ment of the dead, the entrance into the solar bark, and
other similar beliefs.

Gold was so abundant that it was used for common purposes, even for the
chains of their prisoners; but, on the other hand, copper was rare
and much prized. Canibyses despatched some spies chosen from among the
Ichthyophagi of the Bed Sea to explore this region, and acting on the
report they brought back, he left Memphis at the head of an army and
a fleet.* The expedition was partly a success and partly a failure. It
followed the Nile valley as far as Korosko, and then struck across the
desert in the direction of Napata;** but provisions ran short before a
quarter of the march had been achieved, and famine obliged the invaders
to retrace their steps after having endured terrible sufferings.***

* Herodotus' text speaks of an army only, but the accounts
of the wars between Ethiopia and Egypt show that the army
was always accompanied by the necessary fleet.

** It is usually thought that the expedition marched by the
side of the Nile as far as Napata; to support this theory
the name of a place mentioned in Pliny is quoted, Cambusis
at the third cataract, which is supposed to contain the name
of the conqueror. This town, which is sometimes mentioned by
the classical geographers, is called Kambiusit in the
Ethiopie texts, and the form of the name makes its
connection with the history of Cambyses easy. I think it
follows, from the text of Herodotus, that the Persians left
the grassy land, the river-valley, at a given moment, to
enter the sand, i.e. the desert. Now this is done to-day at
two points--near Korosko to rejoin the Nile at Abu-Hammed,
and near Wady-Halfah to avoid the part of the Nile called
the "Stony belly," Batn el-Hagar. The Korosko route, being
the only one suitable for the transit of a body of troops,
and also the only route known to Herodotus, seems, I think,
likely to be the one which was followed in the present
instance; at all events, it fits in best with the fact that
Cambyses was obliged to retrace his steps hurriedly, when he
had accomplished hardly a fifth of the journey.

*** Many modern historians are inclined to assume that
Cambyses' expedition was completely successful, and that its
result was the overthrow of the ancient kingdom of Nepata
and the foundation of that of Meroe. C