Some time later, the shepherd went to the city and told the king that
the children had learned to speak one word, but how or from whom, he
did not know.

"What is that word?" asked the king.

"Becos."

Then the king called one of the wisest scholars in Egypt and asked him
what the word meant.

"Becos," said the wise man, "is a Phrygian [Footnote: Phrygian
(_pro_. frij'i an).] word, and it means _bread_."

"Then what shall we understand by these children being able to speak
a Phrygian word which they have never heard from other lips?" asked
the king.

"We are to understand that the Phrygian language was the first of all
languages," was the answer. "These children are learning it just as
the first people who lived on the earth learned it in the beginning."

"Therefore," said the king, "must we conclude that the Phrygians were
the first and oldest of all the nations?"

"Certainly," answered the wise man.

And from that time the Egyptians always spoke of the Phrygians as being
of an older race than themselves.