CHAPTER VII.

THE CONQUEST OF ASSYRIA AND THE WAR WITH THE MASSAGETÆ.

While Harpagus was reducing the lower parts of Asia, Cyrus had conquered

the upper parts, subduing every nation without exception. The greatest

parts of these I shall pass by without notice; but I will make mention

of those which gave him most trouble, and are most worthy of being

recorded.

Assyria contains many large cities, the most renowned and the strongest

of which, where the seat of government was established after the

destruction of Nineveh, was Babylon, which is of the following

description. The city stands in a spacious plain, and is quadrangular,

and shows a front on every side of one hundred and twenty stades [15

miles]; these stades make up the sum of four hundred and eighty in the

whole circumference. It was adorned in a manner surpassing any city we

are acquainted with. In the first place, a moat deep, wide, and full of

water, runs entirely round it; next, there is a wall fifty royal cubits

in breadth [about 84 feet], and in height two hundred [270 feet], but

the royal cubit is larger than the common one by three fingers' breadth.

And here I think I ought to explain how the earth, taken out of the

moat, was consumed, and in what manner the wall was built. As they dug

the moat they made bricks of the earth that was taken out; and when they

had moulded a sufficient number they baked them in kilns. Then making

use of hot asphalt for cement, and laying wattled reeds between the

thirty bottom courses of bricks, they first built up the sides of the

moat, and afterward the wall itself in the same manner; and on the top

of the wall, at the edges, they built dwellings of one story, fronting

each other, having spaces between these dwellings wide enough to turn a

chariot with four horses. In the circumference of the wall there were a

hundred gates, all of bronze, as also were the posts and lintels. Eight

days' journey from Babylon [200 miles] stands another city, called Is,

on a small river of the same name, which discharges its stream into the

Euphrates; this river brings down with its water many lumps of bitumen,

from which the bitumen used in the wall of Babylon was taken. The city

consists of two divisions, for the Euphrates, separates it in the

middle: this river, which is broad, deep, and rapid, flows from Armenia,

and falls into the Red Sea. The wall on either bank has an elbow carried

down to the river; and thence along the curvatures of each bank runs a

wall of baked bricks. The city itself, which is full of houses three and

four stories high, is cut up into straight streets running at right

angles to each other. At the end of each street a little gate is formed

in the wall along the river side, in number equal to the streets; and

they are all made of bronze, and lead down to the edge of the river.

This outer wall is the chief defence, but another wall runs round

within, not much inferior to the other in strength, though narrower. In

the middle of each division of the city fortified buildings were

erected; in one, the royal palace, with a spacious and strong enclosure,

bronze-gated; and in the other, the precinct of Jupiter Belus, which in

my time was still in existence, a square building of two stades [¼ of a

mile] on every side. In the midst of this precinct is built a solid

tower of one stade both in length and breadth, and on this tower rose

another, and another upon that, to the number of eight. And there is an

ascent to these outside, running spirally round all the towers. About

the middle of the ascent there is a landing-place and seats on which

those who go up may rest themselves; and in the uppermost tower stands a

spacious temple, handsomely furnished, and in it a large couch, with a

table of gold by its side. No statue has been erected within it, but as

the Chaldæans, who are priests of this deity, assert, though I cannot

credit what they say, the god himself comes to the temple and reclines

on the bed, in the same manner as the Egyptians say happens at Thebes in

Egypt.

There is also another temple below, within the precinct at Babylon; in

it is a large golden statue of Jupiter seated, and near it a great table

of gold; the throne also and the step are of gold, which together weigh

eight hundred talents [twenty-two tons], as the Chaldæans affirm.

