34. Many barbarous customs of the northern nations, as, for example, that of tattooing, which prevailed among the Illyrians and Thracians,(2117) must have fallen into disuse in Macedonia at a very early date: for the Greeks would not have forgotten to mention such evident proofs of barbarian descent. Even the usage of the ancient Macedonians, that every person who had not killed an enemy should wear some disgraceful badge, had been discontinued in the time of Aristotle.(2118) Yet at a very late date no one was permitted to lie down at table who had not slain a wild boar without the nets.(2119) It is greatly to be lamented that we know much less of the ancient customs of the Illyrians than of the Thracians, of whose singular and almost Asiatic usages we are sufficiently well informed. The doctrine of the immortality of the soul in the worship of Zalmoxis, the lamentations of the Trausi at the birth of a man,(2120) and the slaughter of the dearest wife on the grave of her husband among the Sintes and Mædi,(2121) point to a particular view of human life, foreign to the Grecian character, but familiar to many eastern nations.(2122) The prevailing custom of polygamy,(2123) the buying and inheriting of women, the selling of children as slaves,(2124) and the delight in intoxication,(2125) are traces of a genuine barbarian character; no one of which, as far as I am aware, can be discovered among the Macedonians: with whom, moreover, the Thracian names (_e.g._, Cotys, and those ending in _cetes_ and _sades_) never occur. 35. On the other hand, a military disposition, which still distinguished the Macedonians in the time of Polybius, personal valour, and a certain freedom of spirit, were the national characteristics of this people. Long before Philip organised his phalanx, the cavalry of Macedon was greatly celebrated, especially that of the highlands, as is shown by the tetradrachms of Alexander the First. In smaller numbers they attacked the close array of the Thracians of Sitalces, relying on their skill in horsemanship and on their defensive armour.(2126) Teleutias the Spartan also admired the cavalry of Elimea;(2127) and in the days of the conquest of Asia the custom still remained that the king could not condemn any person without having first taken the voice of the people or of the army.(2128)