wintry months this creature eats nothing: she has four feet and is an
animal belonging to the land and the water both; for she produces and
hatches eggs on the land, and the most part of the day she remains upon
dry land, but the whole of the night in the river, for the water in
truth is warmer than the unclouded open air and the dew. Of all the
mortal creatures of which we have knowledge this grows to the greatest
bulk from the smallest beginning; for the eggs which she produces are
not much larger than those of geese and the newly-hatched young one
is in proportion to the egg, but as he grows he becomes as much as
seventeen cubits long and sometimes yet larger. He has eyes like those
of a pig and teeth large and tusky, in proportion to the size of his
body; but unlike all other beasts he grows no tongue, neither does he
move his lower jaw, but brings the upper jaw towards the lower, being
in this too unlike all other beasts. He has moreover strong claws and a
scaly hide upon his back which cannot be pierced; and he is blind in the
water, but in the air he is of very keen sight. Since he has his living
in the water he keeps his mouth all full within of leeches; and whereas
all other birds and beasts fly from him, the trochilus is a creature
which is at peace with him, seeing that from her he receives benefit;
for the crocodile having come out of the water to the land and then
having opened his mouth (this he is wont to do generally towards the
West Wind), the trochilus upon that enters into his mouth and swallows
down the leeches, and he being benefited is pleased and does no harm to
the trochilus.
69. Now for some of the Egyptians the crocodiles are sacred animals, and
for others not so, but they treat them on the contrary as enemies: those
however who dwell about Thebes and about the lake of Moiris hold them
to be most sacred, and each of these two peoples keeps one crocodile
selected from the whole number, which has been trained to tameness, and
they put hanging ornaments of molten stone and of gold into the ears
of these and anklets round the front feet, and they give them food
appointed and victims of sacrifices and treat them as well as possible
while they live, and after they are dead they bury them in sacred tombs,
embalming them: but those who dwell about the city of Elephantine even
eat them, not holding them to be sacred. They are called not crocodiles
but champsai, and the Ionians gave them the name of crocodile, comparing
their form to that of the crocodiles (lizards) which appear in their
country in the stone walls.
70. There are many ways in use of catching them and of various kinds: I
shall describe that which to me seems the most worthy of being told. A
man puts the back of a pig upon a hook as bait, and lets it go into the
middle of the river, while he himself upon the bank of the river has
a young live pig, which he beats; and the crocodile hearing its cries
makes for the direction of the sound, and when he finds the pig's back
he swallows it down: then they pull, and when he is drawn out to land,
first of all the hunter forthwith plasters up his eyes with mud, and
having so done he very easily gets the mastery of him, but if he does
not do so he has much trouble.
71. The river-horse is sacred in the district of Papremis, but for the
other Egyptians he is not sacred; and this is the appearance which he
presents: he is four-footed, cloven-hoofed like an ox, 66 flat-nosed,
with a mane like a horse and showing teeth like tusks, with a tail and
voice like a horse, and in size as large as the largest ox; and his hide
is so exceedingly thick that when it has been dried shafts of javelins
are made of it.
72. There are moreover otters in the river, which they consider to be
sacred; and of fish also they esteem that which is called the lepidotos
to be sacred, and also the eel; and these they say are sacred to the
Nile: and of birds the fox-goose.
73. There is also another sacred bird called the phoenix which I did
not myself see except in painting, for in truth he comes to them very
rarely, at intervals, as the people of Heliopolis say, of five hundred
years; and these say that he comes regularly when his father dies; and
if he be like the painting, he is of this size and nature, that is to
say, some of his feathers are of gold colour and others red, and in
outline and size he is as nearly as possible like an eagle. This bird
they say (but I cannot believe the story) contrives as follows:—setting
forth from Arabia he conveys his father, they say, to the temple of the
Sun (Helios) plastered up in myrrh, and buries him in the temple of the
Sun; and he conveys him thus:—he forms first an egg of myrrh as large as
he is able to carry, and then he makes trial of carrying it, and when he
has made trial sufficiently, then he hollows out the egg and places his
father within it and plasters over with other myrrh that part of the egg
where he hollowed it out to put his father in, and when his father is
laid in it, it proves (they say) to be of the same weight as it was;
and after he has plastered it up, he conveys the whole to Egypt to the
temple of the Sun. Thus they say that this bird does.
