Thalia   

Erythraean sea. The Arabian king, they say, made a pipe of the skins
of oxen and other beasts, reaching from this river all the way to
the desert, and so brought the water to certain cisterns which he
had dug in the desert to receive it. It is a twelve days' journey from
the river to this desert tract. And the water, they say, was brought
through three different pipes to three separate places.
Psammenitus, son of Amasis, lay encamped at the mouth of the.
Nile, called the Pelusiac, awaiting Cambyses. For Cambyses, when he
went up against Egypt, found Amasis no longer in life: he had died
after ruling Egypt forty and four years, during all which time no
great misfortune had befallen him. When he died, his body was
embalmed, and buried in the tomb which he had himself caused to be
made in the temple. After his son Psammenitus had mounted the
throne, a strange prodigy occurred in Egypt- rain fell at Egyptian
Thebes, a thing which never happened before, and which, to the present
time, has never happened again, as the Thebans themselves testify.
In Upper Egypt it does not usually rain at all; but on this
occasion, rain fell at Thebes in small drops.
The Persians crossed the desert, and, pitching their camp close to
the Egyptians, made ready for battle. Hereupon the mercenaries in
the pay of Psammenitus, who were Greeks and Carians, full of anger
against Phanes for having brought a foreign army upon Egypt, bethought
themselves of a mode whereby they might be revenged on him. Phanes had
left sons in Egypt. The mercenaries took these, and leading them to
the camp, displayed them before the eyes of their father; after
which they brought out a bowl, and, placing it in the space between
the two hosts, they led the sons of Phanes, one by one, to the vessel,
and slew them over it. When the last was dead, water and wine were
poured into the bowl, and all the soldiers tasted of the blood, and so
they went to the battle. Stubborn was the fight which followed, and it
was not till vast numbers had been slain upon both sides, that the
Egyptians turned and fled.
On the field where this battle was fought I saw a very wonderful
thing which the natives pointed out to me. The bones of the slain
lie scattered upon the field in two lots, those of the Persians in one
place by themselves, as the bodies lay at the first- those of the
Egyptians in another place apart from them. If, then, you strike the
Persian skulls, even with a pebble, they are so weak, that you break a
hole in them; but the Egyptian skulls are so strong, that you may
smite them with a stone and you will scarcely break them in. They gave
me the following reason for this difference, which seemed to me likely
enough:- The Egyptians (they said) from early childhood have the
head shaved, and so by the action of the sun the skull becomes thick
and hard. The same cause prevents baldness in Egypt, where you see
fewer bald men than in any other land. Such, then, is the reason why
the skulls of the Egyptians are so strong. The Persians, on the
other hand, have feeble skulls, because they keep themselves shaded
from the first, wearing turbans upon their heads. What I have here
mentioned I saw with my own eyes, and I observed also the like at
Papremis, in the case of the Persians who were killed with
Achaeamenes, the son of Darius, by Inarus the Libyan.
The Egyptians who fought in the battle, no sooner turned their
backs upon the enemy, than they fled away in complete disorder to
Memphis, where they shut themselves up within the walls. Hereupon
Cambyses sent a Mytilenaean vessel, with a Persian herald on board,
who was to sail up the Nile to Memphis, and invite the Egyptians to
a surrender. They, however, when they saw the vessel entering the
town, poured forth in crowds from the castle, destroyed the ship, and,
tearing the crew limb from limb, so bore them into the fortress. After
this Memphis was besieged, and in due time surrendered. Hereon the
Libyans who bordered upon Egypt, fearing the fate of that country,
gave themselves up to Cambyses without a battle, made an agreement
to pay tribute to him, and forthwith sent him gifts. The Cyrenaeans
too, and the Barcaeans, having the same fear as the Libyans,