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The priests, in answer to my inquiries on the subject of Helen,
informed me of the following particulars. When Alexander had carried
off Helen from Sparta, he took ship and sailed homewards. On his
way across the Egean a gale arose, which drove him from his course and
took him down to the sea of Egypt; hence, as the wind did not abate,
he was carried on to the coast, when he went ashore, landing at the
Salt-Pans, in that mouth of the Nile which is now called the
Canobic. At this place there stood upon the shore a temple, which
still exists, dedicated to Hercules. If a slave runs away from his
master, and taking sanctuary at this shrine gives himself up to the
god, and receives certain sacred marks upon his person, whosoever his
master may be, he cannot lay hand on him. This law still remained
unchanged to my time. Hearing, therefore, of the custom of the
place, the attendants of Alexander deserted him, and fled to the
temple, where they sat as suppliants. While there, wishing to damage
their master, they accused him to the Egyptians, narrating all the
circumstances of the rape of Helen and the wrong done to Menelaus.
These charges they brought, not only before the priests, but also
before the warden of that mouth of the river, whose name was Thonis.
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