§ 80. The Priests of the Egyptians are allowed to marry but one wife: other persons marry as many as they please: but they are obliged to rear all their children, since a numerous population is esteemed highly conducive to the happiness of every country and state: and none of their children are accounted illegitimate, even if the mother has been purchased as a slave: for the children are supposed to belong more particularly to the father, the mother being considered as little more than a nurse. They feed their children very lightly, and at an incredibly small expense: giving them a little meal of the coarsest and cheapest kind, the pith of the papyrus, baked under the ashes, with the roots and stalks of some marsh weeds, either raw, or boiled, or roasted: and since most of them are brought up, on account of the mildness of the climate, without shoes, and indeed without any other clothing; the whole of the expense, incurred by the parents, till they come to years of maturity, does not exceed about 20 drachmas, or 13 shillings, each. This frugality is the true reason of the great populousness of Egypt, and of the magnificence of the public works, with which the country is adorned. § 81. The children of the priests, however, are instructed in two descriptions of literature; the sacred and the more general: and they apply themselves with diligence to geometry and arithmetic: for the river, changing the appearance of the country very materially every year, is the cause of many and various discussions among the neighbouring proprietors: and these it would be difficult for any person to decide, without geometrical reasoning, founded upon actual observation: and for arithmetic they have frequent occasion both in their domestic economy, and in the application of geometrical theorems, besides its utility in the cultivation of astronomical studies: for the orders and motions of the stars are observed at least as industriously by the Egyptians as by any other people whatever: and they keep records of the motions of each for an incredible number of years; the study of this science having been, from the remotest times, an object of national ambition with them: they have also most punctually observed the motions and periods and stations of the planets, as well as the powers which they possess, with respect to the nativities of animals, and what good or evil influences they exert: and they frequently foretel what is to happen to a man throughout his life, and not uncommonly predict a failure of crops, or an abundance, and the occurrence of epidemic diseases among men or beasts: they foresee also earthquakes and floods, and the appearances of comets, and a variety of other things which appear impossible to the multitude. It is said also that the Chaldaeans in Babylon are derived from an Egyptian colony, and have acquired their reputation for astrology by means of the information obtained from the priests in Egypt: but the generality of