staple article of food, and this they obtained in
considerable quantity from Lake Menzaleh, the lagoons along the coast,
and the canals or pools left by the inundation. But little was known
of their villages or monuments, and probably they were not worth the
trouble of a visit after those of the cities of the plain: endless
stories were told of feats of brigandage and of the mysterious
hiding-places which these localities offered to every outlaw, one of the
most celebrated being the isle of Elbo, where the blind Anysis defied
the power of Ethiopia for thirty years, and in which the first Amyrtasus
found refuge. With the exception of a few merchants or adventurers
who visited them with an eye to gain, most travellers coming from or
returning to Asia avoided their territory, and followed the military
road along the Pelusiac arm of the Nile from Pehisium to Daphno or Zalu,
and from Daphnae or Zalu to Bubastis. A little below Kerkasoron, near
the apex of the Delta, the pyramids stood out on the horizon, looking
insignificant at first, but afterwards so lofty that, during the period
of inundation, when the whole valley, from the mountains of Arabia to
those of Libya, was nothing but one vast river, a vessel seemed to
sail in their shadow for a long time before it reached their base. The
traveller passed Heliopolis on his left with its temple of the Sun,
next the supposed sources of the Northern Nile, the quarries of the Red
Mountain, and then entering at length the Nile itself, after a journey
of some hours, came to anchor by the quays of Memphis.

To the Greeks of that time, Memphis was very much what Cairo is to
us, viz. the typical Oriental city, the quintessence and chief
representative of ancient Egypt. In spite of the disasters which had
overwhelmed it during the last few centuries, it was still a very
beautiful city, ranking with Babylon as one of the largest in the world.
Its religious festivals, especially those in honour of Apis, attracted
numberless pilgrims to it at certain seasons of the year, and hosts of
foreigners, recruited from every imaginable race of the old continent,
resorted to it for purposes of trade. Most of the nationalities who
frequented it had a special quarter, which was named after them; the
Phoenicians occupied the _Tyrian Camp_, the Greeks and Carians the
_Hellenic Wall and Carian Wall_, and there were Oaromemphites or
Hellenomemphites side by side with the native inhabitants. A Persian
gar