CHAPTER I.
PHYSICAL HISTORY OF EGYPT. After the death of Cyrus, Cambyses succeeded to the kingdom. He was son of Cyrus, and Cassandane the daughter of Pharnaspes; she having died some time before, Cyrus deeply mourned for her himself, and commanded all his subjects to mourn. Cambyses then considered the Ionians and Æolians as his hereditary slaves, and when he made an expedition against Egypt, he took with him some of the Greeks over whom he bore rule. The Egyptians, before the reign of Psammitichus, considered themselves to be the most ancient of mankind. But after Psammitichus came to the throne, he endeavored to ascertain who really were the most ancient, and from that time they have considered the Phrygians to have been an older race than themselves. When Psammitichus was unable, by inquiry, to discover any solution of the question, who were the most ancient of men, he devised this expedient. He gave two new-born children of poor parents to a shepherd, to be brought up among his flocks, with strict orders that no one should utter a word in their presence, that they should lie in a solitary room by themselves, and that the shepherd should bring goats' milk to them at certain times, and listen to discover what word the children would first articulate, after they had given over their insignificant mewlings. When the shepherd had pursued this plan for the space of two years, one day as he opened the door and went in, both the children fell upon him, and holding out their hands, cried "Becos." At first the shepherd said nothing; but as this same word was repeated to him whenever he went and tended the children, he at length acquainted his master, and by his command brought the children into his presence. When Psammitichus heard it he inquired what people call any thing by the name of "Becos"; and discovered that the Phrygians call bread by that name. So the Egyptians, convinced by the 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, among them, that Psammitichus, having had the tongues of some women cut out, had the children brought up by them. The Egyptians were the first to discover the year, which they divided into twelve parts, making this discovery from the stars; and so, I think, they act more wisely than the Greeks, who insert an intercalary month every third year, on account of the seasons; while the Egyptians, reckoning twelve months of thirty days each, add five days each year above that number, so that 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. They add 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. It is evident to a man of common understanding, who sees it, that the part of Egypt which the Greeks frequent with their shipping, is land reclaimed by the Egyptians, and a gift from the river; for when you are at the distance of a day's sail from land, if you cast the lead you will bring up mud, yet find yourself in eleven fathoms of water; showing the immense alluvial deposit. THE TWO GREAT PYRAMIDS AT THE TIME OF THE INUNDATION. The length of Egypt along the sea-coast is sixty schoeni (450 miles) from the Plinthinetic Bay to Lake Serbonis, near which Mount Casius stretches. Men who are short of land measure their territory by fathoms; those who have some possessions, by stades; those who have much, by parasangs; and such as have a very great extent, by schoeni. 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. As far as Heliopolis, inland, Egypt is wide, 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, or about fifteen hundred stades. From Heliopolis upward Egypt is narrow, for on one side the table-land of Arabia extends from north to south and southwest, stretching up continuously to that which is called the Red Sea. In this plateau are the stone quarries which were cut for the pyramids at Memphis. 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 table-land covered with sand, on which the pyramids stand, stretching in the same direction as that part of the Arabian mountain that runs southward. The greater part of all this country, as the priests informed me, has been reclaimed by the Egyptians from the sea and the marshes. For the space beyond the city of Memphis seems 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. There are other rivers not equal in size to the Nile, which have wrought great works; amongst 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 a continent. There is in the Arabian territory, not far from Egypt, branching from the Red Sea, a bay of the sea of such a length that the voyage, from the innermost part of this bay to the broad sea, occupies forty days for a vessel with oars; but the width, where the bay is widest, only 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 give credit to those who relate these things concerning Egypt, when I see that Egypt projects beyond the adjoining land; that shells are found on the mountains; that a saline humor 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, 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 clayey and flinty. The priests relate that in the reign of Moeris, 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, those Egyptians below Lake Moeris, who inhabit other districts than that which is called Delta, must, by reason of the Nile not overflowing their land, for ever suffer the same calamity which they used to say the Greeks would suffer from. For hearing that all the lands of Greece were watered by rain, and not by rivers, as their own was, they said "that the Greeks at some time or other would suffer miserably from famine." But let me state how the matter stands with the Egyptians themselves: if, as I said before, the land below Memphis should continue to increase in height in the same proportion as it has done 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 labor than any other people, 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 labor at to obtain a crop of corn; but when the river has come of its own accord and irrigated their fields, and again 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 waits for harvest-time; then he treads out the corn with his swine, and gathers it in. All Egypt, beginning from the cataracts and the city of Elephantine, is divided into two parts, and partakes of both names; one belongs to Libya, and the other to Asia. The Nile, beginning from the cataracts, flows to the sea, dividing Egypt in the middle. Now, as far as the city of Cercasorus, the Nile flows in one stream; but from that point it is divided into three channels. That which runs eastward is called the Pelusiac mouth; another of the channels bends westward, and is called the Canopic mouth; but the direct channel of the Nile is the following: descending from above, it comes to the point of the Delta, where it divides the Delta in the middle, and discharges itself into the sea, supplying by this channel, not by any means the least quantity of water, nor the least renowned; this is called the Sebennytic mouth. There are also two other mouths, that diverge from the Sebennytic and flow into the sea,—the Saitic, and the Mendesian. The Bolbitine and Bucolic mouths are not natural, but artificial. The Nile, when full, inundates not only Delta, but also part of the country said to belong to Libya and Arabia, to the extent of about two days' journey on each side. At the summer solstice it fills and overflows for a hundred days; then falls short in its stream, and retires; so that it continues low all the winter, until the return of the summer solstice. In parts of Ethiopia, out of which the Nile flows, the inhabitants become black from the excessive heat; kites and swallows continue there all the year; and the cranes, to avoid the cold of Scythia, migrate to these parts as winter-quarters. With respect to the sources of the Nile, no man of all the Egyptians, Libyans, or Greeks with whom I have conversed, ever pretended to know any thing; except the registrar of Minerva's treasury at Sais in Egypt. But even he seemed to be trifling with me, when he said he knew perfectly well. His account was: "That there are two mountains rising into a sharp peak, situated between the cities of Syene and Elephantine; the names of these mountains are Crophi and Mophi. The sources of the Nile, which are bottomless, flow from between these mountains, and half of the water flows north over Egypt, and the other half to the southward over Ethiopia. That the fountains of the Nile are bottomless, he said, Psammitichus, king of Egypt, proved by experiment; for he twisted a line many thousand fathoms in length and let it down, but could not find a bottom." In my opinion, this simply proves that there are strong whirlpools and an eddy here; so that the water beating against the rocks, a sounding-line, when let down, cannot reach the bottom. As you ascend the river above the city of Elephantine, the country is so steep that it is necessary to attach a rope on both sides of a boat as you do with an ox in a plough, and so proceed; but if the rope should happen to break, the boat is carried away by the force of the stream. This kind of country lasts for a four-days' passage (or eighty miles), and the Nile here winds as much as the MÆander. After that you come to a level plain, where the Nile flows round an island named Tachompso. Ethiopians inhabit the country immediately above Elephantine, and one half of the island; the other half is inhabited by Egyptians. Near to this island lies a vast lake, on the borders of which Ethiopian nomads dwell; after sailing through this lake, you come to the channel of the Nile, which flows into it: then you have to land and travel forty days by the side of the river, for sharp rocks rise in the Nile, and there are many sunken ones, through which it is not possible to navigate a boat; you then must go on board another boat, and sail for twelve days; and will at last arrive at a large city called Meroe: this city is said to be the capital of all Ethiopia. The inhabitants worship no other gods than Jupiter and Bacchus; but these they honor with great magnificence; they have also an oracle of Jupiter; and they make war, whenever that god bids them by an oracular warning, and against whatever country he bids them. Sailing from this city, you will arrive at the country of the Automoli, in a space of time equal to that which you took in coming from Elephantine to the capital of the Ethiopians. These Automoli are called by the name of Asmak, which in the language of Greece signifies, "those that stand at the left hand of the king." These, to the number of two hundred and forty thousand of the Egyptian war-tribe, once revolted to the Ethiopians, whose king made them the following recompense. There were certain Ethiopians disaffected toward him; he bade them expel these, and take possession of their land; by the settlement of these men among them, the Ethiopians became more civilized, and learned the manners of the Egyptians. CHAPTER II.
