By This The Scribe
(If This Which He Told Was Really As He Said) Gave Me To Understand
That There
Were certain strong eddies there and a backward flow, and
that since the water dashed against the mountains, therefore the
Sounding-line could not come to any bottom when it was let down. From
no other person was I able to learn anything about this matter; but
for the rest I learnt so much as here follows by the most diligent
inquiry; for I went myself as an eye-witness as far as the city of
Elephantine and from that point onwards I gathered knowledge by
report. From the city of Elephantine as one goes up the river there is
country which slopes steeply; so that here one must attach ropes to
the vessel on both sides, as one fastens an ox, and so make one's way
onward; and if the rope break, the vessel is gone at once, carried
away by the violence of the stream. Through this country it is a
voyage of about four days in length, and in this part the Nile is
winding like the river Maiander, and the distance amounts to twelve
/schoines/, which one must traverse in this manner. Then you will come
to a level plain, in which the Nile flows round an island named
Tachompso. (Now in the regions above the Elephantine there dwell
Ethiopians at once succeeding, who also occupy half of the island, and
Egyptians the other half.) Adjoining this island there is a great
lake, round which dwell Ethiopian nomad tribes; and when you have
sailed through this you will come to the stream of the Nile again,
which flows into this lake.
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