- They Eat Bread, Making Loaves Of
Maize, Which They Call /Kyllestis/, And They Use Habitually A Wine
Made Out Of Barley, For Vines They Have Not In Their Land.
Of their
fish some they dry in the sun and then eat them without cooking,
others they eat cured in brine.
Of birds they eat quails and ducks and
small birds without cooking, after first curing them; and everything
else which they have belonging to the class of birds or fishes, except
such as have been set apart by them as sacred, they eat roasted or
boiled. In the entertainments of the rich among them, when they have
finished eating, a man bears round a wooden figure of a dead body in a
coffin, made as like the reality as may be both by painting and
carving, and measuring about a cubit or two cubits each way; and this
he shows to each of those who are drinking together, saying: "When
thou lookest upon this, drink and be merry, for thou shalt be such as
this when thou art dead." Thus they do at their carousals. The customs
which they practise are derived from their fathers and they do not
acquire others in addition; but besides other customary things among
them which are worthy of mention, they have one song, that of Linos,
the same who is sung of both in Phenicia and in Cyprus and elsewhere,
having however a name different according to the various nations. This
song agrees exactly with that which the Hellenes sing calling on the
name of Linos, so that besides many other things about which I wonder
among those matters which concern Egypt, I wonder especially about
this, namely whence they got the song of Linos.
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