And the Johnians practise their tub in the following manner: They
select eight of the most serviceable freshmen and put these into a
boat, and to each one of them they give an oar; and having told them
to look at the backs of the men before them they make them bend
forward as far as they can and at the same moment, and having put
the end of the oar into the water pull it back again in to them
about the bottom of the ribs; and if any of them does not do this or
looks about him away from the back of the man before him they curse
him in the most terrible manner, but if he does what he is bidden
they immediately cry out:
"Well pulled, number so-and-so."
For they do not call them by their names but by certain numbers,
each man of them having a number allotted to him in accordance with
his place in the boat, and the first man they call stroke, but the
last man bow; and when they have done this for about fifty miles
they come home again, and the rate they travel at is about twenty-
five miles an hour; and let no one think that this is too great a
rate, for I could say many other wonderful things in addition
concerning the rowing of the Johnians, but if a man wishes to know
these things he must go and examine them himself. But when they
have done they contrive some such a device as this, for they make
them run many miles along the side of the river in order that they
may accustom them to great fatigue, and many of them being
distressed in this way fall down and die, but those who survive
become very strong, and receive gifts of cups from the others; and
after the revolution of a year they have great races with their
boats against those of the surrounding islanders, but the Johnians,
both owing to the carefulness of the training and a natural
disposition for rowing, are always victorious.
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