herodotus

The first and greatest evidence is afforded by the winds, which blowhot from these regions; the second is that the land is rainless alwaysand without frost, whereas after snow has fallen rain must necessarilycome within five days, so that if it snowed in those parts rain wouldfall there; the third evidence is afforded by the people dwellingthere, who are of a black colour by reason of the burning heat.Moreover kites and swallows remain there through the year and do notleave the land; and cranes flying from the cold weather which comes onin the region of Scythia come regularly to these parts for wintering:if then it snowed ever so little in that land through which the Nileflows and in which it has its rise, none of these things would takeplace, as necessity compels us to admit. 23. As for him who talkedabout the Ocean, he carried his tale into the region of the unknown,and so he need not be refuted;[30] since I for my part know of noriver Ocean existing, but I think that Homer or one of the poets whowere before him invented the name and introduced it into his verse.24. If however after I have found fault with the opinions proposed, Iam bound to declare an opinion of my own about the matters which arein doubt, I will tell what to my mind is the reason why the Nileincreases in the summer. In the winter season the Sun, being drivenaway from his former path through the heaven[31] by the stormy winds,comes to the upper parts of Libya. If one would set forth the matterin the shortest way, all has now been said; for whatever region thisgod approaches most and stands directly above, this it may reasonablybe supposed is most in want of water, and its native streams of riversare dried up most. 25. However, to set it forth at greater length,thus it is:--the Sun passing in his course by the upper parts ofLibya, does thus, that is to say, since at all times the air in thoseparts is clear and the country is warm, because there are no coldwinds,[32] in passing through it the Sun does just as he was wont todo in the summer, when going through the midst of the heaven, that ishe draws to himself the water, and having drawn it he drives it awayto the upper parts of the country, and the winds take it up andscattering it abroad melt it into rain; so it is natural that thewinds which blow from this region, namely the South and South-westWinds, should be much the most rainy of all the winds. I think howeverthat the Sun does not send away from himself all the water of the Nileof each year, but that he also lets some remain behind with himself.Then when the winter becomes milder, the Sun returns back again to themidst of the heaven, and from that time onwards he draws equally fromall rivers; but in the meanwhile they flow in large volume, sincewater of rain mingles with them in great quantity, because theircountry receives rain then and is filled with torrent streams. Insummer however they are weak, since not only the showers of rain failthen, but also they are drawn by the Sun. The Nile however, alone of