The people of Lamnid (LAMB-nid) are Lamnidans (lamb-NID-anz). The coast is on the Inner Sea. The ruler is a King.

"In Lamnid they eat four meals a day, and never fight," say the surrounding nations, and both are true.

This is a rich, passive society. Like Khem, the fertile land gives two crops a year of fine wheat, or barley. Cattle and sheep graze on the uplands, orchards dot the land.

Lamnidans eat a solid breakfast, light lunch, large evening meal, and late-night snack. They wash their hands before every meal. They eat sitting at a table, seated on high-backed wooden chairs with rush seats, or sun-dried mud stools for the poor. They use knives, forks and spoons, and wash their hands again after the meal.

People outside the cities live in huts made from bunches of reeds, gathered from the swamps which lie beside the rivers that criss-cross the flat plains. Sun-dried bricks mixed with chopped reeds are used in towns.

Women are sacred to Esgar, in the same sense that bulls are sacred to El: they may be holy, but they are not expected to have any say in the conduct of public affairs.

Marriage exists, but is primarily to support offspring: a man is responsible for all the children his wife bears while he is married to her. Either party can end a marriage by informing their friends, and having a proclamation made three times in the nearest city square. Both parties must then explain to a judge why they are divorcing, and the judge assigns an annual amount the man must pay for any children. Unless the woman has some complaint against her husband, agreed by the judges to be of a serious nature, she must again do her duty to Esgar, as she did when a virgin.

The priests administer justice. The King is the final arbiter, but is rarely called on to settle cases. A convicted male criminal is stripped of all his goods, and exiled to Nalvi or Ackaria in a loincloth. If the crime was serious, he is castrated first. A woman is exiled with half of everything she owns. Slavers lurk on the borders for such exiles.

Lamnidans are a clean people: they bath daily, often more than once a day, and never put on clothes that have not been cleaned since they were last worn.

There is a public dole of wheat, whey, olive oil and a kind of soap made from olive oil and ashes. This dole is available to anyone who declares themselves destitute, so that even the desperately poor are clean and fed. There are wide water-traps in every town, where the water bakes in the sun all day, and in the evening slaves or asses turn the treadmill to pump the water up a series of pipes. The water then cascades down over an inlaid pavement, and is guided back to the river or canal, but while it gushes, anyone can stand under it and wash themselves or their clothes. Nudity is common at these public bathes, but some people wash in their clothes, to save bother.

There are no customs about nudity, except that a slave caught lusting after a free woman can be whipped without trial.

Perhaps it is this shameless nudity which encourages the people of Lamnid to stay fit. The public gymnasiums are well used, and the rich have their own gymnasiums, where they exercise, bathe and have a massage.

Lamnid is dotted with ziggurats of the sun God. On the top tier priests conduct religious ceremonies, sacrifices are made, and auguries taken. Once these were human sacrifices, now they are bulls, or stuffed human-sized dolls.

A female virgin is linked directly to Esgar. Harming her is blasphemy. Her virginity is so powerful that it can only be removed on holy ground. Each girl must go to one of Esgar’s temples, and sit in the courtyard until a man approaches. She must not refuse him, whoever he is, whatever their relative stations. He escorts her to the holy grove that always lies near the temple, and they make love. If a child is born as a result, it is supported by the temple, and raised to be a priest.

There are also religious prostitutes in Esgar’s temples: they have beautifully furnished rooms, are highly skilled, and elaborately trained. A charge of 10 silvers is made, and most men agree that it was worth even more.

 There is a vigorous program of public works: building and repairing canals and roads, and maintaining the sewage systems in the cities, are the major expenditures.

They are so rich, say other nations, that they curtain the floor: in the houses of the rich, the tiled floor is often covered with a rug.

Thin, crisp slices of barley bread, or barley-porridge, are the staple foods of the poor. Other people eat leavened bread, and cakes containing sesame oil. Honey is used, but the main sweetener is date-syrup. Meat and poultry are eaten by the well-off, and fish by everyone.

The main drink is beer, or date wine, since it is too hot for good-quality wine to be made. Milk is also relished as a drink, though it is soured before drinking.

 Semi-wild pigs scavenge for scraps in the streets, for which reason they are considered unclean, and are not supposed to be eaten. There is a saying in Lamnid, "To eat beef at the house of a poor man," which means to commit a sin or crime accidentally-on-purpose.

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