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H., like a true Greek (may we add, like a Greek merchant?), is always interested in boats and navigation. Cf. the similar description of the skin-boats on the Euphrates (i. 194). The peculiarity of these βάριδες is that they were built up of short pieces of wood, and hence had not the ordinary framework (νομεῦσι, ‘ribs,’ § 2) of a Greek ship. Stein, however, is clearly wrong in saying they were ‘rafts’, with low sides; they had a keel (τρόπις, § 3) and a high stern and prow, as is shown in the tomb picture of their building (Lepsius, D. ii. 126, vol. iv), at Beni Hasan. For models in B. M., Third Egyptian Room, cf. B. M. G. p. 102. H. mentions no iron, perhaps intentionally; in this case the ‘barides’ would resemble the ironless boats of Ormuz on the Persian Gulf, which M. Polo (i. c. 19) describes.
ἀκάνθη: the Mimosa Nilotica (‘acacia’), so called διὰ τὸ ἀκανθῶδες ὅλον τὸ δένδρον εἶναι πλὴν τοῦ στελέχους (i. e. on the main stem) Theoph. H. P. iv. 2; he says δωδεκάπηχυς ἐξ αὐτῆς ἐρέψιμος ὕλη τέμνεται (i. e. beams ‘for roofing’). It is of two kinds, ἡ μέλαινα ... ἄσηπτος, διὸ καὶ ἐν ταῖς ναυπηγίαις χρῶνται. As a rule, however, the timber from it was much shorter, and hence the ‘baris’ was built in the way described below; Egypt was destitute of proper ship's timber. Nile boats are still built of acacia planks. Uni, fetching alabaster (Breasted, i. 323) from Hatnub, builds a boat of acacia, nearly a hundred feet long and fifty wide. Noah's ark was built of acacia wood (Gen. vi. 14 ‘gopher wood’). For the ‘Cyrenaean lotus’ cf. iv. 177 n. πλινθηδόν. The short pieces (ξύλα) were arranged ‘like bricks’, i. e. in alternate layers, so that their joins might not come together.
γόμφους. The ‘long bolts at frequent intervals’ (πυκνούς) were, so to speak, the string, on which the short pieces were ‘strung’; they were driven in vertically to the layers. περιείρω is a ἅπαξ λεγ. ζυγά. The ‘cross-pieces’ served at once to hold the framework together, and as a sort of deck. ἁρμονίας; the ‘joins’ were ‘caulked’ with the fibre of the papyrus, which would then be fixed with tar. ἐν ὦν ἐπάκτωσαν: for the aorist and the tmesis cf. 39. 2 n.
πηδάλιον. As a rule a Greek ship had two steering oars at the stern, ‘fastened to the sides just below the gunwale’; but in the ‘barides’, the ‘steering oar passed through the after end of the keel’ (Torr, pp. 74-5). ἱστῷ: it was not usual to find acacia wood of sufficient length for a mast; but cf. Theophrastus, u. s. οὐ δύναται: H. is quite right in saying that the vessels were not sailed up stream, and in implying that they were usually ‘towed’.
θύρη. The framework of the ‘crate’ was of ‘tamarisk wood’, over which a ‘wattle of reeds’ was worked. The object of this was not (as H. says) to catch the current, but to keep the vessel straight as it drifts with the stream; steering is of course impossible with a drifting boat, as boat and stream are moving at the same pace. Chesney (ii. 640) describes an almost exactly similar method of guiding with the skin-boats of the Euphrates (cf. i. 194 nn.). λίθος τετρημένος: the original form of anchor (cf. Hom. Od. xiii. 77); here by lessening the speed of the boat it made it possible to steer with the πηδάλιον (§ 3). ἀπίει: i. e. the boatman. ἐπιφέρεσθαι: i. e. the ‘crate’ is ‘on the surface’, so opposed to the λίθος, which is ἐν βυσσῷ.
βᾶριν: an Egyptian word, used by Aeschylus (Pers. 554 et al.) of Persian vessels. ταλάντων: about 1/40 of a ton; cf. i. 194. 3, those on the Euphrates are of ‘5,000 talents burden’.
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