had
promised: moreover he placed with them Egyptian boys to have them taught
the Hellenic tongue; and from these, who learnt the language thoroughly,
are descended the present class of interpreters in Egypt. Now the
Ionians and Carians occupied these portions of land for a long time, and
they are towards the sea a little below the city of Bubastis, on that
which is called the Pelusian mouth of the Nile. These men king Amasis
afterwards removed from thence and established them at Memphis, making
them into a guard for himself against the Egyptians: and they being
settled in Egypt, we who are Hellenes know by intercourse with them
the certainty of all that which happened in Egypt beginning from king
Psammetichos and afterwards; for these were the first men of foreign
tongue who settled in Egypt: and in the land from which they were
removed there still remained down to my time the sheds where their ships
were drawn up and the ruins of their houses.

Thus then Psammetichos obtained Egypt:

155, and of the Oracle which is in Egypt I have made mention often
before this, and now I will give an account of it, seeing that it is
worthy to be described. This Oracle which is in Egypt is sacred to Leto,
and it is established in a great city near that mouth of the Nile which
is called Sebennytic, as one sails up the river from the sea; and the
name of this city where the Oracle is found is Buto, as I have said
before in mentioning it. In this Buto there is a temple of Apollo and
Artemis; and the temple-house 134 of Leto, in which the Oracle is, is
both great in itself and has a gateway of the height of ten fathoms: but
that which caused me most to marvel of the things to be seen there, I
will now tell. There is in this sacred enclosure a house of Leto made of
one single stone as regards both height and length, and of which all the
walls are in these two directions equal, each being forty cubits; and
for the covering in of the roof there lies another stone upon the top,
the cornice measuring four cubits. 135

156. This house then of all the things that were to be seen by me in
that temple is the most marvellous, and among those which come next is
the island called Chemmis. This is situated in a deep and broad lake
by the side of the temple at Buto, and it is said by the Egyptians
that this island is a floating island. I myself did not see it either
floating about or moved from its place, and I feel surprise at hearing
of it, wonder