children, he at length acquainted his master, and by his command brought the children into his presence. When Psammitichus heard the same, he inquired what people call anything by the name of "Becos"; and on inquiry he discovered that the Phrygians call bread by that name. Thus the Egyptians, convinced by the above experiment, allowed that the Phrygians were more ancient than themselves. This relation I had from the priests of Vulcan at Memphis. But the Greeks tell many other foolish things, and moreover that Psammitichus, having had the tongues of some women cut out, then had the children brought up by these women. Such is the account they gave of the nurture of the children. I heard other things also at Memphis in conversation with the priests of Vulcan. And on this very account I went also to Thebes, and to Heliopolis, in order to ascertain whether they would agree with the accounts given at Memphis; for the Heliopolitans are esteemed the most learned in history of all the Egyptians. The parts of the narration that I heard concerning divine things I am not willing to relate, except only their names; and with these I suppose all men are equally well acquainted: but what more I shall relate of these matters, I shall relate from a necessity to keep up the thread of my story.

But as concerns human affairs, they agree with one another in the following account: That the Egyptians were the first to discover the year, which they divided into twelve parts; and they say that they made this discovery from the stars: and so far, I think, they act more wisely than the Grecians, in that the Grecians insert an intercalary month every third year, on account of the seasons; whereas the Egyptians, reckoning twelve months of thirty days each, add five days each year above that number, and so with them the circle of the seasons comes round to the same point. They say also that the Egyptians were the first who introduced the names of the twelve gods, and that the Greeks borrowed those names from them; that they were the first to assign altars, images, and temples to the gods, and to carve the figures of animals on stone; and most of these things they proved were so in fact. They added, that Menes was the first mortal who reigned over Egypt, and that in his time all Egypt, except the district of Thebes, was a morass, and that no part of the land that now exists below Lake Myris was then above water: to this place from the sea is a seven days' passage up the river. And they seemed to me to give a good account of this region. For it is evident to a man of common understanding, who has not heard it before, but sees it, that the part of Egypt which the Greeks fre

quent with their shipping is land acquired by the Egyptians, and a gift from the river; and the parts above this lake, during a three days' passage, of which, however, they said nothing, are of the same description. For the nature of the soil of Egypt is of this kind: when you are first sailing to it, and are at the distance of a day's sail from land, if you cast the lead you will bring up mud, and will find yourself in eleven fathoms water: this so far shows that there is an alluvial deposit.

The length of Egypt along the sea-coast is sixty schoeni, according as we reckon it to extend from the Plinthinetic Bay to Lake Serbonis, near which Mount Casius stretches: from this point then the length is sixty schoeni. Now, all men who are short of land measure their territory by fathoms; but those who are less short of land, by stades; and those who have much, by parasangs; and such as have a very great extent, by schoeni. Now, a parasang is equal to thirty stades, and each schoenus, which is an Egyptian measure, is equal to sixty stades. So the whole coast of Egypt is three thousand six hundred stades in length. From thence, as far as Heliopolis, inland, Egypt is wide, being all flat, without water, and a swamp. The distance to Heliopolis, as one goes up from the sea, is about equal in length to the road from Athens -that is to say, from the altar of the twelve gods to Pisa and the Temple of Olympian Jupiter. For whoever will compare these roads will find, by computation, that the difference between them is but little, not exceeding fifteen stades; for the road from Athens to Pisa is only fifteen stades short of one thousand five hundred stades, but the road from the sea to Heliopolis amounts to just that number. From Heliopolis upward Egypt is narrow, for on one side the mountain of Arabia extends from north to south and southwest, stretching up continuously to that which is called the Red Sea. In this mountain are the quarries whence the stone was cut for the pyramids at Memphis; here the mountain, deviating, turns to the parts above mentioned. But where its length is the greatest, I have heard that it is a two months' journey from east to west; and that eastward its confines produce frankincense. On that side of Egypt which borders upon Libya extends another rocky mountain, and covered with sand, on which the pyramids stand; and this stretches in the same direction as that part of the Arabian mountain that runs southward. So that from Heliopolis, the territory which belongs to Egypt is not very extensive; but for four days' sail up the river it is very narrow. Between the mountains

before mentioned the land is level, and in the narrowest part appeared to me to be not more than two hundred stades in breadth, from the Arabian mountain to that called the Libyan; but above this Egypt again becomes wide. Such, then, is the character of this country. From Heliopolis to Thebes is a voyage up of nine days; the length of this journey is in stades four thousand eight hundred and sixty, which amounts to eighty-one schoeni. Now, if we compute these stades together, the coast of Egypt, as I before explained, contains in length three thousand and six hundred stades: how far it is from the sea inland as far as Thebes I will next show, namely, six thousand one hundred and twenty stades; and from Thebes to the city called Elephantine, one thousand eight hundred stades.

