Page 43.—_Branches of the Nile._] Alexandria lying beyond the Canopic, the westernmost mouth of the Nile, all the seven branches of the river would, of course, be crossed by our travellers, in order to reach Pelusium, which was situated beyond the easternmost. The _greater_ Delta is the whole country lying between these two branches; the _lesser_, that which is included between the Bubastic (or Pelusiac) and the Busiritic (or Phatnitic) channel, itself a branch of the Bubastic. Champollion, ii. 13. The distance from Alexandria to Pelusium, according to the Itinerary of Antoninus, was two hundred and thirteen miles. Naucratis stood on the eastern bank of the Canopic branch: it was for a long time the only place to which the jealousy of the Pharaohs allowed foreign merchants to resort; and under Amasis the Greeks were permitted to establish themselves there. (Herod. ii. 178.) Sais, one of the most celebrated cities of the Delta, stood about two leagues eastward from the Canopic branch: the goddess Naet, (or Neitha) who was worshipped there, was identified by the Greeks with their own Athene. See Jablonski Panth. Æg. lib. i. c. 3. Busiris was near the centre of the Delta, and on the western bank of the Phatnitic branch, distant twenty leagues from the apex of the Delta, and an equal number from the sea. Tanis, the Zoan of Scripture, was situated on the eastern bank of a subordinate branch of the Pelusiac, which from it took the name of Tanitic. Josephus describes it as having dwindled into an insignificant place, but the remains of several obelisks attest its ancient magnificence. Champollion, ii. 101. Page 45.—_Little wine was produced in Egypt._] Herodotus, iii. 16. says that wine was brought from Greece and Phœnicia into Egypt. Phœnicia was celebrated for its wines: Vina mihi non sunt Gazetica, Chia, Falerna, Quæque Sareptano palmite missa bibas.—Sidonius, xvii. 15. Herodotus (ii. 77.) says that Egypt produced no wine, and his testimony is confirmed by Plutarch, who says (De Iside et Osir. 6.) that before the time of Psammetichus no wine was drunk in Egypt nor offered to the gods. The mention of vines in Egypt in the book of Genesis (xl. 10.) shows that the assertion of Herodotus is to be taken with some limitation, but there can be no doubt that it was generally true. The level plains of Egypt are not suited to the cultivation of the vine—_apertos Bacchus amat colles_—and are besides overflowed precisely at that time when the vintage should ripen and be gathered. What wine therefore is grown in Egypt is beyond the inundations, in Fayoum, or on the border of the lake Mareotis; and perhaps Herodotus only meant to apply his remark to what he calls ἡ σπειρομένη Ἄιγυπτος, i. e. the country which was annually overflowed.