is turned towards the South Wind; and he built a court for Apis, in which Apis is kept when he appears, opposite to the gateway of the temple, surrounded all with pillars and covered with figures; and instead of columns there stand to support the roof of the court colossal statues twelve cubits high.  Now Apis is in the tongue of the Hellenes Epaphos.  To the Ionians and to the Carians who had helped him Psammetichos granted portions of land to dwell in, opposite to one another with the river Nile between, and these were called “Encampments”; these portions of land he gave them, and he paid them besides all that he had promised:  moreover he placed with them Egyptian boys to have them taught the Hellenic tongue; and from these, who learnt the language thoroughly, are descended the present class of interpreters in Egypt.  Now the Ionians and Carians occupied these portions of land for a long time, and they are towards the sea a little below the city of Bubastis, on that which is called the Pelusian mouth of the Nile.  These men king Amasis afterwards removed from thence and established them at Memphis, making them into a guard for himself against the Egyptians:  and they being settled in Egypt, we who are Hellenes know by intercourse with them the certainty of all that which happened in Egypt beginning from king Psammetichos and afterwards; for these were the first men of foreign tongue who settled in Egypt:  and in the land from which they were removed there still remained down to my time the sheds where their ships were drawn up and the ruins of their houses.

Thus then Psammetichos obtained Egypt:  and of the Oracle which is in Egypt I have made mention often before this, and now I give an account of it, seeing that it is worthy to be described.  This Oracle which is in Egypt is sacred to Leto, and it is established in a great city near that mouth of the Nile which is called Sebennytic, as one sails up the river from the sea; and the name of this city where the Oracle is found is Buto, as I have said before in mentioning it.  In this Buto there is a temple of Apollo and Artemis; and the temple-house of Leto, in which the Oracle is, is both great in itself and has a gateway of the height of ten fathoms:  but that which caused me most to marvel of the things to be seen there, I will now tell.  There is in this sacred enclosure a house of Leto made of one single stone upon the top, the cornice measuring four cubits.  This house then of all the things that were to be seen by me in that temple is the most marvellous, and among those which come next is the island called Chemmis.  This is situated in a deep and broad lake by the side of the temple at Buto, and it is said by the Egyptians that this island is a floating island.  I myself did not see it either floating about or moved from its place, and I feel surprise at hearing of it, wondering if it be indeed a floating island.  In this island of which I speak there is a great temple-house of