RELIGION, MANNERS, CUSTOMS, DRESS, AND ANIMALS OF THE EGYPTIANS. Egypt possesses more wonders than any other country, and exhibits works greater than can be described, in comparison with all other regions; therefore more must be said about it. The Egyptians besides having a peculiar climate and a river differing in its nature from all other rivers, have adopted customs and usages in almost every respect different from the rest of mankind. Amongst them the women attend markets and traffic, but the men stay at home and weave. Other nations, in weaving, throw the wool upward; the Egyptians, downward. The men carry burdens on their heads; the women, on their shoulders. No woman can serve the office for any god or goddess; but men are employed for both offices. Sons are not compelled to support their parents unless they choose, but daughters are compelled to do so, whether they choose or not. In other countries the priests of the gods wear long hair; in Egypt they have it shaved. With other men it is customary in mourning for the nearest relations to have their heads shorn; the Egyptians, on occasions of death, let the hair grow both on the head and face, though till then shaven. Other men feed on wheat and barley, but it is a very great disgrace for an Egyptian to make food of them; but they make bread from spelt, which some call zea. They knead the dough with their feet; but mix clay with their hands. Every man wears two garments; the women, but one. Other men fasten the rings and sheets of their sails outside; but the Egyptians, inside. The Greeks write and cipher, moving the hand from left to right; but the Egyptians, from right to left: and doing so, they say they do it right-ways, and the Greeks left-ways. They have two sorts of letters, one of which is called sacred, the other common. They are of all men the most excessively attentive to the worship of the gods, and observe the following ceremonies: They drink from cups of bronze, which they scour every day. They wear linen garments, constantly fresh-washed, thinking it better to be clean than handsome. The priests shave their whole body every third day, that no impurity may be found upon them when engaged in the service of the gods. The priests wear linen only, and shoes of byblus, and are not permitted to wear any other garments, or other shoes. They wash themselves in cold water twice every day and twice every night, and use a great number of ceremonies. On the other hand, they enjoy no slight advantages, for they do not consume or expend any of their private property; but sacred food is cooked for them, and a great quantity of beef and geese is allowed each of them every day, with wine from the grape; but they must not taste of fish. Beans the Egyptians do not sow at all in their country, nor do they eat those that happen to grow there. The priests abhor the sight of that pulse, accounting it impure. The service of each god is performed, not by one, but by many priests, of whom one is chief; and, when one of them dies, his son is put in his place. The male kine they deem sacred to Epaphus, and to that end prove them in the following manner: If the examiner finds one black hair upon him, he adjudges him to be unclean; one of the priests appointed for this purpose makes this examination, both when the animal is standing up and lying down; and he draws out the tongue, to see if it is pure as to the prescribed marks, which I shall mention in another part of my history. He also looks at the hairs of his tail, to see whether they grow naturally. If the beast is found pure in all these respects, he marks it by rolling a piece of byblus round the horns, and then having put on it some sealing earth, he impresses it with his signet; and so they drive him away. Any one who sacrifices one that is unmarked is punished with death. The established mode of sacrifice is this: they lead the victim, properly marked, to the altar where they intend to sacrifice, and kindle a fire; then having poured wine upon the altar, near the victim, they invoke the god, and kill it; then cut off the head, and flay the body of the animal. Having pronounced many imprecations on the head, they who have a market and Greek merchants dwelling amongst them, carry it there and sell it; but those who have no Greeks amongst them throw it into the river; and they pronounce the following imprecations on the head: "If any evil is about to befall either those that now sacrifice, or Egypt in general, may it be averted on this head." But a different mode of disembowelling and burning the victims prevails in different sacrifices. The practice with regard to the goddess whom they consider the greatest, and in whose honor they celebrate the most magnificent festival, is this: When they have flayed the bullocks, having first offered up prayers, they take out all the intestines, and leave the vitals with the fat in the carcass: they then cut off the legs and the extremity of the hip, with the shoulders and neck, and fill the body of the bullock with fine bread, honey, raisins, figs, frankincense, myrrh, and other perfumes, and burn it, pouring on it a great quantity of oil. They sacrifice after they have fasted; and while the sacred things are being burnt, they all beat themselves; after which they spread a banquet of what remains of the victims. All the Egyptians sacrifice the pure male kine and calves, but they are not allowed to sacrifice the females, for they are sacred to Isis; the image of Isis is made in the form of a woman with the horns of a cow, as the Greeks represent Io; and all Egyptians alike pay a far greater reverence to cows than to any other cattle. No Egyptian man or woman will kiss a Greek on the mouth; or use the knife, spit, or cauldron of a Greek, or taste of the flesh of a pure ox that has been divided by a Greek knife. They bury the kine that die in the following manner: The females they throw into the river, and the males they inter in the suburbs, with one horn, or both, appearing above the ground, for a mark. When it is putrified, and the appointed time arrives, a raft comes to each city from the island called Prosopitis, in the Delta, which is nine schoeni in circumference. Now in this island Prosopitis there are several cities; but that from which the rafts come to take away the bones of the oxen, is called Atarbechis; in it a temple of Venus has been erected. From this city then many persons go about to other towns; and having dug up the bones, carry them away, and bury them in one place; and they bury all other cattle that die in the same way that they do the oxen; for they do not kill any of them. All those who have a temple erected to Theban Jupiter, or belong to the Theban district, abstain from sheep, and sacrifice goats only. For the Egyptians do not all worship the same gods in the same manner, except Isis and Osiris, who, they say, is Bacchus. On the other hand, those who frequent the temple of Mendes, and belong to the Mendesian district, abstain from goats, and sacrifice sheep. The Thebans say that this custom was established among them in the following way: that Hercules was very desirous of seeing Jupiter, but Jupiter was unwilling to be seen by him; at last, however, as Hercules persisted, Jupiter flayed a ram, cut off the head, and held it before himself, and then having put on the fleece, showed himself to Hercules. From this circumstance the Egyptians make the image of Jupiter with a ram's face; and the Ammonians, who are a colony of Egyptians and Ethiopians, and who speak a language between both, have adopted the same practice; and, as I conjecture, the Ammonians thus derived their name, for the Egyptians call Jupiter, Ammon. The Thebans then do not sacrifice rams, being for this reason accounted sacred by them; on one day in the year, however, at the festival of Jupiter, they kill and flay one ram, put it on this image of Jupiter, and bring an image of Hercules to it; then all who are in the temple beat themselves in mourning for the ram, and bury him in a sacred vault. Of this Hercules I have heard that he is one of the twelve gods; but of the other Hercules, who is known to the Greeks, I could never hear in any part of Egypt. That the Egyptians did not derive the name of Hercules from the Greeks, but rather the Greeks from the Egyptians, I have many proofs to show. The parents of this Hercules, Amphitryon and Alcmene, were both of Egyptian descent, and the Egyptians say they do not know the names of Neptune and the Dioscuri, yet if they had derived the name of any deity from the Greeks, they would certainly have mentioned these above all others, since even at that time they made voyages, and some of the Greeks were sailors. But Hercules is one of the ancient gods of the Egyptians; and they say themselves it was seventeen thousand years before the reign of Amasis, when the number of their gods was increased from eight to twelve, of whom Hercules was accounted one. Being desirous of obtaining certain information from whatever source I could, I sailed to Tyre in Phoenicia, having heard that there was there a temple dedicated to Hercules; and I saw it richly adorned with a great variety of offerings, and in it were two pillars, one of fine gold, the other of emerald stone, both shining exceedingly at night. Conversing with the priests of this god, I inquired how long this temple had been built, and I found that they did not agree with the Greeks. For they said that the temple was built at the time when Tyre was founded, and that two thousand three hundred years had elapsed since the foundation of Tyre. In this city I also saw another temple dedicated to Hercules by the name of Thasian; I went therefore to Thasos, and found there a temple of Hercules built by the Phoenicians, who founded Thasos, when they sailed in search of Europa, and this occurred five generations before Hercules the son of Amphitryon appeared in Greece. The researches then that I have made evidently prove that Hercules is a god of great antiquity, and therefore those Greeks appear to me to have acted most correctly, who have built two kinds of temples sacred to Hercules, and who sacrifice to one as an immortal, under the name of Olympian, and paid honor to the other as a hero. The Mendesians pay reverence to all goats; at the death of a he-goat public mourning is observed throughout the whole Mendesian district. The Egyptians consider the pig to be an impure beast, and therefore if a man in passing by a pig should touch him only with his garments, he forthwith goes to the river and plunges in; and in the next place, swineherds, although native Egyptians, are the only men who are not allowed to enter any of their temples; neither will any man give his daughter in marriage to one of them, nor take a wife from among them; but the swineherds intermarry among themselves. The Egyptians do not think it right to sacrifice swine to any deities but the moon and Bacchus. In this sacrifice of pigs to the moon, when the sacrificer has slain the victim, he puts together the tip of the tail, with the spleen and the caul, covers them with the fat found about the belly of the animal, and consumes them with fire: the rest of the flesh they eat during the full moon in which they offer the sacrifices; but on no other day would any one even taste it. The poor amongst them, through want of means, form pigs of dough, and having baked them, offer them in sacrifice. Whence each of the gods sprung, whether they existed always, and of what form they were, was, so to speak, unknown till yesterday. For I am of opinion that Hesiod and Homer lived four hundred years before my time, and not more, and these were they who framed a theogony for the Greeks, and gave names to the gods, and assigned to them honors and arts, and declared their several forms. The Egyptians were also the first who introduced public festivals, processions, and solemn supplications; and