(so it was said) through very great swamps, and after passing through
these they came to a city in which all the men were in size like those
who carried them off and in colour of skin black; and by the city ran
a great river, which ran from the West towards the sunrising, and in it
were seen crocodiles. Of the account given by Etearchos the Ammonian let
so much suffice as is here said, except that, as the men of Kyrene told
me, he alleged that the Nasamonians returned safe home, and that the
people to whom they had come were all wizards. Now this river which ran
by the city, Etearchos conjectured to be the Nile, and moreover reason
compels us to think so; for the Nile flows from Libya and cuts Libya
through in the midst, and as I conjecture, judging of what is not known
by that which is evident to the view, it starts at a distance from its
mouth equal to that of the Ister: for the river Ister begins from the
Keltoi and the city of Pyrene and so runs that it divides Europe in the
midst (now the Keltoi are outside the Pillars of Heracles and border
upon the Kynesians, who dwell furthest towards the sunset of all those
who have their dwelling in Europe): and the Ister ends, having its
course through the whole of Europe, by flowing into the Euxine Sea at
the place where the Milesians have their settlement of Istria. Now the
Ister, since it flows through land which is inhabited, is known by
the reports of many; but of the sources of the Nile no one can give an
account, for the part of Libya through which it flows is uninhabited and
desert. About its course however so much as it was possible to learn by
the most diligent inquiry has been told; and it runs out into Egypt.
Now Egypt lies nearly opposite to the mountain districts of Kilikia; and
from thence to Sinope, which lies upon the Euxine Sea, is a journey in
the same straight line of five days for a man without encumbrance; and
Sinope lies opposite to the place where the Ister runs out into the sea:
thus I think that the Nile passes through the whole of Libya and is of
equal measure with the Ister.