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The History of Herodotus: Page 12
Volume One - Book II
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64. The Egyptians were the first who made it a point of religion not
to lie with women in temples, nor to enter into temples after going
away from women without first bathing: for almost all other men except
the Egyptians and the Hellenes lie with women in temples and enter
into a temple after going away from women without bathing, since they
hold that there is no difference in this respect between men and
beasts: for they say that they see beasts and the various kinds of
birds coupling together both in the temples and in the sacred
enclosures of the gods; if then this were not pleasing to the god, the
beasts would not do so.
65. Thus do these defend that which they do, which by me is
disallowed: but the Egyptians are excessively careful in their
observances, both in other matters which concern the sacred rites and
also in those which follow:--Egypt, though it borders upon Libya,[63a]
does not very much abound in wild animals, but such as they have are
one and all accounted by them sacred, some of them living with men and
others not. But if I should say for what reasons the sacred animals
have been thus dedicated, I should fall into discourse of matters
pertaining to the gods, of which I most desire not to speak; and what
I have actually said touching slightly upon them, I said because I was
constrained by necessity. About these animals there is a custom of
this kind:--persons have been appointed of the Egyptians, both men and
women, to provide the food for each kind of beast separately, and
their office goes down from father to son; and those who dwell in the
various cities perform vows to them thus, that is, when they make a
vow to the god to whom the animal belongs, they shave the head of
their children either the whole or the half or the third part of it,
and then set the hair in the balance against silver, and whatever it
weighs, this the man gives to the person who provides for the animals,
and she cuts up fish of equal value and gives it for food to the
animals.
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Thus food for their support has been appointed: and if any one kill
any of these animals, the penalty, if he do it with his own will, is
death, and if against his will, such penalty as the priests may
appoint: but whosoever shall kill an ibis or a hawk, whether it be
with his will or against his will, must die.
66. Of the animals that
live with men there are great numbers, and would be many more but for
the accidents which befall the cats. For when the females have
produced young they are no longer in the habit of going to the males,
and these seeking to be united with them are not able. To this end
then they contrive as follows,--they either take away by force or
remove secretly the young from the females and kill them (but after
killing they do not eat them), and the females being deprived of their
young and desiring more, therefore come to the males, for it is a
creature that is fond of its young. Moreover when a fire occurs, the
cats seem to be divinely possessed;[64] for while the Egyptians stand
at intervals and look after the cats, not taking any care to
extinguish the fire, the cats slipping through or leaping over the
men, jump into the fire; and when this happens, great mourning comes
upon the Egyptians. And in whatever houses a cat has died by a natural
death, all those who dwell in this house shave their eyebrows only,
but those in whose houses a dog has died shave their whole body and
also their head.
67. The cats when they are dead are carried away to
sacred buildings in the city of Bubastis, where after being embalmed
they are buried; but the dogs they bury each people in their own city
in sacred tombs; and the ichneumons are buried just in the same way as
the dogs. The shrew-mice however and the hawks they carry away to the
city of Buto, and the ibises to Hermopolis;[65] the bears (which are
not commonly seen) and the wolves, not much larger in size than foxes,
they bury on the spot where they are found lying.
68. Of the crocodile the nature is as follows:--during the four most
wintry months this creature eats nothing: she has four feet and is an
animal belonging to the land and the water both; for she produces and
hatches eggs on the land, and the most part of the day she remains
upon dry land, but the whole of the night in the river, for the water
in truth is warmer than the unclouded open air and the dew. Of all the
mortal creatures of which we have knowledge this grows to the greatest
bulk from the smallest beginning; for the eggs which she produces are
not much larger than those of geese and the newly-hatched young one is
in proportion to the egg, but as he grows he becomes as much as
seventeen cubits long and sometimes yet larger. He has eyes like those
of a pig and teeth large and tusky, in proportion to the size of his
body; but unlike all other beasts he grows no tongue, neither does he
move his lower jaw, but brings the upper jaw towards the lower, being
in this too unlike all other beasts. He has moreover strong claws and
a scaly hide upon his back which cannot be pierced; and he is blind in
the water, but in the air he is of very keen sight. Since he has his
living in the water he keeps his mouth all full within of leeches; and
whereas all other birds and beasts fly from him, the trochilus is a
creature which is at peace with him, seeing that from her he receives
benefit; for the crocodile having come out of the water to the land
and then having opened his mouth (this he is wont to do generally
towards the West Wind), the trochilus upon that enters into his mouth
and swallows down the leeches, and he being benefited is pleased and
does no harm to the trochilus.
