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Some of the Greeks, however, wishing to get a reputation for
cleverness, have offered explanations of the phenomena of the river,
for which they have accounted in three different ways. Two of these I
do not think it worth while to speak of, further than simply to mention
what they are. One pretends that the Etesian winds cause the rise of
the river by preventing the Nile-water from running off into the sea.
But in the first place it has often happened, when the Etesian winds
did not blow, that the Nile has risen according to its usual wont;
and further, if the Etesian winds produced the effect, the other
rivers which flow in a direction opposite to those winds ought to
present the same phenomena as the Nile, and the more so as they are
all smaller streams, and have a weaker current. But these rivers, of
which there are many both in Syria and Libya, are entirely unlike the
Nile in this respect.
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