In the reign of Amasis (B.C. 556) special privileges were granted to the Greeks by that king, with protection to those who made Naucratis their place of abode; while for those who did not care to reside there permanently, but were simply sea-faring traders, he appropriated sites for temples and altars to their gods, and sanctuaries where their lives and properties would at all times be secure. But these privileges seem to have been restricted to the Greeks; for when another nation claimed a similar protection, Herodotus[158] simply remarks that “they claim what does not belong to them.” Thus the Greeks became the sole agents and ship brokers through whom business could be transacted at Naucratis, and, though at first reluctantly admitted within its sacred soil, they, in the end, largely aided in promoting the wealth and prosperity of Egypt. The merchandise imported by them gave rise to new fashions and new wants, and by degrees, the introduction of Greek manners and customs produced an influence over nearly the whole of Egypt, and prevailed in spite of numerous revolutions throughout the rule of the Persians till the time of Alexander the Great. [Sidenote: The Nile.] But the Nile itself was, after all, the chief source or cause of the wealth of Egypt. Although the only river in the world which has during so long a course so few tributaries of any magnitude, it has, or rather had, several mouths, and these, with various canals, were the principal high roads for Egyptian traffic. The external character of the greatest of these canals (the Bahr-Jusuf, or “River of Joseph”), which runs parallel with the Nile on its western side from a little below Cairo for three hundred and fifty miles, though now no longer navigable, rendered it, up to the opening of the Suez Canal in 1869, the most important work of the kind in Egypt. Nor were there wanting canals which received the surplus of the inundations of the great river. [Sidenote: Sailors of Egypt.] The sailors of Egypt—a numerous class—were chiefly boatmen employed on the Nile and the canals—bargemen rather than seamen. So vast, however, was the trade on this river that, according to Herodotus, no fewer than seven hundred thousand sailors (persons, we must presume) assembled on board different vessels on the occasion of one of the principal festivals;[159] while, then as now, during the periodical inundations, a large portion of the population were compelled to live in boats and barges, where fairs and markets were also held, giving fresh impulse to trade and navigation. [Sidenote: Their boats.] [Sidenote: How navigated.]