the Greeks learned these from them. The Egyptians hold public festivals several times in a year; that which is best and most rigidly observed is in the city of Bubastis, in honor of Diana; the second, in the city of Busiris, is in honor of Isis; the largest temple of Isis is in this city, in the middle of the Egyptian Delta. Isis is in the Grecian language called Demeter. The third festival is held at Sais, in honor of Minerva; the fourth, at Heliopolis, in honor of the sun; the fifth, at the city of Buto, in honor of Latona; the sixth, at the city of Papremis, in honor of Mars. When they are assembled at the sacrifice, in the city of Sais, they all on a certain night kindle a great number of lamps in the open air, around their houses; the lamps are flat vessels filled with salt and oil, the wick floats on the surface and burns all night; hence the festival is named "the lighting of lamps." The Egyptians who do not come to this public assembly observe the rite of sacrifice, and all kindle lamps, not only in Sais, but throughout all Egypt. Egypt, though bordering on Libya, does not abound in wild beasts; but all that they have are accounted sacred. Superintendents, consisting both of men and women, are appointed to feed every kind separately; and the son succeeds the father in this office. All the inhabitants of the cities perform their vows to the superintendents. Having made a vow to the god to whom the animal belongs, they shave either the whole heads of their children, or a half, or a third part of the head, and then weigh the hair in a scale against silver, and whatever the weight may be, they give to the superintendent of the animals; she in return cuts up some fish, and gives it as food to the animals; such is the usual mode of feeding them. Should any one kill one of these beasts, if wilfully, death is the punishment; if by accident, he pays such fine as the priests choose to impose. But whoever kills an ibis or a hawk, whether wilfully or by accident, must necessarily be put to death. When a conflagration takes place, a supernatural impulse seizes on the cats. The Egyptians, standing at a distance, take care of the cats, and neglect to put out the fire; but the cats often make their escape, leap over the men, and throw themselves into the fire; when this happens great lamentations are made among the Egyptians. In whatever house a cat dies of a natural death, all the family shave their eyebrows; but if a dog die, they shave the whole body and the head. All cats that die are carried to certain sacred houses, where they are first embalmed, and then buried in the city of Bubastis. All persons bury their dogs in sacred vaults within their own city; and ichneumons are buried in the same manner as the dogs; but field-mice and hawks they carry to the city of Buto; the ibis to Hermopolis; the bears, which are few in number, and the wolves, which are not much larger than foxes, they bury wherever they are found lying. This is the nature of the crocodile:—During the four coldest months it eats nothing, and though it has four feet, it is amphibious. It lays its eggs on land, and there hatches them. It spends the greater part of the day on the dry ground, but the whole night in the river; for the water is then warmer than the air and dew. Of all living things with which we are acquainted, this, from the least beginning, grows to be the largest. For it lays eggs little larger than those of a goose, and the young is at first in proportion to the egg; but when grown up it reaches to the length of seventeen cubits (25½ feet), and even more. It has the eyes of a pig, large teeth, and projecting tusks: it is the only animal that has no tongue: it does not move the lower jaw, but is the only animal that brings down its upper jaw to the under one. It has strong claws, and a skin covered with scales, that cannot be broken on the back. It is blind in the water, but very quick-sighted on land; and because it lives for the most part in the water, its mouth is filled with leeches. All other birds and beasts avoid him, but he is at peace with the trochilus, because he receives benefit from that bird. For when the crocodile gets out of the water on land, and then opens its jaws, which it does most commonly toward the west, the trochilus enters its mouth and swallows the leeches: the crocodile is so well pleased with this service that it never hurts the trochilus. With some of the Egyptians crocodiles are sacred; with others not, but they treat them as enemies. Those who dwell about Thebes, and Lake Moeris consider them to be very sacred; and they each of them train up a crocodile, which is taught to be quite tame; and put crystal and gold ear-rings into their ears, and bracelets on their fore paws; they give them appointed and sacred food, and treat them as well as possible while alive, and when dead they embalm them, and bury them in sacred vaults. But the people who dwell about the city of Elephantine eat them, not considering them sacred. They are not called crocodiles by the Egyptians, but "champsÆ"; the Ionians gave them the name of crocodiles, because they thought they resembled lizards, which are also so called, and which are found in the hedges of their country. The modes of taking the crocodile are many and various, but I shall only describe that which seems to me most worthy of relation. When the fisherman has baited a hook with the chine of a pig, he lets it down into the middle of the river, and holding a young live pig on the brink of the river, beats it; the crocodile, hearing the noise, goes in its direction, and meeting with the chine, swallows it, and the men draw it to land; when it is drawn out on shore, the sportsman first of all plasters its eyes with mud, after which he manages it very easily; but until he has done this, he has a great deal of trouble. The hippopotamus is esteemed sacred in the district of Papremis, but not so by the rest of the Egyptians. It is a quadruped, cloven-footed, with the hoofs of an ox, snub-nosed, has the mane of a horse, projecting tusks, and the tail and neigh of a horse. In size he is equal to a very large ox: his hide is so thick that spear-handles are made of it when dry. Otters are also met with in the river, which are deemed sacred; and amongst fish, they consider that which is called the lepidotus, and the eel, sacred; these they say are sacred to the Nile; and among birds, the vulpanser. There is also another sacred bird, called the phoenix, which I have never seen except in a picture; for it makes its appearance amongst them only once in five hundred years, as the Heliopolitans affirm: they say that it comes on the death of its sire. If he is like the picture, he is of the following size and description: the plumage of his wings is partly golden-colored, and partly red; in outline and size he is like an eagle. They tell this incredible story about him:—They say that he comes from Arabia, and brings the body of his father, enclosed in myrrh, to the temple of the sun, and there buries him in the temple. He brings him in this manner: first he moulds an egg of myrrh as large as he thinks himself able to carry; then he tries to carry it, and when he has made the experiment, he hollows out the egg, puts his parent into it, and stops up with some more myrrh the hole through which he introduced the body, so when his father is put inside, the weight is the same as before; then he carries him to the temple of the sun in Egypt. In the neighborhood of Thebes there are sacred serpents not at all hurtful to men: they are diminutive in size, and carry two horns that grow on the top of the head. When these serpents die they bury them in the temple of Jupiter, for they say they are sacred to that God. There is a place in Arabia, situated very near the city of Buto, to which I went, on hearing of some winged serpents; there I saw bones and spines of serpents in such quantities as it would be impossible to describe: there were heaps upon heaps, some large, some smaller, scattered in a narrow pass between two mountains, which leads into a spacious plain, contiguous to the plain of Egypt: it is reported that at the beginning of spring, winged serpents fly from Arabia toward Egypt; but that ibises, a sort of bird, meet them at the pass, and do not allow the serpents to go by, but kill them: for this service the Arabians say that the ibis is highly reverenced by the Egyptians; and the Egyptians acknowledge it. The ibis is all over a deep black; it has the legs of a crane, its beak is much curved, and it is about the size of the crex. Such is the form of the black ones, that fight with the serpents. But those that are best known, for there are two species, are bare on the head and the whole neck, have white plumage, except on the head, the throat, and the tips of the wings and extremity of the tail; in all these parts they are of a deep black; in their legs and beak they are like the other kind. The form of the serpent is like that of the water-snake; but he has wings without feathers, and as like as possible to the wings of a bat. This must suffice for the description of sacred animals. Of the Egyptians, those who inhabit that part of Egypt which is sown with corn, cultivate the memory of past events more than any other people, and are the best-informed men I ever met. Their manner of life is this: They purge themselves every month for three days successively, seeking to preserve health by emetics and clysters, for they suppose that all diseases to which men are subject proceed from the food they use. And indeed in other respects the Egyptians, next to the Libyans, are the most healthy people in the world, as I think, on account of the seasons, because they are not liable to change; for men are most subject to disease at periods of change, and above all others at the change of the seasons. They feed on bread made into loaves of spelt, which they call cyllestis; and they use wine made of barley, for they have no vines in that country. Some fish they dry in the sun and eat raw, others salted with brine; and of birds they eat quail, ducks, and smaller birds raw, salting them first. All other things, whether birds or fishes, that they have, except such as are accounted sacred, they eat either roasted or boiled. At their convivial banquets, among the wealthy classes, when they have finished supper, a man carries round in a coffin the image of a dead body carved in wood, made as perfect a counterfeit as possible in color and workmanship, and in size generally about one or two cubits in length; and showing this to each of the company, he says: "Look upon this, then drink and enjoy yourself; for when dead you will be like this." They observe their ancient customs and acquire no new ones. Among other memorable customs they have just one song called "Linus," which is sung in Phoenicia, Cyprus, and elsewhere; in different nations it bears a different name, but it agrees almost exactly with the same which the Greeks sing, under the name of Linus. So that among the many wonderful things in Egypt, the greatest wonder of all is where they got this Linus; for they seem to have sung it from time immemorial. The "Linus" in the Egyptian language is called Maneros; and the Egyptians say that he was the only son of the first king of Egypt, and that happening to die prematurely, he was honored by the Egyptians in this mourning dirge, the first and only song they have. In the following particular the Egyptians resemble the LacedÆmonians only among all the Greeks: the young men, when they meet their elders, give way and turn aside; and rise from their seats when they approach. But, unlike any nation of the Greeks, instead of addressing one another in the streets, they salute by letting the hand fall down as far as the knee. They wear linen tunics fringed round the legs, which they call calasiris, and over these they throw white woollen mantles; woollen