Budge_Ethiopic_Alexander

ALEXANDER'S EPISTLE TO ARISTOTLE. 1 47
ceraing every kind of worldly learning'—and I
was exceedingly sorry in my heart that we had
no other water.
Now when we had removed ourselves from this
place—for we well nigh perished with thirst there ^
—we marched for one day and one night until we The Greeks
came down to a lake which swarmed with moving "hirst,
creatures, and when we had come down and had
drunk of the [water of] that lake, behold it was as
sweet as honey. And when we had come down
we looked and, behold, there was a building upon
the shore of the lake, and above the building was
a heathen altar upon which was written, "I am
"K6s,3 the king of the world, the conqueror who
"travelled on this lake".
And it came to pass at eventide that I com- Alexander
the most beautiful of all the Israelites, and his wealth has
passed into a proverb in the East. He built himself a palace
overlaid with gold, and the doors were of solid gold; his
wealth made him so proud that he raised a sedition against
Moses, and he induced a harlot to say that Moses had
lain with her and to swear to it publicly. When Moses
adjured her to speak the truth the woman confessed Karun's
share in the matter, and God avenged Moses' cause by
causing the earth to swallow him up.
^ There is, of course, no equivalent in the Greek for
this sentence.
^ Their need was so great that Alexander saw (TTpaTnOTag
ToTq ihiaq oupoiq TTpoaxpuj|Lievouq; see Miiller, p. 122, col. i.
3 For Sesonchosis, ZeffOYXOCTis. In the Greek Seson-
chosis says that he made this lake for the benefit of those
who journeyed by the Red Sea.
T2
sleeps in the
jungle.