No nation regards the sanctity of a pledge (pistis) more seriously than the Arabs (arabioi). When two men wish to make a solemn compact, they get the service of a third, who stands betweeen them and with a sharp stone cuts the palms of their hands near the base of the thumb; then he takes a little tuft of wool from their clothes, dips it in their blood and smears the blood on seven stones which lie between them, invoking as he does so, the names of Dionysius and Urania; then the person who is giving the pledge, commends the stranger (xeinos) – or fellow citizen (astos) as the case may be – to his friends (philoi), who in their turn consider themselves equally bound to honour it. The only gods the Arabs recognise are Dionysius and Urania; the way they cut their hair – all round in a circle, with the temples shaved – is, they say, in imitation of Dionysius. Dionysius in their language is Orotalt, and Urania, Alilat.