clothes, however, are not carried into the temples, nor are they buried with them, as this is accounted profane—agreeing in this respect with the worshippers of Orpheus and Bacchus, who are Egyptians and Pythagoreans: for they consider it profane for one who is initiated in these mysteries to be buried in woollen garments for some religious reason or other. The Egyptians have discovered more prodigies than all the rest of the world. They have amongst them oracles of Hercules, Apollo, Minerva, Diana, Mars, and Jupiter; but that which they honor above all others is the oracle of Latona in the city of Buto. The art of medicine is divided amongst them into specialties, each physician applying himself to one disease only. All places abound in physicians, some for the eyes, others for the head, others for the teeth, others for cutaneous diseases, and others still for internal disorders. Their manner of mourning and burying is as follows: When a man of any consideration dies, all the women of that family besmear their heads and faces with mud, leave the body in the house, and wander about the city, beating themselves, having their clothes girt up, their neck and breast exposed, and all their relations accompany them. The men, too, beat themselves in the same way. When they have done this, they carry out the body to be embalmed. There are persons who are specially appointed for this purpose; when the dead body is brought to them, they show to the bearers wooden models of corpses, skilfully painted to illustrate the various methods of embalming. They first show the most expensive manner of embalming; then the second, which is inferior and less expensive; and lastly, the third and cheapest. The relations stipulate which style they prefer, agree on the price, and depart. To embalm a body in the most expensive manner, they first draw out the brains through the nostrils with an iron hook, perfecting the operation by the infusion of drugs. Then with a sharp Ethiopian stone they make an incision in the side, and take out all the bowels; and having cleansed the abdomen and rinsed it with palm-wine, they next sprinkle it with pounded perfumes. Then they fill the belly with pure myrrh pounded, and cassia, and other perfumes, frankincense excepted, and sew it up again; this done, they steep it in natrum, leaving it under for seventy days; a longer time than which it is not lawful to steep it. At the expiration of the seventy days they wash the corpse, and wrap the whole body in bandages of flaxen cloth, smearing it with gum, which the Egyptians commonly use instead of glue. After this the relations take the body back again, make a wooden case in the shape of a man, enclose the body in it, and store it in a sepulchral chamber, setting it upright against the wall. For those who, to avoid great expense, desire the middle way, they prepare in the following manner. Charging syringes with oil made from cedar, they fill the abdomen of the corpse without making any incision or taking out the bowels, but inject it at the fundament; and having prevented the injection from escaping, they steep the body in natrum for the prescribed number of days, on the last of which they let out from the abdomen the oil of cedar which has such power that it brings away the intestines and vitals in a state of dissolution; the natrum dissolves the flesh, and nothing of the body remains but the skin and the bones. The operation is then complete. The third method of embalming, which is used only for the poorer sort, consists in thoroughly rinsing the abdomen in syrmÆa, and steeping it with natrum for the seventy days. Should any person, whether Egyptian or stranger, be found to have been seized by a crocodile, or drowned in the river, to whatever city the body may be carried, the inhabitants are by law compelled to have the body embalmed, and adorned in the handsomest manner, and buried in the sacred vaults. Nor is it lawful for any one else, whether relations or friends, to touch him; but the priests of the Nile bury the corpse with their own hands, as being something more than human. They avoid using Grecian customs; and, in a word, the customs of all other people whatsoever. The Egyptians who dwell in the morasses, have the same customs as the rest of the Egyptians, and each man has but one wife, like the Greeks. But to obtain food more easily, they have the following inventions: when the river is full, and has made the plains like a sea, great numbers of lilies, which the Egyptians call lotus, spring up in the water: these they gather and dry in the sun; then having pounded the middle of the lotus, which resembles a poppy, they make bread of it and bake it. The root also of this lotus is fit for food, and is tolerably sweet; it is round, and of the size of an apple. There are also other lilies, like roses, that grow in the river, the fruit of which is contained in a separate pod, that springs up from the root in form very much like a wasp's nest; in this there are many berries fit to be eaten, of the size of an olive stone, and they are eaten both fresh and dried. The byblus, an annual plant, is found in the fens. They cut off the top and put it to some other uses, but the lower part that is left, to the length of a cubit, they eat and sell. Those who are anxious to eat the byblus dressed in the most delicate manner, stew it in a hot pan and then eat it. The Egyptians who live about the fens use an oil drawn from the fruit of the sillicypria, which they call cici: they plant and cultivate these sillicypria, which in Greece grow spontaneous and wild, on the banks of the rivers and lakes: under cultivation these bear an abundance of fruit, though of an offensive smell. Some bruise it and press out the oil; others boil and stew it, and collect the liquid that flows from it; this is fat, and no less suited for lamps than olive oil; but it emits a disgusting smell. They contrive in various ways to protect themselves from the mosquitoes, which are very abundant. Towers are of great service to those who inhabit the upper parts of the marshes; for the mosquitoes are prevented by the winds from flying high: but those who live round the marshes have contrived another expedient. Every man has a net, with which in the daytime he takes fish, and at night, in whatever bed he sleeps, he throws the net around it, and crawls in underneath; if he should wrap himself up in his clothes or in linen, the mosquitoes would bite through them, but they never attempt to bite through the net. Their ships in which they convey merchandise are made of the acacia, which in shape is much like the CyrenÆan lotus, and exudes a gum. From this acacia they cut planks about two cubits in length and join them together like bricks, building their ships in the following manner: They fasten the planks of two cubits length round stout and long ties: when they have thus built the hulls, they lay benches across them. They make no use of ribs, but caulk the seams inside with byblus. They make only one rudder, and that is driven through the keel. They use a mast of acacia, and sails of byblus. These vessels are unable to sail up the stream unless a fair wind prevails, but are towed from the shore. They are thus carried down the stream: there is a hurdle made of tamarisk, wattled with a band of reeds, and a stone with a hole in the middle, of about two talents in weight; of these two, the hurdle is fastened to a cable, and let down at the prow of the vessel to be carried on by the stream; and the stone by another cable at the stern; and by this means the hurdle, by the stream bearing hard upon it, moves quickly and draws along "the baris" (for this is the name given to these vessels), but the stone being dragged at the stern, and sunk to the bottom, keeps the vessel in its course. They have very many of these vessels, and some of them carry many thousand talents. When the Nile inundates the country, the cities alone are seen above its surface, like the islands dotting the Ægean Sea. When this happens, they navigate no longer by the channel of the river, but straight across the country. CHAPTER III.
GOD-KINGS PRIOR TO MENES. In former time, the priests of Jupiter did to HecatÆus the historian, when he was tracing his own genealogy, and connecting his family with a god in the sixteenth degree, the same as they did to me, though I did not endeavor to trace my genealogy. Conducting me into the interior of a spacious edifice, and showing me four hundred and forty-five wooden colossuses, they counted them over; for every high-priest places an image of himself there during his lifetime; the priests pointed out that the succession from father to son was unbroken. But when HecatÆus traced his own genealogy, and connected himself with a god in the sixteenth degree, they controverted his genealogy by computation, not admitting that a man could be born from a god; and said that each of the colossuses was a Piromis, sprung from a Piromis; until they pointed out the three hundred and forty-five colossuses, each a Piromis, sprung from a Piromis, and they did not connect them with any god or hero. Piromis means, in the Grecian language, "a noble and good man." They said that these were very far from being gods; but before the time of these men, gods had been the rulers of Egypt, and had dwelt amongst men; and that one of them always had the supreme power, and that Orus, the son of Osiris, was the last who reigned over it. Now, Osiris in the Greek language means Bacchus, and Orus is the equivalent of Apollo. All the revenue from the city of Anthylla, which is of much importance, is assigned to purchase shoes for the wife of the reigning king of Egypt. CHAPTER IV.
FIRST LINE OF 330 KINGS, ONLY THREE MENTIONED. The priests informed me, that Menes, who first ruled over Egypt, in the first place protected Memphis by a mound; for the whole river formerly ran close to the sandy mountain on the side of Libya; but Menes, beginning about a hundred stades above Memphis, filled in the elbow toward the south, dried up the old channel, and conducted the river into a canal, so as to make it flow between the mountains. This bend of the Nile is still carefully upheld by the Persians, and made secure every year; for if the river should break through and overflow in this part, there would be danger lest all Memphis should be flooded. When the part cut off had been made firm land by this Menes, who was first king, he built on it the city that is now called Memphis; and outside of it he excavated a lake from the river toward the north and the west; for the Nile itself bounds it toward the east. In the next place, they relate that he built in it the temple of Vulcan, which is vast and well worthy of mention. After this the priests enumerated from a book the names of three hundred and thirty other kings. In so many generations of men, there were eighteen Ethiopians and one native queen, the rest were Egyptians. The name of this woman who reigned, was the same as that of the Babylonian queen, Nitocris: they said that she avenged her brother, whom the Egyptians had slain, while reigning over them. After they had slain him, they delivered the kingdom to her; and she, to avenge him, destroyed many of the Egyptians by this stratagem: she caused an extensive apartment to be made underground, and pretended that she was going to consecrate it, then inviting those of the Egyptians whom she knew to have been principally concerned in the murder, she gave them a great banquet, and in the midst of the feast let in the river upon them, through a large concealed channel. Of the other kings they did not say that they were in any respect renowned, except the last, Moeris; he accomplished some memorable works, as the portal of Vulcan's temple, facing the north wind; and dug a lake, and built pyramids in it, the size of which I shall mention when I come to speak of the lake itself. CHAPTER V.
