ing that he would have no
need of them; and besides other slights which he put upon them, he also
took from them the yokes of corn-land 125 which had been given to them
as a special gift in the reigns of the former kings, twelve yokes
to each man. After this, Sanacharib king of the Arabians and of the
Assyrians marched a great host against Egypt. Then the warriors of the
Egyptians refused to come to the rescue, and the priest, being driven
into a strait, entered into the sanctuary of the temple 126 and bewailed
to the image of the god the danger which was impending over him; and as
he was thus lamenting, sleep came upon him, and it seemed to him in his
vision that the god came and stood by him and encouraged him, saying
that he should suffer no evil if he went forth to meet the army of
the Arabians; for he himself would send him helpers. Trusting in
these things seen in sleep, he took with him, they said, those of the
Egyptians who were willing to follow him, and encamped in Pelusion, for
by this way the invasion came: and not one of the warrior class followed
him, but shop-keepers and artisans and men of the market. Then after
they came, there swarmed by night upon their enemies mice of the fields,
and ate up their quivers and their bows, and moreover the handles of
their shields, so that on the next day they fled, and being without
defence of arms great numbers fell. And at the present time this king
stands in the temple of Hephaistos in stone, holding upon his hand a
mouse, and by letters inscribed he says these words: "Let him who looks
upon me learn to fear the gods."

142. So far in the story the Egyptians and the priests were they who
made the report, declaring that from the first king down to this
priest of Hephaistos who reigned last, there had been three hundred and
forty-one generations of men, and that in them there had been the same
number of chief-priests and of kings: but three hundred generations
of men are equal to ten thousand years, for a hundred years is three
generations of men; and in the one-and-forty generations which remain,
those I mean which were added to the three hundred, there are one
thousand three hundred and forty years. Thus in the period of eleven
thousand three hundred and forty years they said that there had arisen
no god in human form; nor even before that time or afterwards among the
remaining kings who arose in Egypt, did they report that anything of
that kind had come to pass. In