There is an allusion to this custom in the book of Baruch (vi., 43), where it is said:--"The women also with cords about them, sitting in the ways, burn bran for perfume; but if any of them, drawn by some that passeth by, lie with him, she reproaches her fellow that she was not thought worthy as herself, nor her cords broken." Strabo in his sixteenth book testifies to the same effect, and he says that the custom dated from the foundation of the city of Babylon. The same writer states also that both Medes and Armenians adopted all the sacred rites of the Persians, but that the Armenians paid particular reverence to Anaitis, and built temples to her honour in several places, especially in Acilisene. They dedicated there to her service male and female slaves, and in this, Strabo says, there was nothing remarkable, but that it was surprising that persons of the highest rank in the nation consecrated their virgin daughters to the goddess. It was customary for these women, after being prostituted a long time at the temple of Anaitis, to be disposed of in marriage, no one disdaining a connection with such a person. He mentions what Herodotus says about the Lydian women, all of whom, he adds, prostituted themselves. But they treated their paramours with much kindness, entertaining them hospitably and frequently, making a return of more presents than they received, being amply supplied with means derived from their wealthy connexions. The Lydians indeed appear to have devoted themselves with the most shameless effrontery, for they not only attended the sacred fetes occasionally for the purpose, but practised prostitution for their own benefit. A splendid monument to Alyattes, the father of Croesus, built by the merchants, the artizans, and the courtesans, was chiefly paid for by the contributions of the latter, which far exceeded those of the others put together. It has been asserted by some writers that sacred prostitution was not practised in Egypt, but so much is known of the character of certain acts of worship in that country that the statement is regarded as of little worth. The worship of Osiris and Isis, which was very much like that of Venus and Adonis, was attended with excesses that indicate a very abandoned state of things. It is known that when the pilgrims were on their way to the fetes of Isis at Bubastis, the females indulged in the most indecent dances as the vessels passed the riverside villages, and historians declare that those obscenities were only such as were about to happen at the temple, which was visited each year by seven hundred thousand pilgrims, who gave themselves up to incredible excesses.