THALIA. - * 7

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lieve, I think I ought not to omit. In Arabia is a
large river called Corys, which loses itself in the Red
Sea: from this river the Arabian is said to have
formed a canal of the skins of oxen and other animals
sewed together, which was continued to the above-
mentioned deserts, where he also sunk a number of
cisterns to receive the water so introduced. From
the river to the desert is a journey of twelve days; and
they say that the water was conducted by three dis­
tinct canals into as many different places.

X. At the Pelusian mouth of' the Nile, Psammeni-
tus, the son of Amasis, was encamped, and expected
Cambyses in arms. . Amasis himself, after a reign of
forty-four years, died before Cambyses had advanced
to Egypt, and during the whole enjoyment of his
power, he experienced no extraordinary calamity.
At his death his body was embalmed, and deposited
in a sepulchre which he had erected for himself
in the temple of Minerva. During'the reign of his
son Psammenitus, Egypt beheld a most remarkable
-prodigy; there was rain in the Egyptian Thebes, a
circumstance which never happened before, and
which, as the Thebans themselves assert, has never
occurred since. In the higher parts of Egypt it never
rains, but at that period we read it rained at Thebes
in distinct drops. jfc^

XI. The Persians having passed the deserts, fired -
their camp opposite to the Egyptians, as if with the
design of offering them battle. The Greeks and Ca-
rians, who were the confederates of the Egyptians,
to show their resentment against Phanes, for intro­
ducing a foreign army against Egypt, adopted this
expedient: they brought his sons, whom he had left
behind, into the camp, and in a conspicuous place,
and in the sight of their father, they put them one by
one to death upon a vessel brought thither for that
purpose. When they had done this, they filled the
vase which had received the blood with wine and
water; having drunk which, all the auxiliaries immeJ
diately engaged the enemy. The battle was obsti­
nately disputed, but after considerable loss on both
sides, the Egyptians fled. " • '-'