69. Now for some of the Egyptians the
crocodiles are sacred animals, and for others not so, but they treat
them on the contrary as enemies: those however who dwell about Thebes
and about the lake of Moiris hold them to be most sacred, and each of
these two peoples keeps one crocodile selected from the whole number,
which has been trained to tameness, and they put hanging ornaments of
molten stone and of gold into the ears of these and anklets round the
front feet, and they give them food appointed and victims of
sacrifices and treat them as well as possible while they live, and
after they are dead they bury them in sacred tombs, embalming them:
but those who dwell about the city of Elephantine even eat them, not
holding them to be sacred. They are called not crocodiles but
/champsai/, and the Ionians gave them the name of crocodile, comparing
their form to that of the crocodiles (lizards) which appear in their
country in the stone walls.
70. There are many ways in use of catching
them and of various kinds: I shall describe that which to me seems the
most worthy of being told. A man puts the back of a pig upon a hook as
bait, and lets it go into the middle of the river, while he himself
upon the bank of the river has a young live pig, which he beats; and
the crocodile hearing its cries makes for the direction of the sound,
and when he finds the pig's back he swallows it down: then they pull,
and when he is drawn out to land, first of all the hunter forthwith
plasters up his eyes with mud, and having so done he very easily gets
the mastery of him, but if he does not do so he has much trouble.
71. The river-horse is sacred in the district of Papremis, but for the
other Egyptians he is not sacred; and this is the appearance which he
presents: he is four-footed, cloven-hoofed like an ox,[66] flat-nosed,
with a mane like a horse and showing teeth like tusks, with a tail and
voice like a horse, and in size as large as the largest ox; and his
hide is so exceedingly thick that when it has been dried shafts of
javelins are made of it.
72. There are moreover otters in the river,
which they consider to be sacred; and of fish also they esteem that
which is called the /lepidotos/ to be sacred, and also the eel; and
these they say are sacred to the Nile: and of birds the fox-goose.
73. There is also another sacred bird called the phœnix which I did
not myself see except in painting, for in truth he comes to them very
rarely, at intervals, as the people of Heliopolis say, of five hundred
years; and these say that he comes regularly when his father dies; and
if he be like the painting, he is of this size and nature, that is to
say, some of his feathers are of gold colour and others red, and in
outline and size he is as nearly as possible like an eagle. This bird
they say (but I cannot believe the story) contrives as follows:--
setting forth from Arabia he conveys his father, they say, to the
temple of the Sun (Helios) plastered up in myrrh, and buries him in
the temple of the Sun; and he conveys him thus:--he forms first an egg
of myrrh as large as he is able to carry, and then he makes trial of
carrying it, and when he has made trial sufficiently, then he hollows
out the egg and places his father within it and plasters over with
other myrrh that part of the egg where he hollowed it out to put his
father in, and when his father is laid in it, it proves (they say) to
be of the same weight as it was; and after he has plastered it up, he
conveys the whole to Egypt to the temple of the Sun. Thus they say
that this bird does.
74. There are also about Thebes sacred serpents, not at all harmful to
men, which are small in size and have two horns growing from the top
of the head: these they bury when they die in the temple of Zeus, for
to this god they say that they are sacred.
75. There is a region
moreover in Arabia, situated nearly over against the city of Buto, to
which place I came to inquire about the winged serpents: and when I
came thither I saw bones of serpents and spines in quantity so great
that it is impossible to make report of the number, and there were
heaps of spines, some heaps large and others less large and others
smaller still than these, and these heaps were many in number. This
region in which the spines are scattered upon the ground is of the
nature of an entrance from a narrow mountain pass to a great plain,
which plain adjoins the plain of Egypt; and the story goes that at the
beginning of spring winged serpents from Arabia fly towards Egypt, and
the birds called ibises meet them at the entrance to this country and
do not suffer the serpents to go by but kill them. On account of this
deed it is (say the Arabians) that the ibis has come to be greatly
honoured by the Egyptians, and the Egyptians also agree that it is for
this reason that they honour these birds.
