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The men sent to attack the Ammonians, started from Thebes, having
guides with them, and may be clearly traced as far as the city Oasis,
which is inhabited by Samians, said to be of the tribe Aeschrionia.
The place is distant from Thebes seven days' journey across the
sand, and is called in our tongue "the Island of the Blessed."
Thus far the army is known to have made its way; but thenceforth
nothing is to be heard of them, except what the Ammonians, and those
who get their knowledge from them, report. It is certain they neither
reached the Ammonians, nor even came back to Egypt. Further than
this, the Ammonians relate as follows: That the Persians set forth
from Oasis across the sand, and had reached about half way between
that place and themselves when, as they were at their midday meal, a
wind arose from the south, strong and deadly, bringing with it vast
columns of whirling sand, which entirely covered up the troops and
caused them wholly to disappear. Thus, according to the Ammonians,
did it fare with this army.
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