, a German tribe living along the upper course of the Danube, Caesar says: "They consider it their greatest glory as a nation that the lands about their territories lie unoccupied to a very great extent, for they think that by this it is shown that a great number of nations cannot withstand their power; and thus on one side of the Suevi the lands are said to lie desolate for about six hundred miles."--_Gallic War_, Bk. IV., Chap. 3. [5] This statement is an instance of Caesar's vagueness, due possibly to haste in writing, but more likely to lack of definite information. How large these districts and cantons were, whether they had fixed boundaries, and how the chiefs rendered justice in them are things we should like to know but are not told. [6] All dates from this point, unless otherwise indicated, are A.D. [7] In reality iron ore was abundant in the Germans' territory, but it was not until long after the time of Tacitus that much use began to be made of it. By the fifth century iron swords were common. [8] Coats of mail. [9] Defensive armor for the head and neck. [10] See Caesar's description of this mode of fighting.--_Gallic War_, Bk. I., Chap. 48.