"From this city you will make a journey by water of equal distance with that by which you came from Elephantine to the capital city of Ethiopia, and you will come to the land of the Deserters. These Deserters are called Asmach, which signifies, in our language, those who stand on the left hand of the king. These once, to the number of two hundred and forty thousand Egyptians of fighting age, revolted and joined themselves to the Ethiopians. The reason was this: — In the reign of Psammetichus there were garrisons posted at Elephantine on the side of Ethiopia, at Daphnae of Pelusium on the side of Arabia and Assyria, and at Marea on the side of Libya. And still in my time the Persians hold these posts as they were held in the days of Psammetichus; there are Persian guards at Elephantine
β and at Daphnae. Now the Egyptians had been on guard for three years, and none came to relieve them; so taking counsel and making common cause, they revolted from Psammetichus and went to Ethiopia. Psammetichus heard of it and pursued after them; and when he overtook them he besought them with many words not to desert the gods of their fathers and their children and wives. Then one of them, so the story goes, said, pointing to his manly part,
Rawlinson p46H & WFor as far as a distance of four months' travel, then, by land and water, there is knowledge of the Nile, besides the part of it that is in Egypt. So many months, as reckoning shows, lasts the journey from Elephantine to the country of the Deserters aforesaid. The river flows from the west and the sun's setting. Beyond this none has clear knowledge to declare; for all that country is desert, by reason of heat
- herodotus histories
