Histories

If, after having condemned the opinions proposed, I must indicate what I myself think about these obscure matters, I shall say why I think the Nahr an- Nil [31.1,30.166] (river), AfricaNile floods in the summer. During the winter, the sun is driven by storms from his customary course and passes over the inland parts of Libya [17,25] (nation), AfricaLibya.

For the briefest demonstration, everything has been said; for whatever country this god is nearest, or over, it is likely that that land is very thirsty for water and that the local rivers are dried up.

A lengthier demonstration goes as follows. In its passage over the inland parts of Libya [17,25] (nation), AfricaLibya, the sun does this: as the air is always clear in that region, the land warm, and the winds cool, the sun does in its passage exactly as it would do in the summer passing through the middle of the heaven:

it draws the water to itself, and having done so, expels it away to the inland regions, and the winds catch it and scatter and dissolve it; and, as is to be expected, those that blow from that country, the south and the southwest, are the most rainy of all winds.

Yet I think that the sun never lets go of all of the water that it draws up from the Nahr an- Nil [31.1,30.166] (river), AfricaNile yearly, but keeps some back near itself. Then, as the winter becomes milder, the sun returns to the middle of the heaven, and after that draws from all rivers alike.