Outside the temple is a golden altar; and another large altar, where

full-grown sheep are sacrificed; for on the golden altar only sucklings

may be offered. On the great altar the Chaldæans consume yearly a

thousand talents [twenty-seven tons] of frankincense when they celebrate

the festival of this god. There was also at that time within the

precincts of this temple a statue of solid gold, twelve cubits high

[eighteen feet]; I, indeed, did not see it, but only relate what is said

by the Chaldæans. Darius, son of Hystaspes, formed a design to take away

this statue, but dared not do so; but Xerxes, son of Darius, took it,

and killed the priest who forbade him to remove it.

There were many others who reigned over Babylon, whom I shall mention in

my Assyrian history, who beautified the walls and temples, and amongst

them were two women. The first of these, named Semiramis, lived five

generations before the other; she raised mounds along the plain, which

are worthy of admiration; for before, the river used to overflow the

whole plain like a sea. But the other, who was queen next after her, and

whose name was Nitocris, (and she was much more sagacious than the other

queen,) in the first place left monuments of herself, which I shall

presently describe; and in the next place, when she saw the power of the

Medes growing formidable and restless, and that, among other cities,

Nineveh was captured by them, she took every possible precaution for her

own defence. First of all, the River Euphrates, which before ran in a

straight line, and which flows through the middle of the city, by having

channels dug above, she made so winding, that in its course it touched

three times at one and the same village in Assyria, called Arderica: and

to this day, those who go from our sea to Babylon, if they travel by the

Euphrates, come three times to this village on three successive days.

She also raised on either bank of the river a mound, astonishing for its

magnitude and height. At a considerable distance above Babylon, she had

a reservoir for a lake dug, carrying it out some distance from the

river, and in the depth digging down to water, and in width making its

circumference of four hundred and twenty stades [about fifty-two and a

half miles]: she consumed the soil from this excavation by heaping it up

on the banks of the river, and when it was completely dug, she had

stones brought and built a casing to it all round. She had both these

works done, the river made winding, and the whole excavation a lake, in

order that the current, being broken by frequent turnings, might be more

slow, and the navigation to Babylon tedious, and that after the voyage,

a long march round the lake might follow. All this was done in that part

of the country where the approach to Babylon is nearest, and where is

the shortest way for the Medes; in order that the Medes might not, by

holding intercourse with her people, become acquainted with her affairs.

She enclosed herself, therefore, with these defences by digging, and

immediately afterwards made the following addition. As the city

consisted of two divisions, which were separated by the river, during

the reign of former kings, when any one had occasion to cross from one

division to the other, he was obliged to cross in a boat: and this, in

my opinion, was very troublesome: she therefore provided for this, for

after she had dug the reservoir for the lake, she left this other

monument built by similar toil. She had large blocks of stone cut, and

when they were ready and the place was completely dug out, she turned

the whole stream of the river into the place she had dug: while this was

filling, and the ancient channel had become dry, in the first place, she

lined with burnt bricks the banks of the river throughout the city, and

the descents that lead from the gates to the river, in the same manner

as the walls. In the next place, about the middle of the city, she built

a bridge with the stones she had prepared, and bound them together with

plates of lead and iron. Upon these stones she laid, during the day,

square planks of timber, on which the Babylonians might pass over; but

at night these planks were removed, to prevent people from crossing by

night and robbing one another. When the hollow that was dug had become a

lake filled by the river, and the bridge was finished, she brought back

the river to its ancient channel from the lake.

[Illustration: WINGED HUMAN-HEADED LION.]

The same queen also contrived the following deception. Over the most

frequented gate of the city she prepared a sepulchre for herself, high

up above the gate itself; and on the sepulchre she had engraved,

SHOULD ANY ONE OF MY SUCCESSORS, KINGS OF BABYLON, FIND HIMSELF IN

WANT OF MONEY, LET HIM OPEN THIS SEPULCHRE, AND TAKE AS MUCH AS HE

CHOOSES; BUT IF HE BE NOT IN WANT, LET HIM NOT OPEN IT; FOR THAT WERE

NOT WELL. This monument remained undisturbed, until the kingdom

fell to Darius; but it seemed hard to Darius that this gate should be of

no use, and that when money was lying there, and this money inviting him

to take it, he should not do so; but no use was made of this gate for

this reason, that a dead body was over the head of any one who passed

through it. He therefore opened the sepulchre, and instead of money,

found only the body, and these words written: HADST THOU NOT BEEN

INSATIABLY COVETOUS, AND GREEDY OF THE MOST SORDID GAIN, THOU WOULDEST

NOT HAVE OPENED THE CHAMBERS OF THE DEAD.