FROM SESOSTRIS TO SETHON. I shall next mention king Sesostris. The priests said that he was the first who, setting out in ships of war from the Arabian Gulf, subdued those nations that dwell by the Red Sea. There are also in Ionia two images of this king, carved on rocks, one on the way from Ephesia to PhocÆa, the other from Sardis to Smyrna. In both places a man is carved, four cubits and a half high, holding a spear in his right hand, and a bow in his left, and the rest of his equipment in unison, for it is partly Egyptian and partly Ethiopian; from one shoulder to the other across the breast extend sacred Egyptian characters engraved, which have the following meaning: "I acquired this region by my own shoulders." The priests tell a yarn of this Egyptian Sesostris, that returning and bringing with him many men from the nations whose territories he had subdued, when he arrived at the Pelusian DaphnÆ, his brother, to whom he had committed the government of Egypt, invited him to an entertainment, and his sons with him, and caused wood to be piled up round the house and set on fire: but that Sesostris, being informed of this, immediately consulted with his wife, for he had taken his wife with him; she advised him to extend two of his six sons across the fire, and form a bridge over the burning mass, and that the rest should step on them and make their escape. Sesostris did so, and two of his sons were in this manner burned to death, but the rest, together with their father, were saved. Sesostris having returned to Egypt, and taken revenge on his brother, employed the multitude of prisoners whom he brought from the countries he had subdued in many remarkable works: these were the men who drew the huge stones which, in the time of this king, were conveyed to the temple of Vulcan; they, too, were compelled to dig all the canals now seen in Egypt; and thus by their involuntary labor made Egypt, which before was throughout practicable for horses and carriages, unfit for these purposes. But the king intersected the country with this network of canals for the reason that such of the Egyptians as occupied the inland cities, being in want of water when the river receded, were forced to use a brackish beverage unfit to drink, which they drew from wells. They said also that this king divided the country amongst all the Egyptians, giving an equal square allotment to each; and thence drew his revenues by requiring them to pay a fixed tax every year; if the river happened to take away a part of any one's allotment, he was to come to him and make known what had happened; whereupon the king sent persons to inspect and measure how much the land was diminished, that in future he might pay a proportionate part of the appointed tax. Land-measuring appears to me to have had its beginning from this act, and to have passed over into Greece; for the pole [12] and the sundial, and the division of the day into twelve parts, the Greeks learned from the Babylonians. This king was the only Egyptian that ever ruled over Ethiopia; he left as memorials in front of Vulcan's temple statues of stone: two of thirty cubits, of himself and his wife; and four, each of twenty cubits, of his sons. A long time after, the priest of Vulcan would not suffer Darius the Persian to place his statue before them, saying, "that deeds had not been achieved by him equal to those of Sesostris the Egyptian: for Sesostris had subdued other nations, not fewer than Darius had done, and the Scythians besides; but that Darius was not able to conquer the Scythians; wherefore it was not right for one who had not surpassed him in achievements to place his statue before his offerings." They relate, however, that Darius pardoned these observations. BUST OF THOTHMES I. After the death of Sesostris, his son Pheron succeeded to the kingdom; he undertook no military expedition, and happened to become blind through the following occurrence: the river having risen to a very great height for that time, eighteen cubits, it overflowed the fields, a storm of wind arose, and the river was tossed about in waves; whereupon they say that the king with great arrogance laid hold of a javelin, and threw it into the midst of the eddies of the river; and that immediately afterward he was seized with a pain in his eyes, and became blind. He continued blind for ten years; but in the eleventh, having escaped from this calamity, he dedicated offerings throughout all the celebrated temples, the most worthy of mention being two stone obelisks to the temple of the sun, each consisting of a single block of granite, and each a hundred cubits in length and eight cubits in breadth. A native of Memphis succeeded him in the kingdom, whose name in the Grecian language is Proteus; there is to this day an enclosure sacred to him at Memphis, which is very beautiful and richly adorned, situated to the south side of the temple of Vulcan. The priests told me that when Paris had carried Helen off from Sparta, violent winds drove him out of his course in the Ægean into the Egyptian Sea, and from there (for the gale did not abate) he came to Egypt, and in Egypt to that which is now called the Canopic mouth of the Nile. PARIS CARRYING AWAY HELEN. And Homer appears to me to have heard this relation; but as it was not so well suited to epic poetry as the other which he has made use of, he rejected it. He has told in the Iliad the wanderings of Paris; how, while he was carrying off Helen, he was driven out of his course, and wandered to other places, and how he arrived at Sidon of Phoenicia; and in the exploits of Diomede, his verses are as follows: "Where were the variegated robes, works of Sidonian women, which god-like Paris himself brought from Sidon, sailing over the wide sea, along the course by which he conveyed high-born Helen."[13] He mentions it also in the Odyssey, in the following lines: "Such well-chosen drugs had the daughter of Jove, of excellent quality, which Polydamna gave her, the Egyptian wife of Thonis, where the fruitful earth produces many drugs, many excellent when mixed, and many noxious."[14] Menelaus also says the following to Telemachus: "The gods detained me in Egypt, though anxious to return hither, because I did not offer perfect hecatombs to them."[15] He shows in these verses, that he was acquainted with the wandering of Paris in Egypt; for Syria borders on Egypt, and the Phoenicians, to whom Sidon belongs, inhabit Syria. From these verses, and this first passage especially, it is clear that Homer was not the author of the Cyprian verses, but some other person. For in the Cyprian verses it is said, that Paris reached Ilium from Sparta on the third day, when he carried off Helen, having met with a favorable wind and a smooth sea; whereas Homer in the Iliad says that he wandered far while taking her with him. Rhampsinitus succeeded Proteus in the kingdom: He left as a monument the portico of the temple of Vulcan, fronting to the west; and erected two statues before the portico, twenty-five cubits high. Of these, the one standing to the north the Egyptians call Summer; and that to the south, Winter: and the one that they call Summer, they worship and do honor to; but the one called Winter, they treat in a quite contrary way. This king, they said, possessed a great quantity of money, such as no one of the succeeding kings was able to attain. Wishing to treasure up his wealth in safety, he built a chamber of stone, one of the walls of which adjoined the outside of the palace. But the builder, forming a plan against it, devised the following contrivance; he fitted one of the stones so that it might be easily taken out by two men, or even one. When the chamber was finished, the king laid up his treasures in it; in the course of time the builder, finding his end approaching, called his two sons to him, and described to them how he had provided when he was building the king's treasury that they might have abundant sustenance; and having clearly explained to them every thing relating to the removal of the stone, he gave them its dimensions, and told them, if they would observe his instructions, they would be stewards of the king's riches. He died, and the sons were not long in applying themselves to the work; coming by night to the palace, they found the stone in the building, easily removed it, and carried off a great quantity of treasure. When the king happened to open the chamber, he was astonished at seeing the vessels deficient in treasure; but was not able to accuse any one, as the seals were unbroken, and the chamber well secured. When on opening it two or three times, the treasures were always evidently diminished (for the thieves did not cease plundering), he adopted the following plan: he ordered traps to be made, and placed them round the vessels in which the treasures were. But when the thieves came as before, and one of them had entered, as soon as he went near a vessel, he was straightway caught in the trap; perceiving, therefore, in what a predicament he was, he immediately called to his brother, and told him what had happened, and bade him enter as quick as possible, and cut off his head, lest, if he was seen and recognized, he should ruin him also: the other thought that he spoke well, and did as he was advised; then, having fitted in the stone, he returned home, taking with him his brother's head. When day came, the king entered the chamber, and was astonished at seeing the body of the thief in the trap without the head, but the chamber secure, and without any means of entrance or exit. In this perplexity he contrived another plan: he hung up the body of the thief on a public wall, and having placed sentinels there, ordered them to seize and bring before him whomsoever they should see weeping or expressing commiseration at the spectacle. The mother was greatly grieved at the body being suspended, and coming to words with her surviving son, commanded him, by any means he could, to contrive how he might take down and bring away the corpse of his brother; and if he should neglect to do so, she threatened to go to the king, and inform him that he had the treasures. Having got some asses, and filled some skins with wine, he put them on the asses, and then drove them along; but when he came near the sentinels that guarded the suspended corpse, he drew out two or three of the necks of the skins that hung down, and loosened them; and, as the wine ran out, he beat his head, and cried out aloud, as if he knew not to which of the asses he should turn first. The sentinels, when they saw wine flowing in abundance, ran into the road, with vessels in their hands, caught the wine that was being spilt, thinking it all their own gain; but the man, feigning anger, railed bitterly against them all; however, as the sentinels soothed him, he at length pretended to be pacified; and at last drove his asses out of the road, and set them to rights again. When more conversation passed, and one of the sentinels joked with him and set him laughing, he gave them another of the skins; and they, just as they were, lay down and set to to drink, and invited him to stay and drink with them. He was persuaded, and remained with them; and as they treated him kindly during the drinking, he gave them another of the skins; and the sentinels, having taken very copious draughts, became royally drunk, and, overpowered by the wine, fell asleep on the spot. Then he took down the body of his brother, and having by way of insult shaved the right cheeks of all the sentinels, laid the corpse on the asses, and drove home, having performed his mother's injunctions. The