74. There are also about Thebes sacred serpents, not at all harmful to
men, which are small in size and have two horns growing from the top of
the head: these they bury when they die in the temple of Zeus, for to
this god they say that they are sacred.
75. There is a region moreover in Arabia, situated nearly over against
the city of Buto, to which place I came to inquire about the winged
serpents: and when I came thither I saw bones of serpents and spines in
quantity so great that it is impossible to make report of the number,
and there were heaps of spines, some heaps large and others less large
and others smaller still than these, and these heaps were many in
number. This region in which the spines are scattered upon the ground
is of the nature of an entrance from a narrow mountain pass to a great
plain, which plain adjoins the plain of Egypt; and the story goes that
at the beginning of spring winged serpents from Arabia fly towards
Egypt, and the birds called ibises meet them at the entrance to this
country and do not suffer the serpents to go by but kill them. On
account of this deed it is (say the Arabians) that the ibis has come to
be greatly honoured by the Egyptians, and the Egyptians also agree that
it is for this reason that they honour these birds.
76. The outward form of the ibis is this:—it is a deep black all over,
and has legs like those of a crane and a very curved beak, and in size
it is about equal to a rail: this is the appearance of the black kind
which fight with the serpents, but of those which most crowd round men's
feet (for there are two several kinds of ibises) the head is bare and
also the whole of the throat, and it is white in feathering except the
head and neck and the extremities of the wings and the rump (in all
these parts of which I have spoken it is a deep black), while in legs
and in the form of the head it resembles the other. As for the serpent
its form is like that of the watersnake; and it has wings not feathered
but most nearly resembling the wings of the bat. Let so much suffice as
has been said now concerning sacred animals.
77. Of the Egyptians themselves, those who dwell in the part of Egypt
which is sown for crops 67 practise memory more than any other men and
are the most learned in history by far of all those of whom I have had
experience: and their manner of life is as follows:—For three successive
days in each month they purge, hunting after health with emetics and
clysters, and they think that all the diseases which exist are produced
in men by the food on which they live; for the Egyptians are from other
causes also the most healthy of all men next after the Libyans (in my
opinion on account of the seasons, because the seasons do not change,
for by the changes of things generally, and especially of the seasons,
diseases are most apt to be produced in men), and as to their diet, it
is as follows:—they eat bread, making loaves of maize, which they call
kyllestis, and they use habitually a wine made out of barley, for vines
they have not in their land. Of their fish some they dry in the sun and
then eat them without cooking, others they eat cured in brine. Of birds
they eat quails and ducks and small birds without cooking, after first
curing them; and everything else which they have belonging to the
class of birds or fishes, except such as have been set apart by them as
sacred, they eat roasted or boiled.
78. In the entertainments of the rich among them, when they have
finished eating, a man bears round a wooden figure of a dead body in a
coffin, made as like the reality as may be both by painting and carving,
and measuring about a cubit or two cubits each way; 68 and this he shows
to each of those who are drinking together, saying: "When thou lookest
upon this, drink and be merry, for thou shalt be such as this when thou
art dead." Thus they do at their carousals.
