|
The Egyptians adhere to their own national customs, and adopt no
foreign usages. Many of these customs are worthy of note: among
others their song, the Linus, which is sung under various names not
only in Egypt but in Phoenicia, in Cyprus, and in other places;
and which seems to be exactly the same as that in use among the
Greeks, and by them called Linus. There were very many things in
Egypt which filled me with astonishment, and this was one of them.
Whence could the Egyptians have got the Linus? It appears to have
been sung by them from the very earliest times. For the Linus in
Egyptian is called Maneros; and they told me that Maneros was the
only son of their first king, and that on his untimely death he was
honoured by the Egyptians with these dirgelike strains, and in this
way they got their first and only melody.
|
|