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.