Cyrus made war against the son of this queen, who bore the name of his

father Labynetus, and had the empire of Assyria. Now when the great king

leads his army in person, he carries with him from home well prepared

provisions and cattle; and he takes with him water from the river

Choaspes, which flows past Susa, of which alone, the king drinks. A

great number of four-wheeled carriages drawn by mules carry the water of

this river, after it has been boiled in silver vessels, and follow him

from place to place wherever he marches. Cyrus, in his march against

Babylon, arrived at the river Gyndes, whose fountains are in the

Matianian mountains, and which flows through the land of the Dardanians,

and falls into another river, the Tigris; the latter, flowing by the

city of Opis, discharges itself into the Red Sea. When Cyrus was

endeavoring to cross this river Gyndes, which can be passed only in

boats, one of the sacred white horses through wantonness plunged into

the stream, and attempted to swim over, but the stream having carried

him away and drowned him, Cyrus was much enraged with the river for this

affront, and threatened to make his stream so weak, that henceforth

women should easily cross it without wetting their knees. After this

menace, deferring his expedition against Babylon, he divided his army

into two parts; and marked out by lines one hundred and eighty channels,

on each side of the river, diverging every way; then having distributed

his army, he commanded them to dig. His design was indeed executed by

the great numbers he employed; but they spent the whole summer in the

work. When Cyrus had avenged himself on the river Gyndes, by

distributing it into three hundred and sixty channels, and the second

spring began to shine, he then advanced against Babylon. But the

Babylonians, having taken the field, awaited his coming; and when he had

advanced near the city, the Babylonians gave battle, and, being

defeated, were shut up in the city. But as they had been long aware of

the restless spirit of Cyrus, and saw that he attacked all nations

alike, they had laid up provisions for many years; and therefore were

under no apprehensions about a siege. On the other hand, Cyrus found

himself in difficulty, since much time had elapsed, and his affairs were

not at all advanced. Whether therefore some one else made the suggestion

to him in his perplexity, or whether he himself devised the plan, he had

recourse to the following stratagem. Having stationed the bulk of his

army near the passage of the river where it enters Babylon, and again

having stationed another division beyond the city, where the river makes

its exit, he gave orders to his forces to enter the city as soon as they

should see the stream fordable. Having thus stationed his forces, and

given these directions, he himself marched away with the ineffective

part of his army; and coming to the lake, Cyrus did the same with

respect to the river and the lake as the queen of the Babylonians had

done. For having diverted the river, by means of a canal, into the lake,

which was before a swamp, he made the ancient channel fordable by the

sinking of the river. When this took place, the Persians who were

appointed to that purpose close to the stream of the river, which had

now subsided to about the middle of a man's thigh, entered Babylon by

this passage. If, however, the Babylonians had been aware of it

beforehand, or had known what Cyrus was about, they would not have

suffered the Persians to enter the city, but would have utterly

destroyed them; for having shut all the little gates that lead down to

the river, and mounting the walls that extend along the banks of the

river, they would have caught them as in a net; whereas the Persians

came upon them by surprise. It is related by the people who inhabited

this city, that on account of its great extent, when they who were at

the extremities were taken, those of the Babylonians who inhabited the

centre knew nothing of the capture (for it happened to be a festival)

but they were dancing at the time, and enjoying themselves, till they

received certain information of the truth. Thus was Babylon taken for

the first time.[9]

