Budge_Ethiopic_Alexander

130 THE HISTORY OF ALEXANDER THE GREAT.
"kings might lust, and we have no knowledge of
"war. But if thou wishest to came to us to worship
"the glorious God then do so if thou wilt. We
"have no possessions whatsoever except wisdom
"and knowledge, and we have no men [among us
"trained] in war, and this thou canst find out if
"thou wishest. And as for thee, God Almighty
"hath given unto thee the knowledge and craft
"of war [and of the things] which are in the world,
"and to us have been given the knowledge of
"Himself and remoteness from this world."'
And when Alexander had read their letter he
went^ to them, and he commanded his soldiers
and troops to pitch their camp on the borders of
that the sons of Seth ran round the ark of Noah when the
deluge came, and begged him to open the door and take
them in, because they were unable to climb up into their
holy mountain, the stones of which burned like fire; but
God had sealed the ark to them, and when the waters rose
they were drowned.
' According to Plutarch {Life of Alexander, LXIV), Alex-
ander put his questions to ten of the most acute and con-
cise answerers among the Gymnosophists, and threatened that
he would put to death the first person who answered wrongly;
the same writer asserts that the Gymnosophists had brought
numberless troubles upon the Macedonians.
" Strabo states (XV. I. 63 ff.) that Alexander felt that he
could not himself go to the Brahmans with propriety, and
he, therefore, despatched Onesicritus to them; the envoy
was received with such scant courtesy by one of the naked
sages called Calanus that Mandanis, a brother sage, felt it to
be his duty to reprimand his associate for insolence.