are customs practised by the Egyptians who dwell above the
fens: and those who are settled in the fenland have the same customs for
the most part as the other Egyptians, both in other matters and also
in that they live each with one wife only, as do the Hellenes; but
for economy in respect of food they have invented these things
besides:--when the river has become full and the plains have been
flooded, there grow in the water great numbers of lilies, which the
Egyptians call _lotos_; these they cut with a sickle and dry in the
sun, and then they pound that which grows in the middle of the lotos and
which is like the head of a poppy, and they make of it loaves baked
with fire. The root also of this lotos is edible and has a rather sweet
taste: it is round in shape and about the size of an apple. There are
other lilies too, in flower resembling roses, which also grow in
the river, and from them the fruit is produced in a separate vessel
springing from the root by the side of the plant itself, and very
nearly resembles a wasp's comb: in this there grow edible seeds in great
numbers of the size of an olive-stone, and they are eaten either fresh
or dried. Besides this they pull up from the fens the papyrus which
grows every year, and the upper parts of it they cut off and turn to
other uses, but that which is left below for about a cubit in length
they eat or sell: and those who desire to have the papyrus at its very
best bake it in an oven heated red-hot, and then eat it. Some too of
these people live on fish alone, which they dry in the sun after having
caught them and taken out the entrails, and then when they are dry, they
use them for food.
Fish which swim in shoals are not much produced in the rivers, but are
bred in the lakes, and they do as follows:--When there comes upon them
the desire to breed, they swim out in shoals towards the sea; and the
males lead the way shedding forth their milt as they go, while the
females, coming after and swallowing it up, from it become impregnated:
and when they have become full of young in the sea they swim up back
again, each shoal to its own haunts. The same however no longer lead the
way as before, but the lead comes now to the females, and they leading
the way in shoals do just as the males did, that is to say they shed
forth their eggs by a few grains at a time, and the males coming after
swallow them up. Now these grains are fish, and from the grains which
survive and are no
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