The greater part of all this country, as the priests informed me, and as appeared to me also to be the case, has been acquired by the Egyptians. For the space between the abovementioned mountains, that are situated beyond the city of Memphis, seem to me to have been formerly a bay of the sea; as is the case also with the parts about Ilium, Teuthrania, Ephesus, and the plain of the Mæander, if I may be permitted to compare small things with great; for of the rivers that have thrown up the soil that forms these countries, not one can justly be brought into comparison, as to size, with any one of the five mouths of the Nile. But there are other rivers not equal in size to the Nile, which have wrought great works; of these I could mention the names, and among them one of the most remarkable is the Achelous, which, flowing through Acarnania, and falling into the sea, has already converted one half of the Echinades Islands into continent. There is also in the Arabian territory, not far from Egypt, branching from the Red Sea, a bay of the sea, of the length and width I shall here describe: the length of the voyage, beginning from the innermost part of this bay to the broad sea, occupies forty days for a vessel with oars; and the width, where the bay is widest, half a day's passage: and in it an ebb and flow takes place daily; and I am of opinion that Egypt was formerly a similar bay; this stretching from the Northern Sea toward Ethiopia; and the Arabian Bay, which I am describing, from the south toward Syria; and that they almost perforated their recesses so as to meet each other, overlapping to some small extent. Now, if the Nile were to turn its stream into this Arabian gulf, what could hinder it from being filled with soil by the river within twenty thousand years? For my part, I think it would be filled within ten thousand. How, then, in

the time that has elapsed before I was born, might not even a much greater bay than this have been filled up by such a great and powerful river? I therefore both give credit to those who relate these things concerning Egypt, and am myself persuaded of their truth when I see that Egypt projects beyond the adjoining land; that shells are found on the mountains; that a saline humour forms on the surface so as even to corrode the pyramids; and that this mountain which is above Memphis is the only one in Egypt that abounds in sand: add to which, that Egypt, in its soil, is neither like Arabia or its confines, nor Libya, nor Syria (Syrians occupy the sea-coast of Arabia), but is black and crumbling, as if it were mud and alluvial deposit brought down by the river from Ethiopia; whereas we know that the earth of Libya is reddish, and somewhat more sandy; and that of Arabia and Syria is more clayey and flinty.

The priests told me this also, as a great proof of what they related concerning this country, that in the reign of Moris, when the river rose at least eight cubits, it irrigated all Egypt below Memphis; and yet Moeris had not been nine hundred years dead when I received this information. But now, unless the river rises sixteen cubits, or fifteen at least, it does not overflow the country. It appears to me, therefore, that if the soil continues to grow in height, in the same proportion, and to contribute in like manner toward its increase, those Egyptians below Lake Moris, who inhabit other districts and that which is called Delta, must, by reason of the Nile not overflowing their land, forever suffer the same calamity which they used to say the Greeks would suffer from. For having heard that all the lands of Greece were watered by rain, and not by rivers, as their own was, they said that the Grecians at some time or other would be disappointed in their great expectations, and suffer miserably from famine; meaning, that if the Deity should not vouchsafe rain to them, but visit them with a long drought, the Greeks must perish by famine, since they had no other resource for water except from Jupiter only. And the Egyptians are right in saying this to the Greeks; but now let me state how the matter stands with the Egyptians themselves: if, as I said before, the land below Memphis (for this it is that increases) should continue to increase in height in the same proportion as it has in time past, what else will happen but that the Egyptians who inhabit this part will starve, if their land shall neither be watered by rain nor the river be able to inundate the fields? Now, indeed, they gather in the fruits of the earth with less labour than

any other people, and than the rest of the Egyptians, for they have not the toil of breaking up the furrows with the plough, nor of hoeing, nor of any other work which all other men must labour at to obtain a crop of corn; for when the river has come of its own accord and irrigated their fields, and having irrigated them has subsided, then each man sows his own land and turns swine into it; and when the seed has been trodden in by the swine, he afterward waits for harvest-time: then having trod out the corn with his swine, he gathers it in.

But if we should adopt the opinion of the Ionians respecting Egypt, who say that the Delta alone is properly Egypt, stating that its sea-coast extends from what is called the Tower of Perseus to the Tarichæa of Pelusium, forty schoeni in length; and who say that from the sea inland it stretches to the city of Cercasorus, where the Nile divides, and flows toward Pelusium and Canopus; and who attribute the rest of Egypt partly to Libya and partly to Arabia-if we adopted this account, we should show that the Egyptians had not formerly any country of their own; for the Delta, as the Egyptians themselves acknowledge, and as I think, is alluvial, and (if I may so express myself) has lately come to light. If, then, they formerly had no country, how foolish they were to think themselves the most ancient of all people! nor was there any use in their having recourse to the experiment of the children to ascertain what language they would first speak. For my own part, I am not of opinion that the Egyptians began their existence with the country which the Ionians call Delta; but that they always were, since men have been; and that as the soil gradually increased, many of them remained in their former habitations, and many came lower down. For, anciently, Thebes was called Egypt, and is six thousand one hundred and twenty stades in circumference. If, therefore, I judge correctly of these things, the Ionians are mistaken with respect to Egypt; but if their opinion is correct, then I will show that neither the Greeks nor the Ionians themselves know how to reckon, when they say that the whole earth consists of three divisions, Europe, Asia, and Libya; for they ought to add a fourth, the Delta of Egypt, if it be. not a part either of Asia or of Libya. For, by this account, the Nile does not separate Asia from Libya, but is divided at the point of Delta, so that it must be between Asia and Libya. But I will dismiss the opinion of the Ionians, and proceed to give my own account of the matter. I consider that the whole country inhabited by Egyptians is Egypt, as that inhabited by Cilicians is Cilicia, and that by Assyrians, Assyria. And,