king, upon being informed that the body of the thief had been stolen, was exceedingly indignant, but being unable by any means to find out the contriver of this artifice, he grew so astonished at the shrewdness and daring of the man, that at last, sending throughout all the cities, he caused a proclamation to be made, offering a free pardon, and promising great reward to the man, if he would discover himself. The thief, relying on this promise, went to the king's palace; and Rhampsinitus greatly admired him, and gave him his daughter in marriage, accounting him the most knowing of all men; for while the Egyptians were superior to all others, he was superior to the Egyptians. After this, they said that this king descended alive into the place which the Greeks call Hades, and there played at dice with Ceres, and sometimes won, and other times lost; and that he came up again and brought with him as a present from her a napkin of gold. Any person to whom such things appear credible may adopt the accounts given by the Egyptians; it is my object, however, throughout the whole history, to write what I hear from each people. The Egyptians say that Ceres and Bacchus hold the chief sway in the infernal regions; and the Egyptians were also the first who asserted the doctrine that the soul of man is immortal, and that when the body perishes the soul enters into some other animal, constantly springing into existence; and when it has passed through the different kinds of terrestrial, marine, and aËrial beings, it again enters into the body of a man that is born; and that this revolution is made in three thousand years. Now, they told me that down to the reign of Rhampsinitus there was a perfect distribution of justice, and that all Egypt was in a high state of prosperity; but that after him Cheops, coming to reign over them, plunged into every kind of wickedness. For, having shut up all the temples, he first of all forbade them to offer sacrifice, and afterward ordered all the Egyptians to work for him; some, accordingly, were appointed to draw stones from the quarries in the Arabian mountain down to the Nile, others he ordered to receive the stones when transported in vessels across the river, and to drag them to the mountain called the Libyan. And they worked to the number of a hundred thousand men at a time, each party during three months. The time during which the people were thus harassed by toil lasted ten years on the road which they constructed, along which they drew the stones, a work, in my opinion, not much less than the pyramid: for its length is five stades, and its width ten orgyÆ, and its height, where it is the highest, eight orgyÆ; and it is of polished stone, with figures carved on it: ten years, then, were expended on this road, and in forming the subterraneous apartments on the hill, on which the pyramids stand, which he had made as a burial vault for himself, in an island, formed by draining a canal from the Nile. Twenty years were spent in erecting the pyramid itself: of this, which is square, each face is eight plethra, and the height is the same; it is composed of polished stones, and joined with the greatest exactness; none of the stones are less than thirty feet in length. This pyramid was built in the form of steps, which some call crosssÆ, others bomides. When they had first built it in this manner, they raised the stones for covering the surface by machines made of short pieces of wood: having lifted them from the ground to the first range of steps, when the stone arrived there it was put on another machine that stood ready on the first range; from this it was drawn to the second range on another machine; for the machines were equal in number to the ranges of steps; or they removed the machine, which was only one, and portable, to each range in succession, whenever they wished to raise the stone higher; for I should relate it in both ways, as it was related to me. The highest parts of it were first finished, and last of all the parts on the ground. On the pyramid is shown an inscription, in Egyptian characters, how much was expended in radishes, onions, and garlic for the workmen; which the interpreter, as I well remember, reading the inscription, told me amounted to one thousand six hundred talents of silver. If this be really the case, how much more was probably expended in iron tools, in bread, and in clothes for the laborers, since they occupied in building the works the time which I mentioned, and no short time besides, as I think, in cutting and drawing the stones, and in forming the subterraneous excavation. It is related that Cheops in his cruelty subjected his daughter to every sort of disgrace, but she contrived to leave a monument of herself, and asked every one that she met to give her a stone toward the edifice she designed: of these stones they said the pyramid was built that stands in the middle of the three, before the great pyramid, each side of which is a plethron and a half in length. The Egyptians say that this Cheops reigned fifty years; and when he died, his brother Chephren succeeded to the kingdom; and he followed the same practices as the other, both in other respects, and in building a pyramid. This does not come up to the dimensions of his brother's, for I myself measured them; nor has it subterraneous chambers; nor does a channel from the Nile flow to it, as to the other; but this flows through an artificial aqueduct round an island within, in which they say the body of Cheops is laid. Having laid the first course of variegated Ethiopian stones, less in height than the other by forty feet, he built it near the large pyramid. They both stand on the same hill, which is about a hundred feet high. Chephren, they said, reigned fifty-six years. Thus one hundred and six years are reckoned, during which the Egyptians suffered all kinds of calamities, and for this length of time the temples were never opened. From the hatred they bear them the Egyptians are not very willing to mention their names; but call the pyramids after Philition, a shepherd, who at that time kept his cattle in those parts. THE GREAT PYRAMID, WITHOUT THE SURFACE STONE. They said that after him, Mycerinus, son of Cheops, reigned over Egypt; that the conduct of his father was displeasing to him; and that he opened the temples, and permitted the people, who were worn down to the last extremity, to return to their employments, and to sacrifices; and that he made the most just decisions of all their kings. On this account, of all the kings that ever reigned in Egypt, they praise him most, for he both judged well in other respects, and moreover, when any man complained of his decision, he used to make him some present out of his own treasury and pacify his anger. To this beneficent Mycerinus, the beginning of misfortunes was the death of his daughter, who was his only child; whereupon he, extremely afflicted, and wishing to bury her in a more costly manner than usual, caused a hollow wooden image of a cow to be made and covered with gold, into which he put the body of his deceased daughter. This cow was not interred in the ground, but even in my time was exposed to view in the city of Sais, placed in the royal palace, in a richly furnished chamber. They burn near it all kinds of aromatics every day, and a lamp is kept burning by it throughout each night. The cow is covered with a purple cloth, except the head and the neck, which are overlaid with very thick gold; and the orb of the sun imitated in gold is placed between the horns. The cow is kneeling; in size equal to a large, living cow. SECTION OF THE GREAT PYRAMID. After the loss of his daughter, a second calamity befell this king: an oracle reached him from the city of Buto, importing, "that he had no more than six years to live, and should die in the seventh." Thinking this very hard, he sent a reproachful message to the god, complaining, "that his father and uncle, who had shut up the temples, and paid no regard to the gods, and moreover had oppressed men, had lived long; whereas he who was religious must die so soon." But a second message came to him from the oracle, stating, "that for this very reason his life was shortened, because he had not done what he ought to have done; for it was needful that Egypt should be afflicted during one hundred and fifty years; and the two who were kings before him understood this, but he did not." When Mycerinus heard this, and saw that this sentence was now pronounced against him, he ordered a great number of lamps to be made, which were lighted whenever night came on, and he drank and enjoyed himself, never ceasing night or day, roving about the marshes and groves, wherever he could hear of places most suited for pleasure. He had recourse to this artifice for the purpose of convicting the oracle of falsehood, that by turning the nights into days, he might have twelve years instead of six. This king also left a pyramid, but much smaller than that of his father, being on each side twenty feet short of three plethra; it is quadrangular, and built half way up of Ethiopian stone. After Mycerinus, the priests said, that Asychis became king of Egypt, and that he built the eastern portico to the temple of Vulcan, which is by far the largest and most beautiful in its wealth of sculptured figures and infinite variety of architecture. This king, being desirous of surpassing his predecessors, left a pyramid, as a memorial, made of bricks; on which is an inscription carved on stone, in the following words: "Do not despise me in comparison with the pyramids of stone, for I excel them as much as Jupiter, the other gods. For by plunging a pole into a lake, and collecting the mire that stuck to the pole, men made bricks, and in this manner built me." SECTION OF GALLERY IN PYRAMID. After him there reigned a blind man of the city of Anysis, whose name was Anysis. During his reign, the Ethiopians and their king, Sabacon, invaded Egypt with a large force; whereupon this blind king fled to the fens; and the Ethiopian reigned over Egypt for fifty years, during which time he performed the following actions: When any Egyptians committed any crime, he would not have any of them put to death, but passed sentence upon each according to the magnitude of his offence, enjoining them to heap up mounds of earth, each offender against his own city, and by this means the cities were made much higher; for first of all they had been raised considerably by those who dug the canals in the time of king Sesostris. Although other cities in Egypt were carried to a great height, in my opinion the greatest mounds were thrown up about the city of Bubastis, in which is a beautiful temple of Bubastis corresponding to the Grecian Diana. Her sacred precinct is thus situated: all except the entrance is an island; for two canals from the Nile extend to it, not mingling with each other, but each reaches as far as the entrance to the precinct, one flowing round it on one side, the other on the other. Each is a hundred feet broad, and shaded with trees. The portico is ten orgyÆ in height, and is adorned with figures six cubits high, that are deserving of notice. This precinct, being in the middle of the city, is visible on every side to a person going round it; for while the city has been mounded up to a considerable height, the temple has not been moved, so that it is conspicuous as it was originally built. A wall sculptured with figures runs round it; and within is a grove of lofty trees, planted round a large temple in which the image is placed. The width and length of the precinct is each way a