76. The outward form of the
ibis is this:--it is a deep black all over, and has legs like those of
a crane and a very curved beak, and in size it is about equal to a
rail: this is the appearance of the black kind which fight with the
serpents, but of those which most crowd round men's feet (for there
are two several kinds of ibises) the head is bare and also the whole
of the throat, and it is white in feathering except the head and neck
and the extremities of the wings and the rump (in all these parts of
which I have spoken it is a deep black), while in legs and in the form
of the head it resembles the other. As for the serpent its form is
like that of the watersnake; and it has wings not feathered but most
nearly resembling the wings of the bat. Let so much suffice as has
been said now concerning sacred animals.
*****
77. Of the Egyptians themselves, those who dwell in the part of Egypt
which is sown for crops[67] practise memory more than any other men
and are the most learned in history by far of all those of whom I have
had experience: and their manner of life is as follows:--For three
successive days in each month they purge, hunting after health with
emetics and clysters, and they think that all the diseases which exist
are produced in men by the food on which they live; for the Egyptians
are from other causes also the most healthy of all men next after the
Libyans (in my opinion on account of the seasons, because the seasons
do not change, for by the changes of things generally, and especially
of the seasons, diseases are most apt to be produced in men), and as
to their diet, it is as follows:--they eat bread, making loaves of
maize, which they call /kyllestis/, and they use habitually a wine
made out of barley, for vines they have not in their land. Of their
fish some they dry in the sun and then eat them without cooking,
others they eat cured in brine. Of birds they eat quails and ducks and
small birds without cooking, after first curing them; and everything
else which they have belonging to the class of birds or fishes, except
such as have been set apart by them as sacred, they eat roasted or
boiled.
78. In the entertainments of the rich among them, when they
have finished eating, a man bears round a wooden figure of a dead body
in a coffin, made as like the reality as may be both by painting and
carving, and measuring about a cubit or two cubits each way;[68] and
this he shows to each of those who are drinking together, saying:
"When thou lookest upon this, drink and be merry, for thou shalt be
such as this when thou art dead." Thus they do at their carousals.
79.
The customs which they practise are derived from their fathers and
they do not acquire others in addition; but besides other customary
things among them which are worthy of mention, they have one
song,[68a] that of Linos, the same who is sung of both in Phenicia and
in Cyprus and elsewhere, having however a name different according to
the various nations. This song agrees exactly with that which the
Hellenes sing calling on the name of Linos,[69] so that besides many
other things about which I wonder among those matters which concern
Egypt, I wonder especially about this, namely whence they got the song
of Linos.[70] It is evident however that they have sung this song from
immemorial time, and in the Egyptian tongue Linos is called Maneros.
The Egyptians told me that he was the only son of him who first became
king of Egypt, and that he died before his time and was honoured with
these lamentations by the Egyptians, and that this was their first and
only song.
80. In another respect the Egyptians are in agreement with
some of the Hellenes, namely with the Lacedemonians, but not with the
rest, that is to say, the younger of them when they meet the elder
give way and move out of the path, and when their elders approach they
rise out of their seat. In this which follows however they are not in
agreement with any of the Hellenes,--instead of addressing one another
in the roads they do reverence, lowering their hand down to their
knee.
81. They wear tunics of linen about their legs with fringes,
which they call /calasiris/; above these they have garments of white
wool thrown over: woollen garments however are not taken into the
temples, nor are they buried with them, for this is not permitted by
religion. In these points they are in agreement with the observances
called Orphic and Bacchic (which are really Egyptian),[71] and also
with those of the Pythagoreans, for one who takes part in these
mysteries is also forbidden by religious rule to be buried in woollen
garments; and about this there is a sacred story told.
82. Besides these things the Egyptians have found out also to what god
each month and each day belongs, and what fortunes a man will meet
with who is born on any particular day, and how he will die, and what
kind of a man he will be: and these inventions were taken up by those
of the Hellenes who occupied themselves about poesy. Portents too have
been found out by them more than by all other men besides; for when a
portent has happened, they observe and write down the event which
comes of it, and if ever afterwards anything resembling this happens,
they believe that the event which comes of it will be similar.
