piece of meat they watch what tree it sits upon. And on whatever tree it perches, they carve their wooden image, called _dædalum_, from the wood of this tree. This is the way the Platæans privately celebrate their little festival Dædala: but the great festival of Dædala is a festival for all Bœotia and celebrated every sixth year; for that was the interval during which the festival was discontinued when the Platæans were in exile. And 14 wooden statues are provided by them every year for the little festival Dædala, which the following draw lots for, the Platæans, the Coronæans, the Thespians, the Tanagræans, the Chæroneans, the Orchomenians, the Lebadeans, and the Thebans: for they thought fit to be reconciled with the Platæans, and to join their gathering, and to send their sacrifice to the festival, when Cassander the son of Antipater restored Thebes. And all the small towns which are of lesser note contribute to the festival. They deck the statue and take it to the Asopus on a waggon, and place a bride on it, and draw lots for the order of the procession, and drive their waggons from the river to the top of Cithæron, where an altar is prepared for them constructed in the following manner. They get square pieces of wood about the same size, and pile them up one upon one another as if they were making a stone building, and raise it to a good height by adding firewood. The chief magistrates of each town sacrifice a cow to Hera and a bull to Zeus, and they burn on the altar all together the victims (full of wine and incense) and the wooden images, and private people offer their sacrifices as well as the rich, only they sacrifice smaller animals as sheep, and all the sacrifices are burnt together. And the fire consumes the altar as well as the sacrifices, the flame is prodigious and visible for an immense distance. And about 15 stades lower than the top of the mountain where they build this altar is a cave of the Nymphs of Mount Cithæron, called Sphragidion, where tradition says those Nymphs prophesied in ancient times. CHAPTER IV. The Platæans have also a temple to Arean Athene, which was built from the spoil given to them by the Athenians after the battle of Marathon. The statue of the goddess is wooden but gilt over: the head and fingers and toes are of Pentelican marble. In size it is nearly as large as the brazen one in the Acropolis, (which the Athenians dedicated as the firstfruits of the battle at Marathon,) and is also the work of Phidias. And there are paintings in the temple by Polygnotus, Odysseus having just slain the suitors, and by Onatas the first expedition of Adrastus and the Argives against Thebes. These paintings are on the walls in the vestibule of the temple, and at the base of the statue of the goddess is an effigy of Arimnestus, who commanded the Platæans in the fight against Mardonius and still earlier at Marathon.