CANTON IN EGYPT. 45 



king, who had no desire to lose an army. The sol- 

 diers were entreated to return, and not to desert 

 their fatherland. They cried out, beating their shields 

 and shaking their spears, that they would soon get 

 another fatherland. Then the messengers began to 

 speak of their wives and little ones at home. Would 

 they leave them also, and go wifeless and childless to 

 a savage land ? But one of the soldiers explained, 

 with a coarse gesture, that they had the means of 

 producing families wherever they might go. This 

 ended the conference. Psaminiticus pursued them 

 with his Ionians, but could not overtake them. In the 

 wastes of Nubia there may yet be seen a colossal 

 statue, on the right leg of which is an inscription in 

 Greek, announcing that it was there they gave up the 

 chase. The Egyptian soldiers arrived at Meroe in 

 safety ; the king presented them with a province 

 which had rebelled. They drove out the men, married 

 the women, and did much to civilize the native 

 tribes. 



In the meantime Psammiticus and his successors 

 opened wider and wider the gloomy portals of the 

 land. The town of Naucratis was set apart, like 

 Canton, for the foreign trade. Nine independent 

 Greek cities had their separate establishments within 

 that town, and their magistrates and consuls, who ad- 

 ministered their respective laws. The merchants met 

 in the Hellenion, which was half temple, half Exchange, 

 to transact their business and offer sacrifices to the 

 gods. Naucratis was in all respects a European town. 

 There the garlic-chewing sailors, when they came on 

 shore, could enjoy a holiday in the true Greek style. 

 They could stroll in the market-place, where the 

 money-changers sat before their tables, and the wine 