79. The customs which they practise are derived from their fathers and
they do not acquire others in addition; but besides other customary
things among them which are worthy of mention, they have one song, 6801
that of Linos, the same who is sung of both in Phenicia and in Cyprus
and elsewhere, having however a name different according to the various
nations. This song agrees exactly with that which the Hellenes sing
calling on the name of Linos, 69 so that besides many other things
about which I wonder among those matters which concern Egypt, I wonder
especially about this, namely whence they got the song of Linos. 70 It
is evident however that they have sung this song from immemorial time,
and in the Egyptian tongue Linos is called Maneros. The Egyptians told
me that he was the only son of him who first became king of Egypt, and
that he died before his time and was honoured with these lamentations by
the Egyptians, and that this was their first and only song.
80. In another respect the Egyptians are in agreement with some of the
Hellenes, namely with the Lacedemonians, but not with the rest, that is
to say, the younger of them when they meet the elder give way and move
out of the path, and when their elders approach they rise out of their
seat. In this which follows however they are not in agreement with any
of the Hellenes,—instead of addressing one another in the roads they do
reverence, lowering their hand down to their knee.
81. They wear tunics of linen about their legs with fringes, which they
call calasiris; above these they have garments of white wool thrown
over: woollen garments however are not taken into the temples, nor are
they buried with them, for this is not permitted by religion. In these
points they are in agreement with the observances called Orphic and
Bacchic (which are really Egyptian), 71 and also with those of the
Pythagoreans, for one who takes part in these mysteries is also
forbidden by religious rule to be buried in woollen garments; and about
this there is a sacred story told.
82. Besides these things the Egyptians have found out also to what god
each month and each day belongs, and what fortunes a man will meet with
who is born on any particular day, and how he will die, and what kind
of a man he will be: and these inventions were taken up by those of the
Hellenes who occupied themselves about poesy. Portents too have been
found out by them more than by all other men besides; for when a portent
has happened, they observe and write down the event which comes of it,
and if ever afterwards anything resembling this happens, they believe
that the event which comes of it will be similar.
83. Their divination is ordered thus:—the art is assigned not to any
man, but to certain of the gods, for there are in their land Oracles of
Heracles, of Apollo, of Athene, of Artemis, of Ares, and of Zeus, and
moreover that which they hold most in honour of all, namely the Oracle
of Leto which is in the city of Buto. The manner of divination however
is not yet established among them according to the same fashion
everywhere, but is different in different places.
84. The art of medicine among them is distributed thus:—each physician
is a physician of one disease and of no more; and the whole country is
full of physicians, for some profess themselves to be physicians of the
eyes, others of the head, others of the teeth, others of the affections
of the stomach, and others of the more obscure ailments.
85. Their fashions of mourning and of burial are these:—Whenever any
household has lost a man who is of any regard amongst them, the whole
number of women of that house forthwith plaster over their heads or even
their faces with mud. Then leaving the corpse within the house they go
themselves to and fro about the city and beat themselves, with their
garments bound up by a girdle 72 and their breasts exposed, and with
them go all the women who are related to the dead man, and on the other
side the men beat themselves, they too having their garments bound up by
a girdle; and when they have done this, they then convey the body to the
embalming.
86. In this occupation certain persons employ themselves regularly and
inherit this as a craft. These, whenever a corpse is conveyed to them,
show to those who brought it wooden models of corpses made like reality
by painting, and the best of the ways of embalming they say is that of
him whose name I think it impiety to mention when speaking of a matter
of such a kind; 73 the second which they show is less good than this and
also less expensive; and the third is the least expensive of all. Having
told them about this, they inquire of them in which way they desire the
corpse of their friend to be prepared. Then they after they have agreed
for a certain price depart out of the way, and the others being left
behind in the buildings embalm according to the best of these ways
thus:—First with a crooked iron tool they draw out the brain through the
nostrils, extracting it partly thus and partly by pouring in drugs; and
after this with a sharp stone of Ethiopia they make a cut along the side
and take out the whole contents of the belly, and when they have cleared
out the cavity and cleansed it with palm-wine they cleanse it again with
spices pounded up: then they fill the belly with pure myrrh pounded
up and with cassia and other spices except frankincense, and sew it
together again. Having so done they keep it for embalming covered up
in natron for seventy days, but for a longer time than this it is not
permitted to embalm it; and when the seventy days are past, they wash
the corpse and roll its whole body up in fine linen 74 cut into bands,
smearing these beneath with gum, 75 which the Egyptians use generally
instead of glue. Then the kinsfolk receive it from them and have a
wooden figure made in the shape of a man, and when they have had this
made they enclose the corpse, and having shut it up within, they store
it then in a sepulchral chamber, setting it to stand upright against the
wall.