How great was the power of the Babylonians, I can prove by many other

circumstances, and especially by the following. The whole territory over

which the great king reigns, is divided into districts for the purpose

of furnishing subsistence for him and his army, in addition to the usual

tribute; of the twelve months in the year, the Babylonian territory

provides him with subsistence for four, and all the rest of Asia for the

remaining eight; so that the territory of Assyria amounts to a third

part of the power of all Asia, and the government of this region, which

the Persians call a satrapy, is remunerative; since it yielded a full

artabe of silver every day to Tritæchmes son of Artabazus, who held this

district from the king: the artabe is a Persian measure, containing

three Attic chœnices more than the Attic medimnus [or about twelve and a

half gallons]. And he had a private stud of horses, in addition to those

used in war, of eight hundred stallions, and sixteen thousand mares. He

kept, too, such a number of Indian dogs, that four considerable towns in

the plain were exempted from all other taxes and appointed to find food

for the dogs. Such were the advantages accruing to the governor of

Babylon. The land of Assyria is but little watered by rain, only enough

in fact to nourish the root of the corn; the stalk grows up, and the

grain comes to maturity only by being irrigated from the river, not, as

in Egypt, by the river overflowing the fields, but by the hand and by

engines. The Babylonian territory, like Egypt, is intersected by canals;

and the largest of these is navigable, stretching in the direction of

the winter sunrise[10]; and it extends from the Euphrates to another

river, the Tigris, on which the city of Nineveh stood. This is, of all

lands with which we are acquainted, by far the best for the growth of

corn: but it does not carry produce trees of any kind, either the fig,

or the vine, or the olive; yet it is so fruitful in the produce of corn,

that it yields continually two hundred-fold, and when it produces its

best, it yields even three hundred-fold. The blades of wheat and barley

grow there to fully four fingers (three inches) in breadth; and though I

well know to what a height millet and sesama grow, I shall not mention

it; for I am well assured, that to those who have never been in the

Babylonian country, what has been said concerning its productions will

appear to many incredible. They use no other oil than such as is drawn

from sesama. They have palm-trees growing all over the plain; most of

these bear fruit from which they make bread, wine, and honey. They also

tie the fruit of that which the Greeks call the male palm, about those

trees that bear dates, in order that the fly entering the date may ripen

it, lest otherwise the fruit may fall before maturity; for the male

palms have flies in the fruit, just like wild fig-trees.

The most wonderful thing of all, next to the city itself, is what I am

now going to describe: their vessels that sail down the river to Babylon

are circular, and made of leather. For when they have cut the ribs out

of willows that grow in Armenia above Babylon, they cover them with

hides extended on the outside, by way of a bottom; not making any

distinction in the stern, nor contracting the prow, but making them

circular like a buckler; then having lined this vessel throughout with

reeds, they suffer it to be carried down by the river freighted with

merchandise, chiefly casks of palm-wine. The vessel is steered by two

spars, held by two men standing upright, one of whom draws his spar in

and the other thrusts his out. Some of these vessels are made very

large, and others of a smaller size; but the largest of them carry a

cargo of five thousand talents [about one hundred and thirty-five tons].

Every vessel has a live ass on board, and the larger ones more. For

after they arrive at Babylon, and have disposed of their freight, they

sell the ribs of the boat and all the reeds by public auction; then

having piled the skins on the asses, they return by land to Armenia, for

it is not possible by any means to sail up the river because of the

rapidity of the current: and for this reason they make their vessels of

skins and not of wood, and upon their return to Armenia with their

asses, they construct other vessels in the same manner. For their dress,

they wear a linen tunic that reaches down to the feet; over this they

put another garment of wool, and over all a short white cloak; they have

sandals peculiar to the country, very much like the Bœotian clogs. They

wear long hair, binding their heads with turbans, and anoint the whole

body with perfumes. Every man has a seal, and a staff curiously wrought;

and on every staff is carved either an apple, a rose, a lily, an eagle,

or something of the kind; for it is not allowable to wear a stick

without a device.

