At First When He Heard This The Shepherd Kept Silence; But Since This Word Was Often Repeated, As He Visited Them Constantly And Attended To Them, At Last He Declared The Matter To His Master, And At His Command He Brought The Children Before His Face.

Then Psammetichos having himself also heard it, began to inquire what nation of men named anything /bekos/, and inquiring he found that the Phrygians had this name for bread.

In this manner and guided by an indication such as this, the Egyptians were brought to allow that the Phrygians were a more ancient people than themselves. That so it came to pass I heard from the priests of that Hephaistos who dwells at Memphis; but the Hellenes relate, besides many other idle tales, that Psammetichos cut out the tongues of certain women and then caused the children to live with these women.

With regard then to the rearing of the children they related so much as I have said: and I heard also other things at Memphis when I had speech with the priests of Hephaistos. Moreover I visited both Thebes and Heliopolis for this very cause, namely because I wished to know whether the priests at these places would agree in their accounts with those at Memphis; for the men of Heliopolis are said to be the most learned in records of the Egyptians. Those of their narrations which I heard with regard to the gods I am not earnest to relate in full, but I shall name them only because I consider that all men are equally ignorant of these matters:

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