the Nile.  Nine days, which Herodotus gives as the time for reaching Thebes, is not sufficient, if the voyage is undertaken in the usual way, stopping every evening for the night; but it would be possible if the navigation were uninterrupted day and night.  This is now rarely done, but it might have been frequent in ancient times, especially in the service of the State.

     ** It would seem clear that Herodotus stopped at Panopolis
     and had communications with the people of the town.
     [Panopolis or Khemmis is the present Ekhmim.—­Tr.]

[Illustration:  362a.jpg LONG STRINGS OF LADEN VESSELS]

     Drawn by Boudier, from a photograph by Gautier.

The greater part of the time was employed in getting from one point to another, and the necessity of taking advantage of a favourable wind in going up the river, often obliged the travellers to neglect more than one interesting locality.

[Illustration:  302b.jpg THE VAST SHEET OF WATER IN THE MIDDAY HEAT]

The Greek was not so keenly alive to the picturesqueness of the scenes through which he passed as the modern visitor, and in the account of his travels he took no note of the long lines of laden boats going up or down stream, nor of the vast sheet of water glowing in the midday sun, nor of the mountains honeycombed with tombs and quarries, at the foot of which he would be sailing day after day.  What interested him above all things was information with regard to the sources of the immense river itself, and the reasons for its periodic inundation, and, according to the mental attitude impressed on him by his education, he accepted the mythological solution offered by the natives, or he sought for a more natural one in the physical lore of his own savants:  thus he was told that the Nile took its rise at Elephantine, between the two rocks called Krophi and Mophi, and in showing them to him his informant would add that Psammetichus I. had attempted to sound the depth of the river at this point, but had failed to fathom it.  At the few places where the pilot of the barque put in to port, the population showed themselves unfriendly, and refused to hold any communication with the Greeks.

[Illustration:  363.jpg the mountains honeycombed with tombs AND Quarries]

     Drawn by Boudier, from a photograph by Gautier.

The interpreters, who were almost all natives of the Delta, were not always familiar with the people and customs of the Said, and felt almost as completely foreign at Thebes as did their employers.  Their office was confined to translating the information furnished by the inhabitants when the latter were sufficiently civilised to hold communication with the travellers.  What most astonished Herodotus at Panopolis was the temple and the games held in honour, so he believed, of Perseus, the son of Danae.  These exercises terminated in an attempt to climb a regular “greasy pole” fixed in the ground,