Many curious customs prevail amongst them. This, in my opinion, is the

wisest, which I hear the Venetians, of Illyria, also practise. Once a

year, in every village, whatever maidens are of a marriageable age, they

collect together and bring in a body to one place; around them gathers a

crowd of men. Then a crier having made them stand up one by one, offers

them for sale, beginning with the most beautiful; and when she has been

sold for a large sum, he puts up another who is next in beauty. They are

sold on condition that they shall be married. Such men among the

Babylonians as are rich and desirous of marrying, bid against one

another, and purchase the handsomest. But such of the lower classes as

are desirous of marrying, do not require a beautiful form, but are

willing to take the plainer damsels with a sum of money. So when the

crier has finished selling the handsomest of the maidens, he makes the

ugliest stand up, or one that is a cripple, and puts her up to auction,

for the person who will marry her with the smallest sum, until she is

knocked down to the man who offers to take the least. This money is that

obtained from the sale of the handsome maidens; so that the beautiful

ones portion out the ugly and the crippled. A father is not allowed to

give his daughter in marriage to whom he pleases, nor can a purchaser

carry off a maiden without security; but he is first obliged to give

security that he will certainly marry her, and then he may take her

away. If they do not agree, a law has been enacted that the money shall

be repaid. It is also lawful for any one who pleases to come from

another village and purchase. They have also this other custom, second

only to the former in wisdom. They bring their sick to the market-place,

for they have no physicians; then those who pass by the sick person

confer with him about the disease, to discover whether they have

themselves been afflicted with the same disease, or have seen others so

afflicted. They then advise him to have recourse to the same treatment

as that by which they escaped a similar disease, or have known to cure

others. And no one passes by a sick person in silence, without inquiring

into the nature of his distemper. They embalm their dead in honey, and

their funeral lamentations are like those of the Egyptians.

There are three tribes among them that eat nothing but fish; these, when

they have taken and dried them in the sun, they treat in the following

manner: they put them into a mortar, and having pounded them with a

pestle, sift them through a fine cloth; then, whoever pleases, kneads

them into a cake, or bakes them like bread.

When Cyrus had conquered this nation, he was anxious to reduce the

Massagetæ to subjection. This nation is said to be both powerful and

valiant, dwelling toward the east and the rising sun beyond the river

Araxes, over against the Issedonians; there are some who say that this

nation is Scythian. The Araxes is reported by some persons to be

greater, by others less, than the Ister; they say that there are many

islands in it, some nearly equal in size to Lesbos; and that in them are

men, who during the summer feed upon all manner of roots, which they dig

out of the ground; and that they store up for food ripe fruits which

they find on the trees, and feed upon these during the winter. They add,

that they have discovered other trees that produce fruit of a peculiar

kind, which the inhabitants, when they meet together in companies, and

have lighted a fire, throw on it, as they sit around in a circle; and

that, inhaling the fumes of the burning fruit that has been thrown on,

they become intoxicated by the odor, just as the Greeks do by wine; and

that the more fruit is thrown on, the more intoxicated they become,

until they rise up to dance and betake themselves to singing. The river

Araxes flows from the Matienian mountains, whence also springs the river

Gyndes, which Cyrus distributed into the three hundred and sixty

trenches; and it gushes out from forty springs, all of which, except

one, discharge themselves into fens and swamps, in which it is said men

live who feed on raw fish, and clothe themselves in the skins of

sea-calves; but the one stream of the Araxes flows through an

unobstructed channel into the Caspian Sea. The Caspian is a sea by

itself, having no communication with any other sea; for the whole of

that which the Greeks navigate, and that beyond the Pillars, called the

Atlantic, and the Red Sea, are all one. But the Caspian is a separate

sea of itself; being in length a fifteen-days' voyage for a rowing boat;

