Note 585 — Chapter XX · EGYPTIANS.

Herodot. ii, 37. Θεοσεβέες δὲ περισσῶς ἐόντες μάλιστα πάντων ἀνθρώπων, etc. He is astonished at the retentiveness of their memory; some of them had more stories to tell than any one whom he had ever seen (ii, 77-109; Diodor. i, 73).

The word priest conveys to a modern reader an idea very different from that of the Egyptian ἱερεῖς, who were not a profession, but an order comprising many occupations and professions,—Josephus the Jew was in like manner an ἱερεὺς κατὰ γένος (cont. Apion. c. 3).