87. Thus they deal with the corpses which are prepared in the most
costly way; but for those who desire the middle way and wish to avoid
great cost they prepare the corpse as follows:—having filled their
syringes with the oil which is got from cedar-wood, with this they
forthwith fill the belly of the corpse, and this they do without having
either cut it open or taken out the bowels, but they inject the oil by
the breech, and having stopped the drench from returning back they keep
it then the appointed number of days for embalming, and on the last
of the days they let the cedar oil come out from the belly, which they
before put in; and it has such power that it brings out with it the
bowels and interior organs of the body dissolved; and the natron
dissolves the flesh, so that there is left of the corpse only the skin
and the bones. When they have done this they give back the corpse at
once in that condition without working upon it any more.
88. The third kind of embalming, by which are prepared the bodies of
those who have less means, is as follows:—they cleanse out the belly
with a purge and then keep the body for embalming during the seventy
days, and at once after that they give it back to the bringers to carry
away.
89. The wives of men of rank when they die are not given at once to be
embalmed, nor such women as are very beautiful or of greater regard
than others, but on the third or fourth day after their death (and
not before) they are delivered to the embalmers. They do so about this
matter in order that the embalmers may not abuse their women, for they
say that one of them was taken once doing so to the corpse of a woman
lately dead, and his fellow-craftsman gave information.
90. Whenever any one, either of the Egyptians themselves or of
strangers, is found to have been carried off by a crocodile or brought
to his death by the river itself, the people of any city by which he may
have been cast up on land must embalm him and lay him out in the fairest
way they can and bury him in a sacred burial-place, nor may any of his
relations or friends besides touch him, but the priests of the Nile
themselves handle the corpse and bury it as that of one who was
something more than man.
91. Hellenic usages they will by no means follow, and to speak generally
they follow those of no other men whatever. This rule is observed by
most of the Egyptians; but there is a large city named Chemmis in the
Theban district near Neapolis, and in this city there is a temple of
Perseus the son of Danae which is of a square shape, and round it grow
date-palms: the gateway of the temple is built of stone and of very
great size, and at the entrance of it stand two great statues of stone.
Within this enclosure is a temple-house 76 and in it stands an image
of Perseus. These people of Chemmis say that Perseus is wont often to
appear in their land and often within the temple, and that a sandal
which has been worn by him is found sometimes, being in length two
cubits, and whenever this appears all Egypt prospers. This they say, and
they do in honour of Perseus after Hellenic fashion thus,—they hold an
athletic contest, which includes the whole list of games, and they offer
in prizes cattle and cloaks and skins: and when I inquired why to them
alone Perseus was wont to appear, and wherefore they were separated from
all the other Egyptians in that they held an athletic contest, they said
that Perseus had been born of their city, for Danaos and Lynkeus were
men of Chemmis and had sailed to Hellas, and from them they traced a
descent and came down to Perseus: and they told me that he had come to
Egypt for the reason which the Hellenes also say, namely to bring from
Libya the Gorgon's head, and had then visited them also and recognised
all his kinsfolk, and they said that he had well learnt the name of
Chemmis before he came to Egypt, since he had heard it from his mother,
and that they celebrated an athletic contest for him by his own command.
