The ancients, unacquainted with the climate of the interior country from which it descends, and not caring in general to inquire for physical causes, possessing also a very limited knowledge of terrestrial phenomena, deemed the annual overflow of the Nile a unique event, and attributed it to the special interference of a supernatural power. Lucretius, however, who soared in many respects above the prejudices of his age concerning the natural world, assigned it to a proper cause; though he ascribes too much influence to the Etesian wind, and shows his imperfect acquaintance with the geography of the globe, by supposing the occurrence without a parallel. “The Nile now calls us, pride of Egypt’s plains: Sole stream on earth its boundaries that o’erflows Punctual, and scatters plenty. When the year Now glows with perfect summer, leaps its tide Proud o’er the champaign; for the north wind, now Th’ Etesian breeze, against its mouth direct Blows with perpetual winnow; every surge Hence loiters slow, the total current swells, And wave o’er wave its loftiest bank surmounts. For that the fixed monsoon that now prevails Flows from the cold stars of the northern pole None e’er can doubt; while rolls the Nile adverse Full from the south, from realms of torrid heat, Haunts of the Ethiop tribes; yet far beyond First bubbling, distant, o’er the burning line. Then ocean, haply, by th’ undevious breeze Blown up the channel, heaves with every wave Heaps of high sand, and dams its wonted course; Whence, narrower, too, its exit to the main, And with less force the tardy stream descends. Or, towards its fountain, ampler rains, perchance, Fall, as th’ Etesian fans, now wide unfurled, Ply the big clouds perpetual from the north Full o’er the red equator; where condensed, Ponderous and low, against the hills they strike, And shed their treasures o’er the rising flood. Or, from the Ethiop mountains, the bright sun Now full matured with deep-dissolving ray May melt th’ agglomerate snows, and down the plains Drive them, augmenting hence th’ incipient stream.” [Illustration: =The Nile at the Pyramids.=]