and in breadth, where it is widest, an eight-days' voyage. On the

western shore of this sea stretches the Caucasus, which is in extent the

largest, and in height the loftiest, of all mountains; it contains

within itself many various nations of men, who for the most part live

upon the produce of wild fruit-trees. In this country, it is said, there

are trees which produce leaves of such a nature, that by rubbing them

and mixing them with water the people paint figures on their garments;

these figures do not wash out, but grow old with the wool, as if they

had been woven in from the first. East of the Caspian is a plain in

extent unbounded in the prospect. A great portion of this extensive

plain is inhabited by the Massagetæ, against whom Cyrus resolved to make

war; for the motives that urged and incited him to this enterprise were

many and powerful: first of all his birth, which he thought was

something more than human; and secondly, the good fortune which had

attended him in his wars; for wherever Cyrus directed his arms, it was

impossible for that nation to escape.

A woman whose husband was dead, was queen of the Massagetæ; her name was

Tomyris; and Cyrus sent ambassadors under pretence of wooing her, and

made her an offer of marriage. But Tomyris, being aware that he was not

wooing her, but the kingdom of the Massagetæ, forbade their approach.

Upon this Cyrus, perceiving his artifice ineffectual, marched to the

Araxes, and openly prepared to make war on the Massagetæ, by throwing

bridges over the river, and building turrets on the boats which carried

over his army. While he was employed in this work Tomyris sent a herald

to him with this message: "King of the Medes, desist from your great

exertions; for you cannot know if they will terminate to your advantage;

and having desisted, reign over your own dominions, and bear to see me

governing what is mine. But if you will not attend to my advice, and

prefer every thing before peace; in a word, if you are very anxious to

make trial of the Massagetæ, toil no longer in throwing a bridge over

the river; but do you cross over to our side, while we retire three

days' march from the river; or if you had rather receive us on your

side, do you the like." When Cyrus heard this proposal, he called a

council of the principal Persians, laid the matter before them, and

demanded their opinion as to what he should do: they unanimously advised

him to let Tomyris pass with her army into his territory. But Crœsus the

Lydian, who was present and disapproved this advice, delivered a

contrary opinion to that which was put forward, and said: "O king, I

assured you long ago, that since Jupiter delivered me into your hands, I

would to the utmost of my power avert whatever misfortune I should see

impending over your house; and my own calamities,[11] sad as they are,

have been lessons to me. If you think yourself immortal, and that you

command an army that is so too, it is needless for me to make known to

you my opinion. But if you know that you too are a man, and that you

command such as are men, learn this first of all, that there is a wheel

in human affairs, which, continually revolving, does not suffer the same

persons to be always successful. My opinion touching the matter before

us is wholly at variance with that already given. For if we shall

receive the enemy into this country, there is danger that if you are

defeated, you will lose, besides, your whole empire; for it is plain

that if the Massagetæ are victorious, they will not flee home again, but

will march upon your territories: and if you are victorious, your

victory is not so complete as if, having crossed over into their

territory, you should conquer the Massagetæ and put them to flight; for

then you can march directly into the dominions of Tomyris. It is a

disgrace too that Cyrus the son of Cambyses should give way and retreat

before a woman. My opinion, therefore, is, that you should pass over and

advance as far as they retire; and then, by the following stratagem,

endeavor to get the better of them. I hear the Massagetæ are

unacquainted with the Persian luxuries, and are unused to the comforts

of life. Suppose then that you cut up and dress an abundance of cattle,

and lay out a feast in our camp for these men; and besides, bowls of

unmixed wine without stint; then leave the weakest part of your army

behind, while the rest return again toward the river; for the Massagetæ,

if I mistake not, when they see so much excellent fare, will turn to

immediately, and after that there remains for us the display of mighty

achievements."

Cyrus approved the suggestions of Crœsus and bade Tomyris retire, as he

would cross over to her. She accordingly retired, as she had promised.

