Neither the cause nor yet the season of its overflow is the same as that of other rivers. Its waters rise neither because of melted snows nor by reason of rains flooding its rocky marge; for when dull winter giveth increase to other rivers Nile keeps within his banks; when other rivers flow with diminished stream, Nile, under other laws, rises. For of a truth whatever toll summer has exacted from all rivers Nature repays to the Nile, and waters gathered together from the whole world meet thus * * * * * Page 234 quoque die Titana canis flagrantior armat et rapit umores madidos venasque calore compescit radiisque potentibus aestuat axis, 35 Nilo bruma venit, contraria tempora mundo: defectis solitum referens cultoribus aequor effluit Aegaeo stagnantior, acrior alto Ionio seseque patentibus explicat arvis: fluctuat omnis ager; remis sonuere novales; 40 saepius, aestivo iaceat cum forte sopore, cernit cum stabulis armenta natantia pastor. XXIX. (XLVIII.) _Magnes._ Quisquis sollicita mundum ratione secutus semina rimatur rerum, quo luna laborat defectu, quae causa iubet pallescere solem, unde rubescentes ferali crine cometae, unde fluant venti, trepidae quis viscera terrae 5 concutiat motus, quis fulgura ducat hiatus, unde tonent nubes, quo lumine floreat arcus, hoc mihi quaerenti, si quid deprendere veri mens valet, expediat. Lapis est cognomine magnes decolor obscurus vilis. non ille repexam 10 caesariem regum, non candida virginis ornat colla nec insigni splendet per cingula morsu; sed nova si nigri videas miracula saxi, tunc pulchros superat cultus et quidquid Eois * * * * * Page 235 in one river. Then when the Dog-star increases the heat of the sun and sucks up all moisture, drying up earth’s veins and filling heaven with its scorching rays, winter comes upon the Nile, though elsewhere all is summer. Then, bringing back to the fainting husbandmen its accustomed waters, it o’erflows ampler than the Aegean, fiercer than the deep Ionian, and spreads itself over the low-lying country. All the fields are aswim; plough-land sounds to the beat of the oar, and full often the shepherd, o’ercome with summer’s heat, wakes to see flocks and fold carried away by the flood. XXIX. (XLVIII.) _The Magnet._