The histories of Herodotus;

90 HERODOTUS—BOOK II, EUTERPE [14-17
any other people, and than the rest of the Egyptians, for they
have not the toil of breaking up the furrows with the plough,
nor of hoeing, nor of any other work which all other men
must labour at to obtain a crop of corn ; for when the river
has come of its own accord and irrigated their fields, and
having irrigated them has subsided, then each man sows his
own land and turns swine into it ; and when the seed has been
trodden in by the swine, he afterward waits for harvest-time:
then having trod out the corn with his swine, he gathers it in.
But if we should adopt the opinion of the Ionians respecting
Egypt, who say that the Delta alone is properly Egypt,
stating that its sea-coast extends from what is called the Tower
of Perseus to the Tarichaea of Pelusium, forty schceni in
length; and who say that from the sea inland it stretches to
the city of Cercasorus, where the Nile divides, and flows toward
Pelusium and Canopus ; and who attribute the rest of
Egypt partly to Libya and partly to Arabia—if we adopted
this account, we should show that the Egyptians had not formerly
any country of their own ; for the Delta, as the Egyptians
themselves acknowledge, and as I think, is alluvial, and
(if I may so express myself) has lately come to light. If, then,
they formerly had no country, how foolish they were to think
themselves the most ancient of all people ! nor was there any
use in their having recourse to the experiment of the children
to ascertain what language they would first speak. For
my own part, I am not of opinion that the Egyptians began
their existence with the country which the Ionians call Delta
but that they always were, since men have been; and that
as the soil gradually increased, many of them remained in
their former habitations, and many came lower down. For,
anciently, Thebes was called Egypt, and is six thousand one
hundred and twenty stades in circumference. If, therefore,
I judge correctly of these things, the Ionians are mistaken
with respect to Egypt; but if their opinion is correct, then
I will show that neither the Greeks nor the Ionians themselves
know how to reckon, when they say that the whole
earth consists of three divisions, Europe, Asia, and Libya;
for they ought to add a fourth, the Delta of Egypt, if it be
not a part either of Asia or of Libya. For, by this account,
the Nile does not separate Asia from Libya, but is divided at
the point of Delta, so that it must be between Asia and Libya.
But I will dismiss the opinion of the Ionians, and proceed to
give my own account of the matter. I consider that the whole
country inhabited by Egyptians is Egypt, as that inhabited by
Cilicians is Cilicia, and that by Assyrians, Assyria. And,
;