stade. Along the entrance is a road paved with stone, four plethra in width and about three stades in length, leading through the square eastward toward the temple of Mercury; on each side of the road grow trees of enormous height. They told me that the final departure of the Ethiopian occurred in the following manner: it appeared to him in a vision that a man, standing by him, advised him to assemble all the priests in Egypt, and to cut them in two down the middle; but he, fearing that the gods held out this as a pretext to him, in order that he, having been guilty of impiety in reference to sacred things, might draw down some evil on himself from gods or from men, would not do so; but as the time had expired during which it was foretold that he should reign over Egypt, he departed hastily from the country. When Sabacon of his own accord had departed from Egypt, the blind king resumed the government, having returned from the fens, where he had lived fifty years, on an island formed of ashes and earth. For when any of the Egyptians came to him bringing provisions, as they were severally ordered to do unknown to the Ethiopian, he bade them bring some ashes also as a present. The kings who preceded AmyrtÆus were unable, for more than seven hundred years, to find out where this island was. It was called Elbo, and was about ten stades square. After him reigned a priest of Vulcan, whose name was Sethon: he held in no account the military caste of the Egyptians, as not having need of their services; and accordingly, among other indignities, he took away their lands; to each of whom, under former kings, twelve chosen acres had been assigned. After this, when Sennacherib, king of the Arabians and Assyrians, marched a large army against Egypt, the Egyptian warriors refused to assist him; and the priest, being reduced to a strait, entered the temple, and bewailed before the image the calamities he was in danger of suffering. While he was lamenting, sleep fell upon him, and it appeared to him in a vision, that the god stood by and encouraged him, assuring him that he should suffer nothing disagreeable in meeting the Arabian army, for he would himself send assistants to him. Confiding in this vision, he took with him such of the Egyptians as were willing to follow him, and encamped in Pelusium, at the entrance into Egypt; but none of the military caste followed him, only tradesmen, mechanics, and sutlers. When they arrived there, a number of field mice, pouring in upon their enemies, devoured their quivers and their bows, and the handles of their shields; so that on the next day, when they fled bereft of their arms, many of them fell. And to this day, a stone statue of this king stands in the temple of Vulcan, with a mouse in his hand, and an inscription to the following effect: "Whoever looks on me, let him revere the gods." HALL OF COLUMNS IN THE GREAT TEMPLE OF KARNAK. The Egyptians and the priests show that from the first king to this priest of Vulcan who last reigned, were three hundred and forty-one generations of men; and the same number of chief priests and kings. Now, three hundred generations are equal to ten thousand years, for three generations of men are one hundred years; and the forty-one remaining generations that were over the three hundred, make one thousand three hundred and forty years. Thus, they say, in eleven thousand three hundred and forty years, no god has assumed the form of a man. They relate that during this time the sun has four times risen out of his usual quarter, and that he has twice risen where he now sets, and twice set where he now rises; yet, that no change in the things in Egypt was occasioned by this, either in respect to the productions of the earth or the river, or to diseases or deaths. CHAPTER VI.
THIRD LINE; FROM THE TWELVE KINGS TO AMASIS. What things both other men and the Egyptians agree in saying occurred in this country, I shall now proceed to relate, and shall add to them some things of my own observation. The Egyptians having become free, after the reign of the priest of Vulcan, since they were at no time able to live without a king, divided all Egypt into twelve parts and established twelve others. These contracted intermarriages, and agreed that they would not attempt the subversion of one another, and would maintain the strictest friendship. They made these regulations and strictly upheld them, for the reason that it had been foretold them by an oracle when they first assumed the government, "that whoever among them should offer a libation in the temple of Vulcan from a bronze bowl, should be king of all Egypt"; for they used to assemble in all the temples. Now, being determined to leave in common a memorial of themselves, they built a labyrinth, a little above the lake of Moeris, situated near that called the city of Crocodiles; this I have myself seen, and found it greater than can be described. For if any one should reckon up all the buildings and public works of the Greeks, they would be found to have cost less labor and expense than this labyrinth alone, though the temple in Ephesus is deserving of mention, and also that in Samos. The pyramids likewise were beyond description, and each of them comparable to many of the great Greek structures. Yet the labyrinth surpasses even the pyramids. For it has twelve courts enclosed with walls, with doors opposite each other, six facing the north, and six the south, contiguous to one another; and the same exterior wall encloses them. It contains two kinds of rooms, some under ground and some above, to the number of three thousand, fifteen hundred of each. The rooms above ground I myself went through and saw, and relate from personal inspection. But the underground rooms I know only from report; for the Egyptians who have charge of the building would, on no account, show me them, saying that they held the sepulchres of the kings who originally built this labyrinth, and of the sacred crocodiles. I can therefore only relate what I have learnt by hearsay concerning the lower rooms; but the upper ones, which surpass all human works, I myself saw. The passages through the corridors, and the windings through the courts, from their great variety, presented a thousand occasions of wonder, as I passed from a court to the rooms, and from the rooms to halls, and to other corridors from the halls, and to other courts from the rooms. The roofs of all these are of stone, as also are the walls; but the walls are full of sculptured figures. Each court is surrounded with a colonnade of white stone, closely fitted. And adjoining the extremity of the labyrinth is a pyramid, forty orgyÆ in height, on which large figures are carved, and a way to it has been made under ground. Yet more wonderful than this labyrinth is the lake named from Moeris, near which this labyrinth is built; its circumference measures three thousand six hundred stades, or a distance equal to the sea-coast of Egypt. The lake stretches lengthways, north and south, being in depth in the deepest part fifty orgyÆ. That it is made by hand and dry, this circumstance proves, for about the middle of the lake stand two pyramids, each rising fifty orgyÆ above the surface of the water, and the part built under water extends to an equal depth; on each of these is placed a stone statue, seated on a throne. Thus these pyramids are one hundred orgyÆ in height. The water in this lake does not spring from the soil, for these parts are excessively dry, but it is conveyed through a channel from the Nile, and for six months it flows into the lake, and six months out again into the Nile. And during the six months that it flows out it yields a talent of silver every day to the king's treasury from the fish; but when the water is flowing into it, twenty minÆ. The people of the country told me that this lake discharges itself under ground into the Syrtis of Libya, running westward toward the interior by the mountain above Memphis. But when I did not see anywhere a heap of soil from this excavation, for this was an object of curiosity to me, I inquired of the people who lived nearest the lake, where the soil that had been dug out was to be found; they told me where it had been carried, and easily persuaded me, because I had heard that a similar thing had been done at Nineveh, in Assyria. For certain thieves formed a design to carry away the treasures of Sardanapalus, King of Nineveh, which were very large, and preserved in subterraneous treasuries; the thieves, therefore, beginning from their own dwellings, dug under ground by estimated measurement to the royal palace, and the soil that was taken out of the excavations, when night came on, they threw into the river Tigris, that flows by Nineveh; and so they proceeded until they had effected their purpose. The same method I heard was adopted in digging the lake in Egypt, except that it was not done by night, but during the day; for the Egyptians who dug out the soil carried it to the Nile, and the river receiving it, soon dispersed it. While the twelve kings continued to observe justice, in course of time, as they were sacrificing in the temple of Vulcan, and were about to offer a libation on the last day of the festival, the high priest, mistaking the number, brought out eleven of the twelve golden bowls with which he used to make the libation. Whereupon he who stood last of them, Psammitichus, since he had not a bowl, having taken off his helmet, which was of bronze, held it out and made the libation. All the other kings were in the habit of wearing helmets, and at that time had them on. Psammitichus therefore, without any sinister intention, held out his helmet; but they having taken into consideration what was done by Psammitichus, and the oracle that had foretold to them, "that whoever among them should offer a libation from a bronze bowl, should be sole king of Egypt"; calling to mind the oracle, did not think it right to put him to death, since upon examination they found that he had done it by no premeditated design. But they determined to banish him to the marshes, having divested him of the greatest part of his power; and they forbade him to leave the marshes, or have any intercourse with the rest of Egypt. With the design of avenging himself on his persecutors, he sent to the city of Buto to consult the oracle of Latona, the truest oracle that the Egyptians have, and the answer was returned "that vengeance would come from the sea, when men of bronze should appear." He was very incredulous that men of bronze would come to assist him; but not long after a stress of weather compelled some Ionians and Carians, who had sailed out for the purpose of piracy, to bear away to Egypt; and when they had disembarked and were clad in bronze armor, an Egyptian, who had never before seen men clad in such manner, went to the marshes to Psammitichus, and told him that men of bronze had arrived from the sea, and were ravaging the plains. He felt at once that the oracle was accomplished, and treated these Ionians and Carians in a friendly manner, and by promising them great things, persuaded them to join with him; and, with their help and that of such Egyptians as were well disposed toward him, he overcame the other kings. Psammitichus, now master of all Egypt, constructed the portico to Vulcan's temple at Memphis that faces the south wind; he built a court for Apis, in which he is fed whenever he appears, opposite the portico, surrounded by a colonnade, and full of sculptured figures; and instead of pillars, statues twelve cubits high are placed under the piazza. Apis, in the language of the