[Sidenote: Jos. Jew. War, II, 8:7] To one who desires to enter their sect, admission is not immediately granted; but he is prescribed the same method of living as they use for a year during which he is still excluded, and they give him a small hatchet, and girdle and the white garment. And when during that time he has given evidence of self-control, he approaches nearer to their way of living and is allowed to share the waters of purification. However, he is not even now allowed to live with them, for after this demonstration of his fortitude, his character is tried two years more, and if he appears to be worthy, they then admit him into the society. But before he is allowed to touch their common food, he is obliged to swear to them awful oaths that in the first place he will show piety toward God and then that he will observe justice toward men, and that he will do no harm to any one either voluntarily or at the command of others, and that he will always hate the wicked, and help the righteous, and that he will show fidelity to all men and especially to those in authority, that he will be a lover of truth and denounce those who tell lies, and that he will keep his hands clean from theft, and his soul from unlawful gain. Moreover he swears to communicate their doctrines to no one otherwise than he received them himself, and that he will abstain from robbery, and that he will faithfully preserve the books of their sect and the names of the angels. [Sidenote: Jos. Jew. War, II, 8:8a, 9a-c] Those who are caught in any heinous sins they cast out of their society; and he who is thus expelled often dies miserably. And in the judgments they pronounce they are most exacting and just, nor do they pass sentence by the votes of a court having less than one hundred members, and what is determined by them is unalterable. What they most of all honor, after God himself, is the name of their legislator [Moses], whom, if any one blasphemes, he is punished by death. They also think it a good thing to obey their elders and the majority. They are stricter than any others of the Jews in resting from their labors on the seventh day, for they not only prepare their food the day before, that they may not be obliged to kindle a fire on that day, but they will not venture to move any vessel out of its place.