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Budge_Ethiopic_Alexander

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132 THE HISTORY OF ALEXANDER THE GREAT.<br />

"all the day from morn until eve. Every man<br />

"among us has a wife and child. When the even-<br />

"ing falleth we come to the forest which is in<br />

"our district, and we sit down under the trees<br />

"thereof, and we fill ourselves with fruit and we<br />

"all eat thereof together with our wives, and we<br />

"all satisfy ourselves; we drink of the water of<br />

"the river until [p. 73] we have had enough, and<br />

"then we come back and are as before until the<br />

"morrow. When any man among us marrieth a<br />

"wife he abideth with her for a season. If she<br />

"conceiveth, her husband removeth himself from<br />

"her until she hath brought forth, and until her<br />

"child hath grown up; now if it be a man child<br />

Manners "[her husband keepeth away] until the child can<br />

and custom ,<br />

of the Brah- "feed hlmself upon the herb of the field, and then<br />

"the woman goeth back to her husband until she<br />

"conceive again. We do not do these things by<br />

"reason of the lust of the flesh or throug-h desire<br />

"for women, but only that we may raise up seed,<br />

"that our posterity may not be cut off. We are<br />

"naked people, both men and women, but no man<br />

"looketh at the shame of a woman, and no woman<br />

"taketh heed to the shame of a man. We have<br />

"set apart as our work the praising and the sancti-<br />

"fying of God,' and [when] at daybreak we hear<br />

"the angels singing praises unto God Almighty,<br />

' Compare Arrian, Hist. Indica, XL ou6e Ti d'XXo dvaxKii^<br />

dTtXaic; Ineivai ToTai ffocpiffifio'iv, on |uri Bueiv Td

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