in this manner.  Then you will come to a level plain, in which the Nile flows round an island named Tachompso. (Now in the regions above the Elephantine there dwell Ethiopians at once succeeding, who also occupy half of the island, and Egyptians the other half.) Adjoining this island there is a great lake, round which dwell Ethiopian nomad tribes; and when you have sailed through this you will come to the stream of the Nile again, which flows into this lake.  After this you will disembark and make a journey by land of forty days; for in the Nile sharp rocks stand forth out of the water, and there are many reefs, by which it is not possible for a vessel to pass.  Then after having passed through this country in the forty days which I have said, you will embark again in another vessel and sail for twelve days; and after this you will come to a great city called Meroe.  This city is said to be the mother-city of all the other Ethiopians:  and they who dwell in it reverence of the gods Zeus and Dionysos alone, and these they greatly honour; and they have an Oracle of Zeus established, and make warlike marches whensoever the god commands them by prophesyings and to whatsoever place he commands.  Sailing from this city you will come to the “Deserters” in another period of time equal to that in which you came from Elephantine to the mother-city of the Ethiopians.  Now the name of these “Deserters” is Asmach, and this word signifies, when translated into the tongue of the Hellenes, “those who stand on the left hand of the king.”  These were two hundred and forty thousand Egyptians of the warrior class, who revolted and went over to these Ethiopians for the following cause:—­In the reign of Psammetichos garrisons were set, one towards the Ethiopians at the city of Elephantine, another towards the Arabians and Assyrians at Daphnai of Pelusion, and another towards Libya at Marea:  and even in my own time the garrisons of the Persians too are ordered in the same manner as these were in the reign of Psammetichos, for both at Elephantine and at Daphnai the Persians have outposts.  The Egyptians then of whom I speak had served as outposts for three years and no one relieved them from their guard; accordingly they took counsel together, and adopting a common plan they all in a body revolted from Psammetichos and set out for Ethiopia.  Hearing this Psammetichos set forth in pursuit, and when he came up with them he entreated them much and endeavoured to persuade them not to desert the gods of their country and their children and wives:  upon which it is said that one of them pointed to his privy member and said that wherever this was, there would they have both children and wives.  When these came to Ethiopia they gave themselves over to the king of the Ethiopians; and he rewarded them as follows:—­there were certain of the Ethiopians who had come to be at variance with him; and he bade them drive these out and dwell in their land.  So since these men settled in the land of the Ethiopians, the Ethiopians have come to be of milder manners, from having learnt the customs of the Egyptians.