THE ARMY OF CAMBYSES BURIED IN SAND. 357 



Desert, furnishes us with a suitable instance in point. 

 This army consisted of 50,000 men sent to destroy 

 the Temple of Jupiter Ammon, and all perished in the 

 burning sands. * Count D'Escayrac de Lauture, an 

 acute and accurate observer of desert phenomena, 

 however, has come to the conclusion that this memor- 

 able event, so often referred to in discussions upon 

 this subject, is in all probability due, either to the 

 men having simply lost their way in the desert, or 

 perhaps having been betrayed by unfaithful guides, 

 and so having fallen victims to the slow tortures of 

 thirst; f and this seems the more probable, Cambyses 

 having, according to Herodotus, incurred the hatred of 

 the Egyptians, in consequence of the frightful atrocities 

 to which he had subjected Egypt during the previous 

 year. The account given by Herodotus of the loss 

 of the Persian army is as follows: "When the army 

 reached Thebes, he (Cambyses) detached about 50,000 

 men, and ordered them to reduce the Ammonians to 

 slavery, and to burn the oracular temple of Jupiter 

 while he with the rest of his army marched against 

 the Ethiopians. " Herodotus then proceeds to detail 

 the losses sustained by the latter force in consequence 

 of failure of provisions, and the subsequent retreat of 

 Cambyses to Thebes " after losing a great part of his 

 army " and proceeds to narrate that 



"Those who had been sent on the expedition against the 

 Ammonians, after having set out from Thebes, marched under 

 the conduct of guides, and are known to have reached the 



* Haydn's Dictionary of Dates, I4th Edition (Article "Egypt"). 



f Le Desert et Le Soudan, par M. Le Comte D'Escayrac de Lauture, 

 1853 p. 42. 



Herodotus, Book III (Thalia) Ch. 25. Literally translated from 

 the text of Baehr by Henry Gary, M.A., 1891, pp. 151 2. 



