Histories

They knead dough with their feet, and gather mud and dung with their hands. The Egyptians and those who have learned it from them are the only people who practise circumcision. Every man has two garments, every woman only one.

The rings and sheets of sails are made fast outside the boat elsewhere, but inside it in Egypt [30,27] (nation), Africa Egypt. The Greeks write and calculate from left to right; the Egyptians do the opposite; yet they say that their way of writing is towards the right, and the Greek way towards the left. They employ two kinds of writing; one is called sacred, the other demotic[*](Three kinds, really: hieroglyphic, hieratic (derived from hieroglyphic), and demotic, a simplified form of hieratic. See Rawlinson's essay, ch. 5, in Appendix to Book II.).

They are religious beyond measure, more than any other people; and the following are among their customs. They drink from cups of bronze, which they clean out daily; this is done not by some but by all.

They are especially careful always to wear newly-washed linen. They practise circumcision for cleanliness' sake; for they would rather be clean than more becoming. Their priests shave the whole body every other day, so that no lice or anything else foul may infest them as they attend upon the gods.