83.
Their divination is ordered thus:--the art is assigned not to any man,
but to certain of the gods, for there are in their land Oracles of
Heracles, of Apollo, of Athene, of Artemis, of Ares, and of Zeus, and
moreover that which they hold most in honour of all, namely the Oracle
of Leto which is in the city of Buto. The manner of divination however
is not yet established among them according to the same fashion
everywhere, but is different in different places.
84. The art of
medicine among them is distributed thus:--each physician is a
physician of one disease and of no more; and the whole country is full
of physicians, for some profess themselves to be physicians of the
eyes, others of the head, others of the teeth, others of the
affections of the stomach, and others of the more obscure ailments.
85. Their fashions of mourning and of burial are these:--Whenever any
household has lost a man who is of any regard amongst them, the whole
number of women of that house forthwith plaster over their heads or
even their faces with mud. Then leaving the corpse within the house
they go themselves to and fro about the city and beat themselves, with
their garments bound up by a girdle[72] and their breasts exposed, and
with them go all the women who are related to the dead man, and on the
other side the men beat themselves, they too having their garments
bound up by a girdle; and when they have done this, they then convey
the body to the embalming.
86. In this occupation certain persons
employ themselves regularly and inherit this as a craft. These,
whenever a corpse is conveyed to them, show to those who brought it
wooden models of corpses made like reality by painting, and the best
of the ways of embalming they say is that of him whose name I think it
impiety to mention when speaking of a matter of such a kind;[73] the
second which they show is less good than this and also less expensive;
and the third is the least expensive of all. Having told them about
this, they inquire of them in which way they desire the corpse of
their friend to be prepared. Then they after they have agreed for a
certain price depart out of the way, and the others being left behind
in the buildings embalm according to the best of these ways thus:--
First with a crooked iron tool they draw out the brain through the
nostrils, extracting it partly thus and partly by pouring in drugs;
and after this with a sharp stone of Ethiopia they make a cut along
the side and take out the whole contents of the belly, and when they
have cleared out the cavity and cleansed it with palm-wine they
cleanse it again with spices pounded up: then they fill the belly with
pure myrrh pounded up and with cassia and other spices except
frankincense, and sew it together again. Having so done they keep it
for embalming covered up in natron for seventy days, but for a longer
time than this it is not permitted to embalm it; and when the seventy
days are past, they wash the corpse and roll its whole body up in fine
linen[74] cut into bands, smearing these beneath with gum,[75] which
the Egyptians use generally instead of glue. Then the kinsfolk receive
it from them and have a wooden figure made in the shape of a man, and
when they have had this made they enclose the corpse, and having shut
it up within, they store it then in a sepulchral chamber, setting it
to stand upright against the wall.
87. Thus they deal with the corpses
which are prepared in the most costly way; but for those who desire
the middle way and wish to avoid great cost they prepare the corpse as
follows:--having filled their syringes with the oil which is got from
cedar-wood, with this they forthwith fill the belly of the corpse, and
this they do without having either cut it open or taken out the
bowels, but they inject the oil by the breech, and having stopped the
drench from returning back they keep it then the appointed number of
days for embalming, and on the last of the days they let the cedar oil
come out from the belly, which they before put in; and it has such
power that it brings out with it the bowels and interior organs of the
body dissolved; and the natron dissolves the flesh, so that there is
left of the corpse only the skin and the bones. When they have done
this they give back the corpse at once in that condition without
working upon it any more.
88. The third kind of embalming, by which
are prepared the bodies of those who have less means, is as follows:--
they cleanse out the belly with a purge and then keep the body for
embalming during the seventy days, and at once after that they give it
back to the bringers to carry away.
89. The wives of men of rank when
they die are not given at once to be embalmed, nor such women as are
very beautiful or of greater regard than others, but on the third or
fourth day after their death (and not before) they are delivered to
the embalmers. They do so about this matter in order that the
embalmers may not abuse their women, for they say that one of them was
taken once doing so to the corpse of a woman lately dead, and his
fellow-craftsman gave information.
