Chemmis before he came to Egypt, since he had heard it from his mother,
and that they celebrated an athletic contest for him by his own command.

92. All these are customs practised by the Egyptians who dwell above the
fens: and those who are settled in the fen-land have the same customs
for the most part as the other Egyptians, both in other matters and also
in that they live each with one wife only, as do the Hellenes; but for
economy in respect of food they have invented these things besides:--when
the river has become full and the plains have been flooded, there grow
in the water great numbers of lilies, which the Egyptians call lotos;
these they cut with a sickle and dry in the sun, and then they pound
that which grows in the middle of the lotos and which is like the head
of a poppy, and they make of it loaves baked with fire. The root also
of this lotos is edible and has a rather sweet taste: 77 it is round
in shape and about the size of an apple. There are other lilies too, in
flower resembling roses, which also grow in the river, and from them the
fruit is produced in a separate vessel springing from the root by the
side of the plant itself, and very nearly resembles a wasp's comb:
in this there grow edible seeds in great numbers of the size of an
olive-stone, and they are eaten either fresh 78 or dried. Besides this
they pull up from the fens the papyrus which grows every year, and the
upper parts of it they cut off and turn to other uses, but that which is
left below for about a cubit in length they eat or sell: and those who
desire to have the papyrus at its very best bake it in an oven heated
red-hot, and then eat it. Some too of these people live on fish alone,
which they dry in the sun after having caught them and taken out the
entrails, and then when they are dry, they use them for food.

93. Fish which swim in shoals are not much produced in the rivers, but
are bred in the lakes, and they do as follows:--When there comes upon
them the desire to breed, they swim out in shoals towards the sea; and
the males lead the way shedding forth their milt as they go, while the
females, coming after and swallowing it up, from it become impregnated:
and when they have become full of young in the sea they swim up back
again, each shoal to its own haunts. The same however no longer lead the
way as before, but the lead comes now to the females, and they leading
the way in shoals do just as the males did, that is to say