Budge_Ethiopic_Alexander

142 THE HISTORY OF ALEXANDER THE GREAT.
he should do and where he should go. And he
wrote to his master Aristotle the sage to inform
whither he had come and to ask him to advise
him what to do; now the letter was as follows:
In the Name of God, the Merciful and Gracious.
From Alexander, the servant of God Almighty,
to Aristotle, [my] noble master [Greeting]. Now,
behold, it hath come to pass that I wish to tell
thee concerning that which we have seen and
heard' in the land of India. Now Yomeda is a
The won- great city," and I will relate to thee the wonderful
ders of In
things which we saw therein. When we saw some
of the people of this great city, which is on the
shore of the sea— now this city is a stronghold
on the sea— we called to one of them, and behold
he answered in the language of a barbarian. And
we saw in the midst of the sea things which ap-
peared to be [p. 79] buildings, and we asked them
through an interpreter who was with us, saying,
"What, then, are these buildings.''" And he made
Royal
tombs.
answer, "These are the royal tombs, wherein is laid
"up much gold; for when our kings die we bury
"them with all the riches which they have gotten
"together"; and when I heard this I wished to set
out in a boat and to go to these tombs. And
I took a ship, and set therein an abundance of
' H'llC^O' - seems hardly to be the word wanted here;
the Gr. has to ffupPeprixoi; riMiv eSemeiv.
^ The city alluded to is Prasiake, which Alexander calls
the metropolis of India.