Cyrus placed Crœsus in the hands of his son Cambyses, to whom he also

intrusted the kingdom, and having strictly charged him to honor Crœsus,

and treat him well in case his inroad on the Massagetæ should fail, sent

them back to Persia and crossed the river with his army. When he had

passed the Araxes, and night came on, he saw a vision, as he was

sleeping in the country of the Massagetæ. He fancied that he saw the

eldest son of Hystaspes with wings on his shoulders; and that with one

of these he overshadowed Asia, and with the other Europe. Now Darius,

who was then about twenty years of age, was the eldest son of Hystaspes,

son of Arsames, one of the Achæmenides; and he had been left in Persia,

for he had not yet attained the age of military service. When Cyrus

awoke he considered his dream with attention; and as it seemed to him of

great moment, he summoned Hystaspes, and taking him aside, said:

"Hystaspes, your son has been detected plotting against me and my

empire; and I will show you how I know it for a certainty. The gods

watch over me and forewarn me of every thing that is about to befall me.

Now, last night, as I was sleeping, I saw the eldest of your sons with

wings on his shoulders, and with one of these he overshadowed Asia, and

Europe with the other; from this vision, it cannot be otherwise than

that your son is forming designs against me; do you therefore go back to

Persia with all speed, and take care, that when I have conquered these

people and return home, you bring your son before me to be examined."

Cyrus spoke thus under a persuasion that Darius was plotting against

him; but the deity forewarned him that he himself would die in that very

expedition, and that his kingdom would devolve on Darius. Hystaspes,

however, answered in these words: "God forbid, O king, that a Persian

should be born who would plot against you! But if any such there be, may

sudden destruction overtake him, for you have made the Persians free

instead of being slaves, and instead of being ruled over by others to

rule over all; but if any vision informs you that my son is forming any

plot against you, I freely surrender him to you to deal with as you

please." And Hystaspes repassed the Araxes and went to Persia, for the

purpose of keeping his son Darius in custody for Cyrus.

[Illustration: SEPULCHRAL VASES.]

Cyrus having advanced one day's march from the Araxes, proceeded to act

according to the suggestion of Crœsus. After this, when Cyrus and the

effective part of the Persian army had marched back to the Araxes,

leaving the ineffective part behind, a third division of the army of the

Massagetæ attacked those of Cyrus' forces that had been left behind,

and, after some resistance, put them to death. Then, seeing the feast

laid out, as soon as they had overcome their enemies they lay down and

feasted; and being filled with food and wine, fell asleep. Then the

Persians attacked them, and put many of them to death, and took a still

greater number prisoners, among them the son of Queen Tomyris, who

commanded the Massagetæ, and whose name was Spargapises. When she heard

what had befallen her army and her son, she sent a herald to Cyrus with

the following message: "Cyrus, insatiate with blood, be not elated with

what has now happened, that by the fruit of the vine, with which ye

yourselves, when filled with it, so rave, that when it descends into

your bodies, evil words float on your lips; be not elated, that by such

a poison you have deceived and conquered my son, instead of by prowess

in battle. But take the good advice that I offer you. Restore my son;

depart out of this country unpunished for having insolently disgraced a

third division of the army of the Massagetæ. But if you will not do

this, I swear by the sun, the Lord of the Massagetæ, that, insatiable as

you are, I will glut you with blood." Cyrus, however, paid no attention

to this message; but Spargapises, the son of Queen Tomyris, as soon as

he recovered from the effects of the wine, and perceived in what a

plight he was, begged of Cyrus that he might be freed from his fetters;

and as soon as he was set free, and found his hands at liberty, he put

himself to death. But Tomyris, finding Cyrus did not listen to her,

assembled all her forces, and engaged with him. I think that this battle

was the most obstinate that was ever fought between barbarians. First of

all, they stood at a distance and used their bows; afterward, when they

had emptied their quivers, they engaged in close fight with their swords

and spears, and thus they continued fighting for a long time, and

neither was willing to give way; but at length the Massagetæ got the

better, and the greater part of the Persian army was cut in pieces on

the spot, and Cyrus himself was killed, after he had reigned twenty-nine

years. Tomyris filled a skin with human blood, sought for the body of

Cyrus among the slain of the Persians, and thrust the head into the

skin, and insulting the dead body, said: "Thou hast indeed ruined me

though alive and victorious in battle, since thou hast taken my son by

stratagem; but I will now glut thee with blood, as I threatened." Of the

many accounts given of the end of Cyrus, this appears to me most worthy

of credit.

