32 DISCOVERIES OF THE ANCIENTS. 
The only character given of the inhabitants is, 
that they were impostors or sorcerers, a descrip- 
tion agreeing sufficiently with the superstitious ha- 
bits to which the Negroes are generally addicted. 
The next attempts of which we find any record, 
are the two expeditions of Cambyses to the south 
and west of Egypt.* Although conquest was 
doubtless their primary object, yet a considerable 
share of wild curiosity seems to have mingled in 
these desperate undertakings. Cambyses divided 
his army into two parts, one of which he led in 
person against the southern Ethiopians, while he 
sent the other against the Ammonians (inhabi- 
tants of the modern oasis of Siwah). He himself, 
taking the command of the former, set out from 
Thebes, and proceeded for some time in full con- 
fidence of success. The army had not gone far, 
however, when their whole stock of provisions 
was exhausted. Support was afforded, first by 
killing all the cattle that belonged to the expedi- 
tion, then by feeding on the scanty herbage which 
the ground afforded. Still the proud obstinacy of 
Cambyses, who conceived that all nature ought to 
be subservient to him, repelled the mortifying 
idea of renouncing his project. At length they 
came to the region of pure sand, where all food 
whatever failed, and the troops had recourse to 
* Herod. III. 
