24 REFUTATION OF THE IONIANS. BOOK II. but the Delta, which extends along shore from the Watch-tower of Perseus, as it is called, to the Pelusiac Salt-pans, a distance of forty schoenes, and stretches inland as far as the city of Cercasôrus, where the Nile divides into the two streams which reach the sea at Pelusium and Canôbus respectively. The rest of what is accounted Egypt belongs, they say, either to Arabia or Libya. But the Delta, as the Egyptians affirm, and as I myself am persuaded, is formed of the deposits of the river, and has only recently, if I may use the expression, come to light. If then they had formerly no territory at all, how came they to be so extravagant as to fancy themselves the most ancient race in the world? Surely there was no need of their making the experiment with the children to see what language they would first speak. But in truth I do not believe that the Egyptians came into being at the same time with the Delta, as the Ionians call it; I think they have always existed ever since the human race began; as the land went on increasing, part of the population came down into the new country, part remained in their old settlements. In ancient times the Thebaïs bore the name of Egypt, a district of which the entire circumference is but 6120 furlongs. This tower stood to the W. of the Canopic mouth; and, as Rennell supposes, on the point of Aboukir, not, as Strabo thinks, on a sandy point at the Bolbitine mouth. The Canopic was by some called the Heracleotic mouth, from the city of Hercules (see n.' ch. 113). The name Canopus, written more correctly by Herodotus KávwBos, said to signify χρύσεον ἔδαφος, has been derived from kahi noub, "golden land." The term "Canopic," applied to sepulchral vases with a human head, is quite arbitrary.-[G. W.] 7 The Greek, like the modern, name of Pelusium, is thought to have been derived from the mud that surrounded it, nλòs in Greek, and Teen in Arabic, signifying "mud." It is now called Teeneh. It is, however, very probably taken from the old Egyptian name, and not Greek. Larcher considers the rapixeíai to be called from the embalmed mummies preserved there, but the name evidently applies to the salt-pans, as in ch. 113, where Herodotus mentions others near the Canopic mouth.-[G. W.] Lepsius suggests that Pelusium means "Philistine-town" (Chronologie der Ægypter, vol. i. p. 341), and regards it as so called because it was the last town held by the Hyksos, whom he believes to have been Philistines, before their final expulsion from Egypt. 8 Or Cercasôrum. It is impossible to say which form Herodotus intended. CHAP. 16, 17. TRUE BOUNDARY-LINE OF ASIA. 25 16. If then my judgment on these matters be right, the Ionians are mistaken in what they say of Egypt. If, on the contrary, it is they who are right, then I undertake to show that neither the Ionians nor any of the other Greeks know how to count. For they all say that the earth is divided into three parts, Europe, Asia, and Libya, whereas they ought to add a fourth part, the Delta of Egypt, since they do not include it either in Asia or Libya. For is it not their theory that the Nile separates Asia from Libya? As the Nile therefore splits in two at the apex of the Delta, the Delta itself must be a separate country, not contained in either Asia or Libya. 17. Here I take my leave of the opinions of the Ionians, and proceed to deliver my own sentiments on these subjects. I consider Egypt to be the whole country inhabited by the Egyptians, just as Cilicia is the tract occupied by the Cilicians, and Assyria that possessed by the Assyrians. And I regard the only proper boundary-line between Libya and Asia to be that which is marked out by the Egyptian frontier. For if we take the boundary-line commonly received by the Though Egypt really belongs to the continent of Africa, the inhabitants were certainly of Asiatic origin; and the whole of the valley of the Nile has been peopled by the primeval immigration of a Caucasian race. This seems to be indicated also by the Bible history, where the grandsons of Noah are made the inhabitants of Ethiopia, Egypt, Libya, and Canaan; and Juba, according to Pliny, affirms with reason that the people of the banks of the Nile from Syene to Meroe, were not Ethiopians (blacks) but Arabs. Till a later time half Egypt was ascribed to Africa, "which extended to the sources of the Nile" (Strabo, ii. p. 170), and "the Tanais and Nile were the limits of Asia" (Plin. iii. Proœm.); but more reasonable people, says Strabo (i. p. 51), think the Arabian Gulf the proper separation of the two continents rather than the Nile. Ptolemy gives both banks of the Nile to Africa (iv. 5). Herodotus justly blames the inconsistency of making Egypt belong to neither continent, and of considering the country and its people a new creation. In Book iv. chs. 39 and 41, Herodotus does not mean to exclude Egypt both from Asia and from Libya, as he shows by mentioning the ships of Neco sailing from the Arabian Gulf round Libya to the Mediterranean coasts of Egypt (ch. 42); he treats Libya as a distinct region, lying W. of Egypt, and makes Egypt itself the division between it and Asia. But in a geographical point of view his description is very unsatisfactory. Diodorus seems to think that Herodotus made the Nile the boundary of Libya. —[G. W.] 26 10 Greeks, we must regard Egypt as divided, along its whole length from Elephantiné and the Cataracts to Cercasôrus, into two parts, each belonging to a different portion of the world, one to Asia, the other to Libya ; since the Nile divides Egypt in two from the Cataracts to the sea, running as far as the city of Cercasôrus' in a single stream, but at that point separating into three branches, whereof the one which bends eastward is 10 That is, the course of the Nile; which is made the boundary by Strabo (ii. p. 170), Mela (i. 1, 2, and 4), Dionysius Periegetes (1. 