Baleares

, three islands in the Mediterranean, modernly called Majorca , Minorca , and Yvica , on the coast of Spain. The word is derived from βαλλειν , to throw , because the inhabitants were expert archers and slingers, besides great pirates. We are told by Florus, that the mothers never gave their children breakfast before they had struck with an arrow a certain mark in a tree. When a woman was married, she was not admitted to her husband’s bed before she had received the embraces of all her relations. The inhabitants were naturally of a lascivious propensity, and in their wars they required nothing but females and wine, and often exchanged four men for one woman. Strabo , bk. 14 .— Florus , bk. 3 , ch. 8 .— Diodorus , bk. 5 .