90. Whenever any one, either of the
Egyptians themselves or of strangers, is found to have been carried
off by a crocodile or brought to his death by the river itself, the
people of any city by which he may have been cast up on land must
embalm him and lay him out in the fairest way they can and bury him in
a sacred burial-place, nor may any of his relations or friends besides
touch him, but the priests of the Nile themselves handle the corpse
and bury it as that of one who was something more than man.
91. Hellenic usages they will by no means follow, and to speak
generally they follow those of no other men whatever. This rule is
observed by most of the Egyptians; but there is a large city named Chemmis in the Theban district near Neapolis, and in this city there
is a temple of Perseus the son of Danae which is of a square shape,
and round it grow date-palms: the gateway of the temple is built of
stone and of very great size, and at the entrance of it stand two
great statues of stone. Within this enclosure is a temple-house[76]
and in it stands an image of Perseus. These people of Chemmis say that
Perseus is wont often to appear in their land and often within the
temple, and that a sandal which has been worn by him is found
sometimes, being in length two cubits, and whenever this appears all
Egypt prospers. This they say, and they do in honour of Perseus after
Hellenic fashion thus,--they hold an athletic contest, which includes
the whole list of games, and they offer in prizes cattle and cloaks
and skins: and when I inquired why to them alone Perseus was wont to
appear, and wherefore they were separated from all the other Egyptians
in that they held an athletic contest, they said that Perseus had been
born of their city, for Danaos and Lynkeus were men of Chemmis and had
sailed to Hellas, and from them they traced a descent and came down to
Perseus: and they told me that he had come to Egypt for the reason
which the Hellenes also say, namely to bring from Libya the Gorgon's
head, and had then visited them also and recognised all his kinsfolk,
and they said that he had well learnt the name of Chemmis before he
came to Egypt, since he had heard it from his mother, and that they
celebrated an athletic contest for him by his own command.
92. All these are customs practised by the Egyptians who dwell above
the fens: and those who are settled in the fen-land 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:[77] 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[78] 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.
93. 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,[79] and
the males coming after swallow them up. Now these grains are fish, and
from the grains which survive and are not swallowed, the fish grow
which afterwards are bred up. Now those of the fish which are caught
as they swim out to sea are found to be rubbed on the left side of the
head, but those which are caught as they swim up again are rubbed on
the right side. This happens to them because as they swim down to the
sea they keep close to the land on the left side of the river, and
again as they swim up they keep to the same side, approaching and
touching the bank as much as they can, for fear doubtless of straying
from their course by reason of the stream. When the Nile begins to
swell, the hollow places of the land and the depressions by the side
of the river first begin to fill, as the water soaks through from the
river, and so soon as they become full of water, at once they are all
filled with little fishes; and whence these are in all likelihood
produced, I think that I perceive. In the preceding year, when the
Nile goes down, the fish first lay eggs in the mud and then retire
with the last of the retreating waters; and when the time comes round
again, and the water once more comes over the land, from these eggs
forthwith are produced the fishes of which I speak.
94. Thus it is as regards the fish. And for anointing those of the
Egyptians who dwell in the fens use oil from the castor-berry,[80]
which oil the Egyptians call /kiki/, and thus they do:--they sow along
the banks of the rivers and pools these plants, which in a wild form
grow of themselves in the land of the Hellenes; these are sown in
Egypt and produce berries in great quantity but of an evil smell; and
when they have gathered these, some cut them up and press the oil from
them, others again roast them first and then boil them down and
collect that which runs away from them. The oil is fat and not less
suitable for burning than olive-oil, but it gives forth a disagreeable
smell.
95. Against the gnats, which are very abundant, they have
contrived as follows:--those who dwell above the fen-land are helped
by the towers, to which they ascend when they go to rest; for the
gnats by reason of the winds are not able to fly up high: but those
who dwell in the fen-land have contrived another way instead of the
towers, and this is it:--every man of them has got a casting net, with
which by day he catches fish, but in the night he uses it for this
purpose, that is to say he puts the casting-net round about the bed in
which he sleeps, and then creeps in under it and goes to sleep: and
the gnats, if he sleeps rolled up in a garment or a linen sheet, bite
through these, but through the net they do not even attempt to bite.
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