They are religious excessively beyond all other men, and with regard to
this they have customs as follows:--they drink from cups of bronze and
rinse them out every day, and not some only do this but all: they wear
garments of linen always newly washed, and this they make a special
point of practice: they circumcise themselves for the sake of
cleanliness, preferring to be clean rather than comely. The priests
shave themselves all over their body every other day, so that no lice or
any other foul thing may come to be upon them when they minister to
the gods; and the priests wear garments of linen only and sandals of
papyrus, and any other garment they may not take nor other sandals;
these wash themselves in cold water twice in a day and twice again in
the night; and other religious services they perform (one may almost
say) of infinite number. They enjoy also good things not a few, for they
do not consume or spend anything of their own substance, but there is
sacred bread baked for them and they have each great quantity of flesh
of oxen and geese coming in to them each day, and also wine of grapes is
given to them; but it is not permitted to them to taste of fish: beans
moreover the Egyptians do not at all sow in their land, and those which
they grow they neither eat raw nor boil for food; nay the priests do not
endure even to look upon them, thinking this to be an unclean kind of
pulse: and there is not one priest only for each of the gods but many,
and of them one is chief-priest, and whenever a priest dies his son is
appointed to his place.