Nasamones
group · 2 works · 2 mentions · 4 anchored passages
in the texts
The Histories
Populous Libyan people known for seasonal migration to Augila, polygamous and communal bridal customs, oath-taking at ancestral graves, dream divination, ritual pledge-drinking, and burying their dead in a sitting position.
Next west of these Auschisae is the populous country of the Nasamones, who in summer leave their flocks by the sea and go up to the land called Augila to gather dates from the palm-trees that grow there in great abundance and all bear fruit.
They bury their dead sitting, being careful to make the dying man sit when he releases his spirit, and not die lying supine.
As for their manner of swearing and divination, they lay their hands on the graves of the men reputed to have been the most just and good among them, and by these men they swear;
De Anima
People said to obtain oracles by lingering at their parents' tombs.
And if it be objected, concerning the nocturnal images, that the dead are often seen not in vain (for the Nasamones, by lingering at the tombs of their parents, catch their own oracles, as Heraclides or Nymphodorus or Herodotus writes;