sh,
but in the night he uses it for this purpose, that is to say he puts the
casting-net round about the bed in which he sleeps, and then creeps in
under it and goes to sleep: and the gnats, if he sleeps rolled up in a
garment or a linen sheet, bite through these, but through the net they
do not even attempt to bite.

96. Their boats with which they carry cargoes are made of the thorny
acacia, of which the form is very like that of the Kyrenian lotos, and
that which exudes from it is gum. From this tree they cut pieces of wood
about two cubits in length and arrange them like bricks, fastening
the boat together by running a great number of long bolts through the
two-cubit pieces; and when they have thus fastened the boat together,
they lay cross-pieces 81 over the top, using no ribs for the sides; and
within they caulk the seams with papyrus. They make one steering-oar for
it, which is passed through the bottom of the boat; and they have a mast
of acacia and sails of papyrus. These boats cannot sail up the river
unless there be a very fresh wind blowing, but are towed from the shore:
down-stream however they travel as follows:--they have a door-shaped
crate made of tamarisk wood and reed mats sewn together, and also a
stone of about two talents weight bored with a hole; and of these the
boatman lets the crate float on in front of the boat, fastened with a
rope, and the stone drag behind by another rope. The crate then, as the
force of the stream presses upon it, goes on swiftly and draws on the
baris (for so these boats are called), while the stone dragging after it
behind and sunk deep in the water keeps its course straight. These boats
they have in great numbers and some of them carry many thousands of
talents' burden.

97. When the Nile comes over the land, the cities alone are seen rising
above the water, resembling more nearly than anything else the islands
in the Egean sea; for the rest of Egypt becomes a sea and the cities
alone rise above water. Accordingly, whenever this happens, they pass
by water not now by the channels of the river but over the midst of
the plain: for example, as one sails up from Naucratis to Memphis the
passage is then close by the pyramids, whereas the usual passage is not
the same even here, 82 but goes by the point of the Delta and the city
of Kercasoros; while if you sail over the plain to Naucratis from the
sea and from Canobos, you will go by Anthylla and the city called after
Archa