The Massagetæ resemble the Scythians in their dress and mode of living;

they have both horse and foot bow-men, and javelin-men, who are

accustomed to carry battle-axes: they use gold and bronze for every

thing; for in whatever concerns spears, and arrow-points, and

battle-axes, they use bronze; but the head, and belts, and

shoulder-pieces, are ornamented with gold. In like manner with regard to

the chest of horses, they put on breastplates of bronze; but the

bridle-bit and cheek-pieces are ornamented with gold. They make no use

of silver or iron, for neither of those metals are found in their

country, but they have bronze and gold in abundance. Their manners are

as follows: when a man has attained a great age, all his kinsmen meet,

and sacrifice him, together with cattle of several kinds; and when they

have boiled the flesh, they feast on it. This death they account the

most happy; but they do not eat the bodies of those who die of disease;

but bury them in the earth, and think it a great misfortune that they

did not reach the age to be sacrificed. They sow nothing, but live on

cattle, and fish which the river Araxes yields in abundance, and they

are drinkers of milk. They worship the sun only of all the gods, and

sacrifice horses to him; and they assign as the reason of this custom

that they think it right to offer the swiftest of all animals to the

swiftest of all the gods.

[1] Under the name "barbarians" the Greeks included all who were not

sprung from themselves—all who did not speak the Greek language.

[2] Syria was at that time the name of Cappadocia, as Herodotus himself

elsewhere states.

[3] It is generally agreed that the name of Lycurgus's nephew was not

Leobotas, but Charilaus. See the life of Lycurgus in the "Boys' and

Girls' Plutarch."

[4] There is a Scriptural account of Ecbatana, in the Apocrypha. Judith

i 1-4.

[5] Major Robinson states that the seven colors described by Herodotus,

are those employed by the Orientals, to denote the seven planetary

bodies.

[6] Several passages of our author seem to prove that Herodotus wrote

other histories than those which have come down to us. Elsewhere in this

book he speaks of his Assyrian history; and the second of the Libyan.

[7] Tartessus was situated between the two branches of the Bœtis, now

the Guadalquiver.

[8] A proverbial expression signifying "that the victors suffered more

than the vanquished."

[9] It was again taken by Darius; see end of Book III.

[10] That is, southeast.

[11] These words "pathemata mathemata" seem to have been a proverb in

the Greek.

[Illustration: ÆGYPTUS]

_BOOK II. EUTERPE._

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.

[Illustration: THE TWO GREAT PYRAMIDS AT THE TIME OF THE INUNDATION.]

The length of Egypt along the sea-coast is sixty schœni (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 schœni. A parasang

is equal to thirty stades, and each schœnus, 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 Mœris, when the river rose at

least eight cubits, it irrigated all Egypt below Memphis; and yet Mœris

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 Mœris, 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.

[Illustration: NILE BOAT.]

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

schœni 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 Phœnicia, 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 Phœnicians, 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.

[Illustration: THE TROCHILUS.]

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 Mœris 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.

[Illustration: SPEARING THE CROCODILE.]

There is also another sacred bird, called the phœnix, 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 Phœnicia, 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, Mœris; 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.

[Illustration: HEAD OF RAMESES II.]

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.

[Illustration: 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.

[Illustration: 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 Phœnicia; 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 Phœnicians, 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.

[Illustration: BES AND HI.]