PRELUDE. 31 



ocean-river, goes into the region of fable, where it 

 is not easy to demonstrate that he is wrong. I 

 know of no such river. But I suppose that Homer 

 or some of the earlier poets invented this fiction 

 and introduced it into their poetry." 



He then proceeds to a third account, which to a 

 modern reasoner would appear not at all unphilo- 

 sophical in itself, but which he, nevertheless, rejects 

 in a manner no less decided than the others. " The 

 third opinion, though much the most plausible, is 

 still more wrong than the others ; for it asserts an 

 impossibility, namely, that the Nile proceeds from 

 the melting of the snow. Now the Nile flows out 

 of Libya, and through Ethiopia, which are very hot 

 countries, and thus comes into Egypt, which is a 

 colder region. How then can it proceed from 

 snow ?" He then offers several other reasons " to 

 show," as he says, " to any one capable of reasoning 



on such subjects" (avSpi ye XoyifyaOai TOIOVTWI/ Trepi 



dtp Te eovTi), that the assertion cannot be true. The 

 winds which blow from the southern regions are 

 hot ; the inhabitants are black ; the swallows and 

 kites (iKrlvoi) stay in the country the whole year; 

 the cranes fly the colds of Scythia, and seek their 

 warm winter-quarters there; which would not be 

 if it snowed ever so little." He adds another reason, 

 founded apparently upon some limited empirical 

 maxim of weather-wisdom taken from the climate 

 of Greece. " Libya," he says, " has neither rain nor 

 ice, and therefore no snow ; for, in five days after ;i 



