"Yes by my shriveled hide", that is skin. Callimachus in Hecale [sc. uses this phrase. He goes on]: "yes by this tree, dry though it is."[1] The ancients were not inclined to swear by the gods, but by random things. Thus also Menander [writes]: "I call to witness this Apollo and the doors."[2] And Homer [writes]: "yes by this staff."[3] And Hekale said, "Yes by the ..." and does not add the [name of] the god. This [form of] speech trains [people] in piety.
[*nai ma\ ta/s] also [belongs] to this pattern and custom, as if one should say, "by the Graces."[4]