istricts of Ethiopia, and many
different countries which give it their own names, swells its
fertilizing stream till it comes to the cataracts. These are abrupt
rocks, from which in its precipitous course it falls with such a crash,
that the Ati, who used to live in that district, having lost their
hearing from the incessant roar, were compelled to migrate to a more
quiet region.

10. Then proceeding more gently, and receiving no accession of waters in
Egypt, it falls into the sea through seven mouths, each of which is as
serviceable as, and resembles, a separate river. And besides the several
streams which are derived from its channel, and which fall with others
like themselves, there are seven navigable with large waves; named by
the ancients the Heracleotic, the Sebennitic, the Bolbitic, the
Phatnitic, the Mendesian, the Tanitic, and the Pelusian mouths.

11. This river, rising as I have said, is driven on from the marshes to
the cataracts, and forms several islands; some of which are said to be
of such extent that the stream is three days in passing them.

12. Among these are two of especial celebrity, Meroe and Delta. The
latter derives its name from its triangular form like the Greek letter;
but when the sun begins to pass through the sign of Cancer, the river
keeps increasing till it passes into Libra; and then, after flowing at a
great height for one hundred days, it falls again, and its waters being
diminished it exhibits, in a state fit for riding on, fields which just
before could only be passed over in boats.

13. If the inundation be too abundant it is mischievous, just as it is
unproductive if it be too sparing; for if the flood be excessive, it
keeps the ground wet too long; and so delays cultivation; while if it be
deficient, it threatens the land with barrenness. No landowner wishes it
to rise more than sixteen cubits. If the flood be moderate, then the
seed sown in favourable ground sometimes returns seventy fold. The Nile,
too, is the only river which does not cause a breeze.

14. Egypt also produces many animals both terrestrial and aquatic, and
some which live both on the earth and in the water, and are therefore
called amphibious. In the dry districts antelopes and buffaloes are
found, and sphinxes, animals of an absurd-looking deformity, and other
monsters which it is not worth while to enumerate.

15. Of the terrestrial animals, the crocodile is abundant in every part
of the country. This i