They had secret methods of communicating with one another, and exhibited a passion for riches, a fact that possibly accounts for their extended influence.

The most perfect were those "worthy of mounting the white horse," the "bearers of the Imperial seal," who were deprived of the testicles, penis, and scrotum.

The operation of castration among these people was performed at one stroke or at two different times, in the former case one cicatrix being left, and in the latter two.

The greater number--those who had submitted to the "first purification," conferring upon them the "lesser seal"-- had lost testicles and scrotum.

These people are said to have lost the "keys of hell," but to retain the "key of the abyss" (female genitals).