n
order that the blood which is discharged through the wounds thus made
may relieve his fat. And then he smears his wounded flesh with clay till
the wounds get scarred over.

24. This monster was very rare till it was first exhibited to the Roman
people in the aedileship of Scaurus, the father of that Scaurus whom
Cicero defended, when he charged the Sardinians to cherish the same
opinion as the rest of the world of the authority of that noble family.
Since that time, at different periods, many specimens have been brought
to Rome, and now they are not to be found in Egypt, having been driven,
according to the conjecture of the inhabitants, up to the Blemmyae[135]
by being incessantly pursued by the people.

25. Among the birds of Egypt, the variety of which is countless, is the
ibis, a sacred and amiable bird, also valuable, because by heaping up
the eggs of serpents in its nest for food it causes these fatal pests to
diminish.

26. They also sometimes encounter flocks of winged snakes, which come
laden with poison from the marshes of Arabia. These, before they can
quit their own region, they overcome in the air, and then devour them.
This bird, we are told, produces its young through its mouth.

27. Egypt also produces innumerable quantities of serpents, destructive
beyond all other creatures. Basilisks, amphisbaenas,[136] scytalae,
acontiae, dipsades, vipers, and many others. The asp is the largest and
most beautiful of all; but that never, of its own accord, quits the
Nile.

28. There are also in this country many things exceedingly worthy of
observation, of which it is a good time now to mention a few. Everywhere
there are temples of great size. There are seven marvellous pyramids,
the difficulty of building which, and the length of time consumed in the
work, are recorded by Herodotus. They exceed in height anything ever
constructed by human labour, being towers of vast width at the bottom
and ending in sharp points.

29. And their shape received this name from the geometricians because
they rise in a cone like fire (+pyr+). And huge as they are, as
they taper off gradually, they throw no shadow, in accordance with a
principle of mechanics.

30. There are also subterranean passages, and winding retreats, which,
it is said, men skilful in the ancient mysteries, by means of which they
divined the coming of a flood, constructed in different places lest the
memory of all their sacred ceremonies should be lost.