The Priests Also Gave
Me A Strong Proof Concerning This Land As Follows, Namely That In The
Reign Of King
Moiris, whenever the river reached a height of at least
eight cubits it watered Egypt below Memphis; and not yet
Nine hundred
years had gone by since the death of Moiris, when I heard these things
from the priests: now however, unless the river rises to sixteen
cubits, or fifteen at the least, it does not go over the land. I think
too that those Egyptians who dwell below the lake of Moiris and
especially in that region which is called the Delta, if that land
continues to grow in height according to this proportion and to
increase similarly in extent, will suffer for all remaining time, from
the Nile not overflowing their land, that same thing which they
themselves said that the Hellenes would at some time suffer: for
hearing that the whole land of the Hellenes has rain and is not
watered by rivers as theirs is, they said that the Hellenes would at
some time be disappointed of a great hope and would suffer the ills of
famine. This saying means that if the god shall not send them rain,
but shall allow drought to prevail for a long time, the Hellenes will
be destroyed by hunger; for they have in fact no other supply of water
to save them except from Zeus alone. This has been rightly said by the
Egyptians with reference to the Hellenes: but now let me tell how
matters are with the Egyptians themselves in their turn. If, in
accordance with what I before said, their land below Memphis (for this
is that which is increasing) shall continue to increase in height
according to the same proportion as in the past time, assuredly those
Egyptians who dwell here will suffer famine, if their land shall not
have rain nor the river be able to go over their fields. It is certain
however that now they gather in fruit from the earth with less labour
than any other men and also with less than the other Egyptians; for
they have no labour in breaking up furrows with a plough nor in hoeing
nor in any other of those labours which other men have about a crop;
but when the river has come up of itself and watered their fields and
after watering has left them again, then each man sows his own field
and turns into it swine, and when he has trodden the seed into the
ground by means of the swine, after that he waits for the harvest, and
when he has threshed the corn by means of the swine, then he gathers
it in.
If we desire to follow the opinions of the Ionians as regards Egypt,
who say that the Delta alone is Egypt, reckoning its sea-coast to be
from the watch-tower called of Perseus to the fish-curing houses of
Pelusion, a distance of forty /schoines/, and counting it to extend
inland as far as the city of Kercasoros, where the Nile divides and
runs to Pelusion and Canobos, while as for the rest of Egypt, they
assign it partly to Libya and partly to Arabia, - if, I say, we should
follow this account, we should thereby declare that in former times
the Egyptians had no land to live in; for, as we have seen, their
Delta at any rate is alluvial, and has appeared (so to speak) lately,
as the Egyptians themselves say and as my opinion is. If then at the
first there was no land for them to live in, why did they waste their
labour to prove that they had come into being before all other men?
They needed not to have made trial of the children to see what
language they would first utter. However I am not of the opinion that
the Egyptians came into being at the same time as that which is called
by the Ionians the Delta, but that they existed always ever since the
human race came into being, and that as their land advanced forwards,
many of them were left in their first abodes and many came down
gradually to the lower parts. At least it is certain that in old times
Thebes had the name of Egypt, and of this the circumference measures
six thousand one hundred and twenty furlongs.
If then we judge aright of these matters, the opinion of the Ionians
about Egypt is not sound: but if the judgment of the Ionians is right,
I declare that neither the Hellenes nor the Ionians themselves know
how to reckon since they say that the whole earth is made up of three
divisions, Europe, Asia, and Libya: for they ought to count in
addition to these the Delta of Egypt, since it belongs neither to Asia
nor to Libya; for at least it cannot be the river Nile by this
reckoning which divides Asia from Libya, but the Nile is cleft at the
point of this Delta so as to flow round it, and the result is that
this land would come between Asia and Libya.
We dismiss then our opinion of the Ionians, and express a judgment of
our own on this matter also, that Egypt is all that land which is
inhabited by Egyptians, just as Kilikia is that which is inhabited by
Kilikians and Assyria that which is inhabited by Assyrians, and we
know of no boundary properly speaking between Asia and Libya except
the borders of Egypt. If however we shall adopt the opinion which is
commonly held by the Hellenes, we shall suppose that the whole of
Egypt, beginning from the Cataract and the city of Elephantine, is
divided into two parts and that it thus partakes of both the names,
since one side will thus belong to Libya and the other to Asia; for
the Nile from the Cataract onwards flows to the sea cutting Egypt
through in the midst; and as far as the city of Kercasoros the Nile
flows in one single stream, but from this city onwards it is parted
into three ways; and one, which is called the Pelusian mouth, turns
towards the East; the second of the ways goes towards the West, and
this is called the Canobic mouth; but that one of the ways which is
straight runs thus, - when the river in its course downwards comes to
the point of the Delta, then it cuts the Delta through the midst and
so issues out to the sea.
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