92. All these are customs practised by the Egyptians who dwell above the
fens: and those who are settled in the fen-land have the same customs
for the most part as the other Egyptians, both in other matters and also
in that they live each with one wife only, as do the Hellenes; but for
economy in respect of food they have invented these things besides:—when
the river has become full and the plains have been flooded, there grow
in the water great numbers of lilies, which the Egyptians call lotos;
these they cut with a sickle and dry in the sun, and then they pound
that which grows in the middle of the lotos and which is like the head
of a poppy, and they make of it loaves baked with fire. The root also
of this lotos is edible and has a rather sweet taste: 77 it is round
in shape and about the size of an apple. There are other lilies too, in
flower resembling roses, which also grow in the river, and from them the
fruit is produced in a separate vessel springing from the root by the
side of the plant itself, and very nearly resembles a wasp's comb:
in this there grow edible seeds in great numbers of the size of an
olive-stone, and they are eaten either fresh 78 or dried. Besides this
they pull up from the fens the papyrus which grows every year, and the
upper parts of it they cut off and turn to other uses, but that which is
left below for about a cubit in length they eat or sell: and those who
desire to have the papyrus at its very best bake it in an oven heated
red-hot, and then eat it. Some too of these people live on fish alone,
which they dry in the sun after having caught them and taken out the
entrails, and then when they are dry, they use them for food.
93. Fish which swim in shoals are not much produced in the rivers, but
are bred in the lakes, and they do as follows:—When there comes upon
them the desire to breed, they swim out in shoals towards the sea; and
the males lead the way shedding forth their milt as they go, while the
females, coming after and swallowing it up, from it become impregnated:
and when they have become full of young in the sea they swim up back
again, each shoal to its own haunts. The same however no longer lead the
way as before, but the lead comes now to the females, and they leading
the way in shoals do just as the males did, that is to say they shed
forth their eggs by a few grains at a time, 79 and the males coming
after swallow them up. Now these grains are fish, and from the grains
which survive and are not swallowed, the fish grow which afterwards are
bred up. Now those of the fish which are caught as they swim out to sea
are found to be rubbed on the left side of the head, but those which are
caught as they swim up again are rubbed on the right side. This happens
to them because as they swim down to the sea they keep close to the land
on the left side of the river, and again as they swim up they keep to
the same side, approaching and touching the bank as much as they can,
for fear doubtless of straying from their course by reason of the
stream. When the Nile begins to swell, the hollow places of the land
and the depressions by the side of the river first begin to fill, as the
water soaks through from the river, and so soon as they become full of
water, at once they are all filled with little fishes; and whence
these are in all likelihood produced, I think that I perceive. In the
preceding year, when the Nile goes down, the fish first lay eggs in the
mud and then retire with the last of the retreating waters; and when
the time comes round again, and the water once more comes over the land,
from these eggs forthwith are produced the fishes of which I speak.
94. Thus it is as regards the fish. And for anointing those of the
Egyptians who dwell in the fens use oil from the castor-berry, 80 which
oil the Egyptians call kiki, and thus they do:—they sow along the banks
of the rivers and pools these plants, which in a wild form grow of
themselves in the land of the Hellenes; these are sown in Egypt and
produce berries in great quantity but of an evil smell; and when they
have gathered these, some cut them up and press the oil from them,
others again roast them first and then boil them down and collect that
which runs away from them. The oil is fat and not less suitable for
burning than olive-oil, but it gives forth a disagreeable smell.
95. Against the gnats, which are very abundant, they have contrived as
follows:—those who dwell above the fen-land are helped by the towers, to
which they ascend when they go to rest; for the gnats by reason of the
winds are not able to fly up high: but those who dwell in the fen-land
have contrived another way instead of the towers, and this is it:—every
man of them has got a casting net, with which by day he catches fish,
but in the night he uses it for this purpose, that is to say he puts the
casting-net round about the bed in which he sleeps, and then creeps in
under it and goes to sleep: and the gnats, if he sleeps rolled up in a
garment or a linen sheet, bite through these, but through the net they
do not even attempt to bite.