Annals and Antiquities of Rajasthan, or the Central and Western Rajput States of India v2.c27.s4.3

v2.c27.s4.3

² “It was natural enough,” says Gibbon, “that the Scythians should adore with peculiar devotion the god of war; but as they were incapable of forming either an abstract idea, or a corporeal representation, they worshipped their tutelar deity under the symbol of an iron cimeter. If the rites of Scythia were practised on this solemn occasion,* a lofty altar, or rather pile of faggots, three hundred yards in length and in breadth, was raised in a spacious plain; and the sword of Mars was placed erect on the summit of this rustic altar, which was annually consecrated by the blood of sheep, horses, and of the hundredth captive” (Gibbon’s Roman Empire, ed. W. Smith, iv. 194 f.).