The Boys' and Girls' Herodotus / Being Parts of the History of Herodotus, Edited for Boys and Girls

by Herodotus

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.

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.