tians, to fhew their refentment against Phanes, for introducing a foreign army against Ægypt, adopted this expedient: his fons, whom he had left behind, they brought into the camp, and in a confpicuous place, in the fight of their father, they put them one by one to death upon a veffel brought thither for that purpose. When they, had done this, they filled the vase which had received the blood with wine and water; having drank which", all the auxiliaries immediately engaged the enemy. The battle was obftinately difputed, but after confiderable lofs on both fides, the Ægyptians fled.. XII. By the people inhabiting the place where this battle was fought a very furprizing thing was pointed out to my attention. The bones of thofe who fell in the engagement were foon afterwards collected, and separated into two diftinct heaps. It was obferved of the Perfians, that their heads were fo extremely soft as to yield to the flight impreffion even of a pebble; thofe of the Egyptians, on the contrary, were fo firm, that the blow of a large ftone could hardly break them. The reafon which they 13 Having drank which.]-They probably swore at the fame time to avenge the treafon of Phanes, or perish. The blood of an human victim mixed with wine accompanied the most folemn forms of execration among the ancients. Catiline made ufe of this fuperftition to bind his adherents to fecrecy: "He carried round," fays Salluft, "the blood of an human victim, mixed with wine; and when all had tafted it, after a fet form of execration (ficut in folennibus facris fieri confuevit) he imparted his defign."-T. gave for this was very fatisfactory-the Ægyptians from a very early age fhave their heads 4, which by being constantly exposed to the action of the fun, become firm and hard, this treatment also prevents baldness, very few inftances of which are ever to be feen in Ægypt. Why the fkulls of the Perfians are fo foft may be explained from their being from their infancy accustomed to fhelter from the fun, by their constant ufe of turbans. I faw the very fame fact at Papremis, after examining the bones of those who, under the conduct of Achæmenes ", fon of Darius, were defeated by Inaros the African. XIII. The Ægyptians after their defeat fled in great diforder to Memphis. Cambyfes dispatched a Perfian the river in a Mitylenian veffel to treat with them; up but as foon as they faw the veffel enter Memphis, they rushed in a croud from the citadel, destroyed! 14 Shave their heads.]-The fame custom still subsists: I have feen every where the children of the common people, whether running in the fields, affembled round the villages, or swimming in the waters, with their heads fhaved and bare. Let us but imagine the hardness a skull muft acquire thus exposed to the fcorching fun, and we shall not be aftonished at the remark of Herodotus.-Savary., 15 Achæmenes.]-Herodotus and Diodorus Siculus fay, that it was Achæmenes, the brother of Xerxes, and uncle of Artaxerxes, the fame who before had the government of Egypt in the beginning of the reign of Xerxes, that had the conduct of this war; but herein they were deceived by the fimilitude of names; for it appears by Crefias, that he was the fon of Hameftris, whom Artaxerxes fent with his army into Egypt.-Prideaux. the 16 the veffel, tore the crew in pieces ", and afterwards carried them into the citadel. Siege was immediately laid to the place, and the Ægyptians were finally compelled to furrender. Thofe Africans who lived nearest to Ægypt, apprehensive of a fimilar fate, fubmitted without conteft, impofing a tribute on themselves, and fending presents to the Perfians. Their example was followed by the Cyreneans and Barceans, who were ftruck with the like panic. The African prefents Cambyfes received very graciously, but he expreffed much resentment at those of the Cyreneans, as I think, on account of their meannefs. They fent him five hundred mine of filver, which, as soon as he received, with his own hands he threw amongst his foldiers. XIV. On the tenth day after the surrender of the citadel of Memphis, Pfammenitus, the Ægyptian king, who had reigned no more than fix months, was by order of Cambyfes ignominiously conducted, with other Ægyptians, to the outfide of the walls, and by way of trial of his difpofition, thus treated: His daughter, in the habit of a flave, was fent with a pitcher to draw water; fhe was accompanied by a number of young women clothed in the fame garb, and felected from families of the first distinction. They paffed, with much and loud lamentation, 16 Tore the crew in pieces.]-They were two hundred in number; this appears from a following paragraph, where we find that for every Mitylenian maffacred on this occafion ten Ægyptians were put to death, and that two thousand Ægyptians thus perished.-Lareber. before before their parents, from whom their treatmen excited a correfpondent violence of grief. But when Pfammenitus beheld the fpectacle, he merely declined his eyes upon the ground; when this train was gone by, the son of Pfammenitus, with two thousand Ægyptians of the fame age, were made to walk in proceffion with ropes round their necks, and bridles in their mouths. Thefe were intended to avenge the death of those Mitylenians who, with their veffel, had been torn to pieces at Memphis.. The king's counsellors had determined that for every one put to death on that occafion ten of the first rank of the Ægyptians fhould be facrificed. Pfammenitus obferved thefe as they paffed, but although he perceived that his fon was going to be executed, and whilft all the Ægyptians around him wept and lamented aloud, he continued unmoved as before. When this scene alfo disappeared, he beheld a venerable perfonage, who had formerly partaken of the royal table, deprived of all he had poffeffed, and in the drefs of a mendicant asking charity through the different ranks of the army. This man stopped to beg an alms of Pfammenitus, the fon of Amafis, and the other noble Ægyptians who were fitting with him; which, when Pfammenitus beheld, he could no longer fupprefs his emotions, but calling on his friend by name, wept aloud, and beat his head. This the fpies, who were 17 Wept aloud.]-A very ftrange effect of grief is related by Mr. Gibbon, in the story of Gelimer, king of the Vandals, when after an obstinate refiftance he was obliged to furrender himself to Belifarius. were placed near him to obferve his conduct on each incident, reported to Cambyfes; who, in aftonifhment at fuch behaviour, fent a meffenger, who was thus directed to addrefs him, "Your "lord and mafter, Cambyfes, is defirous to know why, after beholding with fo much indifference your daughter treated as a flave, and your fon " conducted to death, you expreffed fo lively a con"cern for that mendicant, who, as he has been in"formed, is not at all related to you?" Pfammenitus made this reply: "Son of Cyrus, my domestic mis"fortunes were too great to fuffer me to fhed tears 18 "but Belifarius. "The first public interview," fays our hiftorian, "was in one of the suburbs of Carthage; and when the royal captive accofted his conqueror, he burst into a fit of laughter. The croud might naturally believe that extreme grief had deprived Gelimer of his fenfes; but in this mournful ftate unfeasonable mirth infinuated to more intelligent obfervers that the vain and tranfitory fcenes of human greatnefs are unworthy of a serious thought." Shed tears.]-This idea of extreme affliction or anger tending to check the act of weeping, is expreffed by Shakespeare with wonderful fublimity and pathos. It is part of a speech of Lear: You fee me here, ye gods, a poor old man, That all the world fhallI will do fuch things, 44 What |