and if the rope break, the vessel is gone at once, carried away by the
violence of the stream. Through this country it is a voyage of about
four days in length, and in this part the Nile is winding like the river
Maiander, and the distance amounts to twelve _schoines_, which one must
traverse in this manner. Then you will come to a level plain, in which
the Nile flows round an island named Tachompso. (Now in the regions
above the Elephantine there dwell Ethiopians at once succeeding, who
also occupy half of the island, and Egyptians the other half.) Adjoining
this island there is a great lake, round which dwell Ethiopian nomad
tribes; and when you have sailed through this you will come to the
stream of the Nile again, which flows into this lake. After this you
will disembark and make a journey by land of forty days; for in the Nile
sharp rocks stand forth out of the water, and there are many reefs, by
which it is not possible for a vessel to pass. Then after having passed
through this country in the forty days which I have said, you will
embark again in another vessel and sail for twelve days; and after this
you will come to a great city called Meroe. This city is said to be
the mother-city of all the other Ethiopians: and they who dwell in it
reverence of the gods Zeus and Dionysos alone, and these they greatly
honour; and they have an Oracle of Zeus established, and make warlike
marches whensoever the god commands them by prophesyings and to
whatsoever place he commands. Sailing from this city you will come to
the "Deserters" in another period of time equal to that in which you
came from Elephantine to the mother-city of the Ethiopians. Now the
name of these "Deserters" is _Asmach_, and this word signifies, when
translated into the tongue of the Hellenes, "those who stand on the left
hand of the king." These were two hundred and forty thousand Egyptians
of the warrior class, who revolted and went over to these Ethiopians for
the following cause:--In the reign of Psammetichos garrisons were set,
one towards the Ethiopians at the city of Elephantine, another towards