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. After this you will disembark and make a
journey by land of forty days; for in the Nile sharp rocks stand forth
out of the water, and there are many reefs, by which it is not
possible for a vessel to pass. Then after having passed through this
country in the forty days which I have said, you will embark again in
another vessel and sail for twelve days; and after this you will come
to a great city called Meroe. This city is said to be the mother-city
of all the other Ethiopians: and they who dwell in it reverence of the
gods Zeus and Dionysos alone, and these they greatly honour; and they
have an Oracle of Zeus established, and make warlike marches
whensoever the god commands them by prophesyings and to whatsoever
place he commands. Sailing from this city you will come to the
"Deserters" in another period of time equal to that in which you came
from Elephantine to the mother-city of the Ethiopians. Now the name of
these "Deserters" is /Asmach/, and this word signifies, when
translated into the tongue of the Hellenes, "those who stand on the
left hand of the king." These were two hundred and forty thousand
Egyptians of the warrior class, who revolted and went over to these
Ethiopians for the following cause: - In the reign of Psammetichos
garrisons were set, one towards the Ethiopians at the city of
Elephantine, another towards the Arabians and Assyrians at Daphnai of
Pelusion, and another towards Libya at Marea: and even in my own time
the garrisons of the Persians too are ordered in the same manner as
these were in the reign of Psammetichos, for both at Elephantine and
at Daphnai the Persians have outposts. The Egyptians then of whom I
speak had served as outposts for three years and no one relieved them
from their guard; accordingly they took counsel together, and adopting
a common plan they all in a body revolted from Psammetichos and set
out for Ethiopia. Hearing this Psammetichos set forth in pursuit, and
when he came up with them he entreated them much and endeavoured to
persuade them not to desert the gods of their country and their
children and wives: upon which it is said that one of them pointed to
his privy member and said that wherever this was, there would they
have both children and wives. When these came to Ethiopia they gave
themselves over to the king of the Ethiopians; and he rewarded them as
follows: - there were certain of the Ethiopians who had come to be at
variance with him; and he bade them drive these out and dwell in their
land. So since these men settled in the land of the Ethiopians, the
Ethiopians have come to be of milder manners, from having learnt the
customs of the Egyptians.
The Nile then, besides the part of its course which is in Egypt, is
known as far as a four months' journey by river and land: for that is
the number of months which are found by reckoning to be spent in going
from Elephantine to these "Deserters": and the river runs from the
West and the setting of the sun. But what comes after that point no
one can clearly say; for this land is desert by reason of the burning
heat. This much however I heard from men of Kyrene, who told me that
they had been to the Oracle of Ammon, and had come to speech with
Etearchos king of the Ammonians: and it happened that after speaking
of other matters they fell to discourse about the Nile and how no one
knew the sources of it; and Etearchos said that once there came to him
men of the Nasamonians (this is a Libyan race which dwells in the
Syrtis, and also in the land to the East of the Syrtis reaching to no
great distance), and when the Nasamonians came and were asked by him
whether they were able to tell him anything more than he knew about
the desert parts of Libya, they said that there had been among them
certain sons of chief men, who were of unruly disposition; and these
when they grew up to be men had devised various other extravagant
things and also they had told off by lot five of themselves to go to
see the desert parts of Libya and to try whether they could discover
more than those who had previously explored furthest: for in those
parts of Libya which are by the Northern Sea, beginning from Egypt and
going as far as the headland of Soloeis, which is the extreme point of
Libya, Libyans (and of them many races) extend along the whole coast,
except so much as the Hellenes and Phenicians hold; but in the upper
parts, which lie above the sea-coast and above those people whose land
comes down to the sea, Libya is full of wild beasts; and in the parts
above the land of wild beasts it is full of sand, terribly waterless
and utterly desert. These young men then (said they), being sent out
by their companions well furnished with supplies of water and
provisions, went first through the inhabited country, and after they
had passed through this they came to the country of wild beasts, and
after this they passed through the desert, making their journey
towards the West Wind; and having passed through a great tract of sand
in many days, they saw at last trees growing in a level place; and
having come up to them, they were beginning to pluck the fruit which
was upon the trees:
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