Greeks, means Epaphus. To the Ionians, and those who with them had assisted him, Psammitichus gave lands opposite each other, with the Nile flowing between. These bear the name of "Camps." He royally fulfilled all his promises; and he moreover put Egyptian children under their care to be instructed in the Greek language; from whom the present interpreters in Egypt are descended. The Ionians and the Carians continued for a long time to inhabit these lands, situated near the sea, a little below the city of Bubastis. They were the first people of a different language who settled in Egypt. The docks for their ships, and the ruins of their buildings, were to be seen in my time in the places from which they had removed. Psammitichus reigned in Egypt fifty-four years; during twenty-nine of which he sat down before and besieged Azotus, a large city of Syria, until he took it. This Azotus, of all the cities we know of, held out against a siege the longest period. Neco was son of Psammitichus, and became king of Egypt: he first set about the canal that leads to the Red Sea, which Darius the Persian afterward completed. Its length is a voyage of four days, and in width it was dug so that two triremes might sail rowed abreast. The water is drawn into it from the Nile, and enters it a little above the city Bubastis. The canal passes near the Arabian city Patumos, and reaches to the Red Sea. In the digging of it one hundred and twenty thousand Egyptians perished in the reign of Neco. Psammis his son reigned only six years over Egypt. He made an expedition into Ethiopia, and shortly afterward died, Apries his son succeeding to the kingdom. He, next to his grandfather Psammitichus, enjoyed greater prosperity than any of the former kings, during a reign of five and twenty years, in which period he marched an army against Sidon, and engaged the Tyrians by sea. But it was destined for him to meet with adversity. For, having sent an army against the CyrenÆans, he met with a signal defeat. And the Egyptians, complaining of this, revolted from him, suspecting that Apries had designedly sent them to certain ruin, in order that they might be destroyed, and he might govern the rest of the Egyptians with greater security. Both those that returned and the friends of those who perished, being very indignant at this, openly revolted against him. Apries, having heard of this, sent Amasis to appease them by persuasion. But when he had come to them, and was urging them to desist from their enterprise, one of the Egyptians, standing behind him, placed a helmet on his head, and said: "I put this on you to make you king." And this action was not at all disagreeable to Amasis, as he presently showed. When Apries heard of this, he armed his auxiliaries and marched against the Egyptians with Carian and Ionian auxiliaries to the number of thirty thousand. They met near the city Momemphis, and prepared to engage with each other. Apries had a palace in the city of Sais that was spacious and magnificent. There are seven classes of people among the Egyptians—priests, warriors, herdsmen, swineherds, tradesmen, interpreters, and pilots. Their warriors are called Calasiries or Hermotybies. The Hermotybies number, when they are most numerous, a hundred and sixty thousand. None of these learn any business or mechanical art, but apply themselves wholly to military affairs. The Calasiries number two hundred and fifty thousand men: nor are these allowed to practise any art, but they devote themselves to military pursuits alone, the son succeeding to his father. When Apries, leading his auxiliaries, and Amasis, all the Egyptians, met together at Momemphis, the foreigners fought well, but being far inferior in numbers, were, on that account, defeated. Apries is said to have been of opinion that not even a god could deprive him of his kingdom, so securely did he think himself established; but he was beaten, taken prisoner, and carried back to Sais, to that which was formerly his own palace, but which now belonged to Amasis: here he was maintained for some time in the royal palace, and Amasis treated him well. But at length the Egyptians complaining that he did not act rightly in preserving a man who was the greatest enemy both to them and to him, he delivered Apries to the Egyptians. They strangled him, and buried him in his ancestral sepulchre, in the sacred precinct of Minerva, very near the temple, on the left hand as you enter. Apries being thus dethroned, Amasis, who was of the Saitic district, reigned in his stead; the name of the city from which he came was Siuph. At first the Egyptians held him in no great estimation, as having been formerly a private person, and of no illustrious family; but afterward he conciliated them by an act of address, without any arrogance. He had an infinite number of treasures among them a golden foot-pan, in which Amasis himself and all his guests were accustomed to wash their feet. This he broke in pieces, had the statue of a god made from it, and placed it in the most suitable part of the city. The Egyptians flocked to the image and paid it the greatest reverence. Thus, Amasis called the Egyptians together and said: "This statue was made out of the foot-pan in which the Egyptians formerly spat and washed their feet, and which they then so greatly reverenced; now, the same has happened to me as to the foot-pan; for though I was before but a private person, I now am your king; you must therefore honor and respect me." By this means he won over the Egyptians, so that they thought fit to obey him. He adopted the following method of managing his affairs: early in the morning, until the time of full-market, he assiduously despatched the business brought before him; after that he drank and jested with his companions, and talked loosely and sportively. But his friends, offended at this, admonished him, saying: "You do not, O king, control yourself properly, in making yourself too common. For it becomes you, who sit on a venerable throne, to pass the day in transacting public business; thus the Egyptians would know that they are governed by a great man, and you would be better spoken of. But now you act in a manner not at all becoming a king." But he answered them: "They who have bows, when they want to use them, bend them; but when they have done using them, they unbend them; for if the bow were to be kept always bent, it would break. Such is the condition of man; if he should incessantly attend to serious business, and not give himself up sometimes to sport, he would shortly become mad or stupefied. I, being well aware of this, give up a portion of my time to each." He built an admirable portico to the temple of Minerva at Sais, far surpassing all others both in height and size, as well as in the dimensions and quality of the stones; he likewise dedicated large statues, and huge andro-sphinxes, and brought other stones of a prodigious size for repairs: some from the quarries near Memphis; but those of greatest magnitude, from the city of Elephantine, distant from Sais a passage of twenty days. But that which I rather the most admire, is this: he brought a building of one stone from the city of Elephantine, and two thousand men, who were appointed to convey it, were occupied three whole years in its transport, and these men were all pilots. The length of this chamber, outside, is twenty-one cubits, the breadth fourteen, and the height eight. But inside, the length is eighteen cubits and twenty digits, the width twelve cubits, and the height five cubits. This chamber is placed near the entrance of the sacred precinct; for they say that he did not draw it within the precinct for the following reason: the architect, as the chamber was being drawn along, heaved a deep sigh, being wearied with the work, over which so long a time had been spent; whereupon Amasis, making a religious scruple of this, would not suffer it to be drawn any farther. Some persons however say, that one of the men employed at the levers was crushed to death by it, and that on that account it was not drawn into the precinct. Amasis dedicated in all the most famous temples, works admirable for their magnitude; and amongst them, at Memphis, the reclining colossus before the temple of Vulcan, of which the length is seventy-five feet; and on the same base stand two statues of Ethiopian stone, each twenty feet in height, one on each side of the temple. There is also at Sais another similar statue, lying in the same manner as that at Memphis. It was Amasis also who built the temple to Isis at Memphis, which is spacious and well worthy of notice. Under the reign of Amasis, Egypt is said to have enjoyed the greatest prosperity, both in respect to the benefits derived from the river to the land, and from the land to the people; and it is said to have contained at that time twenty thousand inhabited cities. Amasis it was who established the law among the Egyptians, that every Egyptian should annually declare to the governor of his district, by what means he maintained himself; and if he failed to do this, or did not show that he lived by honest means, he should be punished with death. Solon the Athenian brought this law from Egypt and established it at Athens. Amasis, being partial to the Greeks, bestowed other favors on various of the Greeks, and gave the city of Naucratis for such as arrived in Egypt to dwell in; and to such as did not wish to settle there, but only to trade by sea, he granted places where they might erect altars and temples to the gods. Now, the most spacious of these sacred buildings, which is also the most renowned and frequented, called the Hellenium, was erected at the common charge of the following cities: of the Ionians,—Chios, Teos, PhocÆa, and ClazomenÆ; of the Dorians,—Rhodes, Cnidus, Halicarnassus, Phaselis; and of the Æolians,—Mitylene alone. So that this temple belongs to them, and these cities appoint officers to preside over the mart: and whatever other cities claim a share in it, claim what does not belong to them. Besides this, the people of Ægina built a temple to Jupiter for themselves; and the Samians another to Juno, and the Milesians one to Apollo. Naucratis was anciently the only place of resort for merchants, and there was no other in Egypt: and if a man arrived at any other mouth of the Nile, he was obliged to swear "that he had come there against his will"; and having taken such an oath, he must sail in the same ship to the Canopic mouth; but if he should be prevented by contrary winds from doing so, he was forced to unload his goods and carry them in barges round the Delta until he reached Naucratis. So great were the privileges of Naucratis. When the Amphyctions contracted to build the temple that now stands at Delphi for three hundred talents—for the temple that was formerly there had been burned by accident, and it fell upon the Delphians to supply a fourth part of the sum—the Delphians went about from city to city to solicit contributions, and brought home no small amount from Egypt. For Amasis gave them a thousand talents of alum, and the Greeks who were settled in Egypt twenty minÆ. Amasis also dedicated offerings in Greece. In the first place, a gilded statue of Minerva at Cyrene, and his own portrait painted; secondly, to Minerva in Lindus two stone statues and a linen corselet well worthy of notice; thirdly, to Juno at Samos two images of himself carved in wood, which stood in the large temple even in my time, behind the doors. He was the first who conquered Cyprus, and subjected it to the payment of tribute.
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