Page:Masterpieces of Greek Literature (1902).djvu/328

298 298 HERODOTUS

to its usual wont ; and further, if the Etesian winds produced the effect, the other rivers which flow in a direction opposite to those winds ought to present the same phenomena as the Nile, and the more so as they are all smaller streams, and have a weaker current. But these rivers, of which there are many both in Syria and Libya, are entirely unlike the Nile in this respect.

The second opinion is even more unscientific than the one just mentioned, and also, if I may so say, more marvellous. It is that the Nile acts so strangely because it flows from the ocean, and that the ocean flows all round the earth.

The third explanation, which is very much more plausible than either of the others, is positively the furthest from the truth ; for there is really nothing in what it says, any more than in the other theo- ries. It is, that the inundation of the Nile is caused by the melting of snows. Now, as the Nile flows out of Libya, through Ethiopia, into Egypt, how is it possi- ble that it can be formed of melted snow, running, as it does, from the hottest regions of the world into cooler countries ? Many are the proofs whereby any one capable of reasoning on the subject may be con- vinced that it is most unlikely this should be the case. The first and strongest argument is furnished by the winds, which always blow hot from these regions. The second is, that rain and frost are unknown there. Now, whenever snow falls, it must of necessity rain within five days ; so that, if there were snow, there must be rain also in those parts. Thirdly, it is cer- tain that the natives of the country are black with the heat, that the kites and the swallows remain there the whole j^ear, and that the cranes, when they fly