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In what follows I have the authority, not of the Egyptians only,
but of others also who agree with them. I shall speak likewise in part
from my own observation. When the Egyptians regained their liberty
after the reign of the priest of Vulcan, unable to continue any while
without a king, they divided Egypt into twelve districts, and set
twelve kings over them. These twelve kings, united together by
intermarriages, ruled Egypt in peace, having entered into engagements
with one another not to depose any of their number, nor to aim at any
aggrandisement of one above the rest, but to dwell together in perfect
amity. Now the reason why they made these stipulations, and guarded
with care against their infraction, was because at the very first
establishment of the twelve kingdoms an oracle had declared - "That
he among them who should pour in Vulcan's temple a libation from a cup
of bronze would become monarch of the whole land of Egypt." Now the
twelve held their meetings at all the temples.
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