the rest were men and of Egyptian race: and the name of the woman who
reigned was the same as that of the Babylonian queen, namely Nitocris.
Of her they said that desiring to take vengeance for her brother, whom
the Egyptians had slain when he was their king and then, after having
slain him, had given his kingdom to her,--desiring, I say, to take
vengeance for him, she destroyed by craft many of the Egyptians. For she
caused to be constructed a very large chamber under ground, and making
as though she would handsel it but in her mind devising other things,
she invited those of the Egyptians whom she knew to have had most part
in the murder, and gave a great banquet. Then while they were feasting,
she let in the river upon them by a secret conduit of large size. Of
her they told no more than this, except that, when this had been
accomplished, she threw herself into a room full of embers, in order
that she might escape vengeance. As for the other kings, they could tell
me of no great works which had been produced by them, and they said that
they had no renown except only the last of them, Moiris: he (they
said) produced as a memorial of himself the gateway of the temple of
Hephaistos which is turned towards the North Wind, and dug a lake, about
which I shall set forth afterwards how many furlongs of circuit it has,
and in it built pyramids of the size which I shall mention at the same
time when I speak of the lake itself. He, they said, produced these
works, but of the rest none produced any.