BOOK V.] History of Nature. 63 



admitted by opening the Flood-gates. And so soon as any 

 part of the Land is freed from the Water it is sowed. This 

 is the only River, of all others, that breatheth out no Air. 

 The Dominion of Egypt beginneth at Syene,from the Frontier 

 of .^Ethiopia, for that is the Name of a Peninsula a hundred 

 Miles in Compass, wherein are the Cerastae upon the side of 

 Arabia : and over against it the four Islands Philse, 600 

 Miles from the Division of Nilus, where it began to be called 

 Delta, as we have said. This space of Ground hath Arte- 

 midorus published ; and that within it were 250 Towns. 

 Juba setteth down 400 Miles. Aristocreon saith, That from 

 Elephantis to the Sea is 750 Miles. The Island Elephantis 

 is Inhabited beneath the lowest Cataract three Miles, and 

 above Syene 16 : and is the utmost Point that the Egyp- 

 tians sail unto. It is 586 Miles from Alexandria. So far 

 the Authors above written have erred : there the ^Ethiopian 

 Ships assemble ; for they are made to fold up together, and 

 are carried upon Shoulders, so often as they come to those 

 Cataracts. Egypt, above the other glory of Antiquity, 

 pretends that in the Reign of King Amasis there were in- 

 habited in it 20,000 Cities. And even at this Day it is full 

 of them, though of base account. Nevertheless, that of 

 Apollo is renowned ; and near to it that of Leucothea, and 

 Diospolis 1 the Great, the same as Thebes, noble for the 

 Fame of its Hundred Gates. Also, Captos, a great commer- 

 cial Town very near to Nilus, frequented for Merchandise of 

 India and Arabia. Near is the Town of Venus, and another 

 of Jupiter ; and Tentyris, beneath which standeth Abydus, 

 the royal Seat of Memnon ; and renowned for the Temple of 

 Osiris, seven Miles and a half distant from the River, toward 

 Lybia. Then Ptolemais, Panopolis, and another of Venus. 

 Also in the Lybian Coast, Lycon, where Mountains bound 

 Thebais. After these, the Towns of Mercury, Alabastron, 

 Canum, and that of Hercules spoken of before. After these, 

 Arsinoe, and the abovesaid Memphis, between which and 

 the Nomos Arsinoetes, in the Lybian Coast, are the Towns 

 called Pyramids ; the Labyrinth built up out of the Lake 

 1 The city of Jupiter. 



