As well as Boswell, numerous people where interested in this rite.

Presented here [1.] are Boswell's translation of one of the various manuscripts he has, and [2.] a version from Jacob Goar's version of the rite, printed in the 17th century, translated by an independent scholar Nicholas Zymaris. and N., be sanctified with thy spiritual benediction, we beseech Thee, O Lord.

Some are fighting back, accusing the police and the council of cynicism and hypocrisy.And those around them -- despite knowing the sworn virgins are women -- treat them as men.The idea that a woman would need to forsake love and live as a man to control her own fate seems primitive to modern eyes.The process is not surgical -- in these mountains there is little knowledge that sex-change surgery is even possible.Rather, sworn virgins cut their hair and wear baggy men's clothes and take up manly livelihoods as shepherds or truck drivers or even political leaders.