302 HERODOTUS
dashes against the mountains, and hence a sounding- line cannot be got to reach the bottom of the spring.
No other information on this head could I obtain from any quarter. All that I succeeded in learning further of the more distant portions of the Nile, by ascending myself as high as Elephantine, and making inquiries concerning the parts beyond, was the follow- ing : As one advances beyond Elephantine, the land rises. Hence it is necessary in this part of the river to attach a I'ope to the boat on each side, as men har- ness an ox, and so proceed on the journey. If the rope snaps, the vessel is borne away down-stream by the force of the current. The navigation continues the same for four days, the river winding greatly, like the Maeander, and the distance traversed amounting to twelve schoenoi.^ Here you come upon a smooth and level plain, where the Nile flows in two branches, round an island called Tachompso. The country above Elephantine is inhabited by the Ethiopians, who possess one half of this island, the Egyptians occupying the other. Above the island there is a great lake, the shores of which are inhabited by Ethi- opian nomads ; after passing it, you come again to the stream of the Nile, which runs into the lake. Here you land, and travel for forty days along the banks of the river, since it is impossible to proceed further in a boat on account of the sharp peaks which jut out from the water, and the sunken rocks which abound in that part of the stream. "When you have passed this portion of the river in the space of forty days, you go on board another boat, and proceed by water for twelve days more, at the end of which time you reach a great city called Meroe, which is said to 1 About twenty-four leagues, or seventy-two miles.
