the statues of the goddess continued
her mysterious existence, and, in the midst of the sacred lake, the
little island of Khemmis, which was said to float hither and thither
upon the waters. Herodotus did not venture to deny this absolutely,
but states that he had never seen it change its position or even stir:
perhaps his incredulity may have been quickened by the fact that this
miracle had already been inquired into by Hecatasus of Miletus, an
author who was his pet aversion. The priests of Buto declared that their
prophets had foretold everything that had happened for a long time past,
and for each event they had a version which redounded to the credit of
their goddess: she had shown Pheron how he might recover his sight,
had foretold how long the reign of Mykerinos would last, had informed
Psammetichus that he would be saved by men of brass rising out of the
sea, and had revealed to Cambyses that he should die in a town named
Ecbatana. Her priests had taken an active part in the revolt of
Khabbisha against Darius, and had lost a goodly portion of their
treasure and endowments for their pains. They still retained their
prestige, however, in spite of the underhand rivalry of the oracle
of Zeus Ammon. The notaries of the Libyan deity could bring forward
miracles even more marvellous than those credited to the Egyptian
Latona, and in the case of many of the revolutions which had taken place
on the banks of the Nile, a version of the legend in his honour was
circulated side by side with the legends of Buto. The latter city lay
on the very outskirts of one of those regions which excited the greatest
curiosity among travellers, the almost inaccessible Bucolicum, where,
it was said, no rebel ever failed to find a safe refuge from his alien
pursuers. The Egyptians of the marshes were a very courageous race,
but savage, poor, and ill fed. They drank nothing but beer, and obtained
their oil not from the olive, but from the castor-oil plant,* and having
no corn, lived on the seeds or roots of the lotus, or even on the stalks
of the papyrus, which they roasted or boiled.

* It seems, moreover, that this custom was not confined to
the Delta; Herodotus, in contrasting the custom of Bucolicum
with that of the rest of Egypt, was evidently thinking of
Sais, Memphis, and other great cities in which he had
resided, where foreign olive oil obtained from Greece or
Syria was generally used.

Fish was their