herodotus

his people, he answered that the greater number of them reached theage of a hundred and twenty years, and some surpassed even this; andtheir food was boiled flesh and their drink was milk. And when thespies marvelled at the number of years, he conducted them to a certainspring, in the water of which they washed and became more sleek ofskin, as if it were a spring of oil; and from it there came a scent asit were of violets: and the water of this spring, said the spies, wasso exceedingly weak that it was not possible for anything to floatupon it, either wood or any of those things which are lighter thanwood, but they all went to the bottom. If this water which they havebe really such as it is said to be, it would doubtless be the causewhy the people are long-lived, as making use of it for all thepurposes of life. Then when they departed from this spring, he ledthem to a prison-house for men, and there all were bound in fetters ofgold. Now among these Ethiopians bronze is the rarest and mostprecious of all things. Then when they had seen the prison-house theysaw also the so-called table of the Sun: 24, and after this they sawlast of all their receptacles of dead bodies, which are said to bemade of crystal in the following manner:--when they have dried thecorpse, whether it be after the Egyptian fashion or in some other way,they cover it over completely with plaster[21] and then adorn it withpainting, making the figure as far as possible like the living man.After this they put about it a block of crystal hollowed out; for thisthey dig up in great quantity and it is very easy to work: and thedead body being in the middle of the block is visible through it, butproduces no unpleasant smell nor any other effect which is unseemly,and it has all its parts visible like the dead body itself. For a yearthen they who are most nearly related to the man keep the block intheir house, giving to the dead man the first share of everything andoffering to him sacrifices: and after this period they carry it outand set it up round about the city.25. After they had seen all, the spies departed to go back; and whenthey reported these things, forthwith Cambyses was enraged andproceeded to march his army against the Ethiopians, not having orderedany provision of food nor considered with himself that he wasintending to march an army to the furthest extremities of the earth;but as one who is mad and not in his right senses, when he heard thereport of the Ichthyophagoi he began the march, ordering those of theHellenes who were present to remain behind in Egypt, and taking withhim his whole land force: and when in the course of his march he hadarrived at Thebes, he divided off about fifty thousand of his army,and these he enjoined to make slaves of the Ammonians and to set fireto the seat of the Oracle of Zeus, but he himself with the remainderof his army went on against the Ethiopians. But before the army hadpassed over the fifth part of the way, all that they had of provisions