il 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 nu