Budge_Ethiopic_Alexander

1 68 THE HISTORY OF ALEXANDER THE GREAT.
him from olden time; then I commanded my army
to stand round about on the mountain. Now, when
the god went forth from his place, I watched him,
and behold he was a mighty beast like unto the
darkness of a cloud, and a flame of fire went forth
from his mouth; and when he had drawn nigh to
the two oxen he devoured them. And I watched
the whole of his doings. And on the morrow I
commanded them not to set the cattle for him,
so that he might become hungry, and on the
third day, when hunger waxed strong in him, he
came out against us. And when he drew nigh
to us I commanded my army, and they cried out
at him with mighty cries, and they beat the drums,
and they blew blasts on the horns, and they made
a great noise; now when the god heard the noise
he was terrified and turned back to his place.
Alexander's Thereupon I commanded the people of the city
to bring out to me two huge bufialoes, and I
slew them and stripped off their skins. And I
commanded them to fill their skins with pitch, and
with sulphur, and with deadly poison, and with
iron hooks, and to carry them to the place where
they were wont to bring [the oxen] to him. Now
when the beast went forth from the forest to
the river, it found the skins which had been
filled and it devoured them [p. 95] as it had been
accustomed to do. And after it had devoured
The demon them, aud the poison had entered into its paunch,
it wanted to vomit, but the iron hooks which I
had fastened in the skins stuck in its throat; and