And now for the vapor-bath: on a framework of three sticks, meeting at the top, they stretch pieces of woolen cloth, taking care to get the joints as perfect as they can, and inside this little tent they put a dish with red-hot stones in it. Then they take some hemp seed, creep into the tent, and throw the seed on to the hot stones. At once it begins to smoke, giving off a vapor unsurpassed by any vapor-bath one could find in Greece. The Sythians enjoy it so much that they howl with pleasure. This is their substitute for an ordinary bath in water, which they never use.

Those who are guided by reason are generally successful in their plans; those who are rash and precipitate seldom enjoy the favour of the gods.

Adversity has the effect of drawing out strength and qualities of a man that would have laid dormant in its absence.

It is better to be envied than pitied.

The hastening of any undertaking begets error, from which great losses are wont to come.

I am bound to tell what I am told, but not in every case to believe it.

It is sound planning that invariably earns us the outcome we want; without it, even the gods are unlikely to look with favour on our designs.