230), and, in one place, by Agathemer (i. 1). Scylax (Peripl. p. 105) and Pliny (H. N. v. 9) agree with Herodotus in assigning the whole of Egypt to Asia. Ptolemy (Geog. i. 1) is the first extant geographer who formally assigns the Red Sea and the Isthmus of Suez as the true boundary. In this he is followed by the Armenian Geography (§ 16), and, in his description of the three continents, by Agathemer (ii. 6, 7). Strabo calls it Cercesura, others Cercasorum. It is noticed again in chs. 15 and 97. Strabo shows it to have been in the same parallel as Heliopolis; and Herodotus considers the Delta to end at Heliopolis (ii. 7), which brings the point of the Delta nearly opposite the present Shoobra. Here the river separated into three branches, the Pelusiac or Bubastite to the E., the Canopic or Heracleotic to the W., and the Sebennytic which ran between them, continuing in the same general line of direction northward which the Nile had up to this point, and piercing the Delta through its centre. The Tanitic, which ran out of the Sebennytic, was at first the same as the Busiritic, but afterwards received the name of Tanitic, from the city of Tanis (now San), which stood on its eastern bank; and between the Tanitic and Pelusiac branches was the isle of Myecphoris, which Herodotus says was opposite Bubastis (ii. 166). The Mendesian, which also ran eastward from the Sebennytic, passed by the modern town of Man | soorah, and thence running by Mendes (from which it was called) entered the sea to the W. of the Tanitic. The Bolbitine mouth was that of the modern Rosetta branch, as the Bucolic or Phatmetic was that of Damietta, and the lower parts of both these branches were artificial, or made by the hand of man; on which account, though Herodotus mentions seven, he confines the number of the mouths of the Nile to five. These two artificial outlets of the Nile are the only ones now remaining, the others having either disappeared, or being dry in most places during the summer; and this fact seems to confirm an otherwise inexplicable prophecy of Isaiah (xi, 15), thought by some to apply to the Euphrates - (He) “shall smite it in its seven streams, and make men go over dry-shod." Most ancient writers agree in reckoning seven mouths, the order of which, beginning from the E., was-1. the Pelusiac or Pubastite; 2. the Saïtic or Tanitic; 3. the Mendesian; 4. the Bucolic or Phatmetic (now of Damietta); 5. the Sebennytic; 6. the Bolbitine (now of Rosetta); 7. the Canopic or Heracleotic; but eleven are mentioned by Pliny, to which he adds four others called false mouths." Most of these false mouths are described by Strabo as very shallow, being probably dry in summer; and there is reason to believe that the three great mouths were the Pelusiac, the Sebennytic, and the Canopic, which last was originally the only one (Herod. ii. 179) which strangers were allowed to enter. See note on ch. 178.-G. W.] CHAP. 18. AND ITS SEVEN MOUTHS. 27 called the Pelusiac mouth, and that which slants to the west, the Canobic. Meanwhile the straight course of the stream, which comes down from the upper country, and meets the apex of the Delta, continues on, dividing the Delta down the middle, and empties itself into the sea by a mouth, which is as celebrated, and carries as large a body of water, as most of the others, the mouth called the Sebennytic. Besides these there are two other mouths which run out of the Sebennytic called respectively the Saitic and the Mendesian. The Bolbitine mouth, and the Bucolic, are not natural branches, but channels made by excavation. 18. My judgment as to the extent of Egypt is confirmed by an oracle delivered at the shrine of Ammon, of which I had no knowledge at all until after I had formed my opinion. It happened that the people of the cities Marea and Apis, who live in the part of Egypt that borders on Libya, took a dislike to the religious usages of the country concerning sacrificial animals, and wished no longer to be restricted from eating the flesh of cows. So, as they believed them yv таúτην äureλos. Virgil (Georg. Though oxen were lawful food to the Egyptians, cows and heifers were forbidden to be killed, either for the altar or the table, being consecrated (not as Herodotus states, ch. 41, to Isis, 5 28 EXTENT OF EGYPT. BOOK II. selves to be Libyans and not Egyptians, they sent to the shrine to say that, having nothing in common with the Egyptians, neither inhabiting the Delta nor using the Egyptian tongue, they claimed to be allowed to eat whatever they pleased. Their request, however, was refused by the god, who declared in reply that Egypt was the entire tract of country which the Nile overspreads and irrigates, and the Egyptians were the people who lived below Elephantiné,5 and drank the waters of that river. 19. So said the oracle. Now the Nile, when it overflows, floods not only the Delta, but also the tracts of country on both sides the stream which are thought to belong to Libya and Arabia, in some places reaching to the extent of two days' journey from its banks, in some even exceeding that distance, but in others falling short of it. Concerning the nature of the river, I was not able to gain any information either from the priests or from others. I was particularly anxious to learn from them why the Nile, at the commencement of the summer solstice, begins to rise,' and continues to increase for a but as Strabo says) to Athor, who 5 5 Syene and Elephantine were the real frontier of Egypt on the S.; Egypt extending "from the tower (Migdol) of Syene" to the sea (Ezek. xxix. 10). When the frontier was extended southward by the conquests of the Pharaohs, lower Ethiopia to the second cataract (the modern Nubia) was still considered out of Egypt, though part of its dominions; and the places there are often designated as foreign."-[G. W.] By the "tracts thought to belong to Libya and Arabia," Herodotus means the lands about the lake Marcotis, and those on the canal which communicated with the Red Sea, as well as on the E. bank of the Pelusiac branch.-[G. W.] 7 Herodotus was surprised that the Nile should rise in the summer solstice and become low in winter. In the latitude of Memphis it begins to rise at the end of June, about the 10th of August it attains to the height requisite for cutting the canals and admitting it into the interior of the plain; and it is generally at its highest about the end of September. This |