To The Ionians And
To The Carians Who Had Helped Him Psammetichos Granted Portions Of
Land To Dwell In, Opposite To One Another With The River Nile Between,
And These Were Called "Encampments"; These Portions Of Land He Gave
Them, And He Paid Them Besides All That He Had Promised:
Moreover he
placed with them Egyptian boys to have them taught the Hellenic
tongue; and from these, who learnt the language thoroughly, are
descended the present class of interpreters in Egypt.
Now the Ionians
and Carians occupied these portions of land for a long time, and they
are towards the sea a little below the city of Bubastis, on that which
is called the Pelusian mouth of the Nile. These men king Amasis
afterwards removed from thence and established them at Memphis, making
them into a guard for himself against the Egyptians: and they being
settled in Egypt, we who are Hellenes know by intercourse with them
the certainty of all that which happened in Egypt beginning from king
Psammetichos and afterwards; for these were the first men of foreign
tongue who settled in Egypt: and in the land from which they were
removed there still remained down to my time the sheds where their
ships were drawn up and the ruins of their houses.
Thus then Psammetichos obtained Egypt: and of the Oracle which is in
Egypt I have made mention often before this, and now I give an account
of it, seeing that it is worthy to be described. This Oracle which is
in Egypt is sacred to Leto, and it is established in a great city near
that mouth of the Nile which is called Sebennytic, as one sails up the
river from the sea; and the name of this city where the Oracle is
found is Buto, as I have said before in mentioning it. In this Buto
there is a temple of Apollo and Artemis; and the temple-house of Leto,
in which the Oracle is, is both great in itself and has a gateway of
the height of ten fathoms: but that which caused me most to marvel of
the things to be seen there, I will now tell. There is in this sacred
enclosure a house of Leto made of one single stone upon the top, the
cornice measuring four cubits. This house then of all the things that
were to be seen by me in that temple is the most marvellous, and among
those which come next is the island called Chemmis. This is situated
in a deep and broad lake by the side of the temple at Buto, and it is
said by the Egyptians that this island is a floating island. I myself
did not see it either floating about or moved from its place, and I
feel surprise at hearing of it, wondering if it be indeed a floating
island. In this island of which I speak there is a great temple-house
of Apollo, and three several altars are set up within, and there are
planted in the island many palm-trees and other trees, both bearing
fruit and not bearing fruit.
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