Budge_Ethiopic_Alexander

THE DEATH OF THE DRAGON. 1 69
it fell down and dug its fore and hind claws into
the ground, and every tree which came in its way
it plucked up by the roots with its tail, by reason
of the fierceness of the fire which burned inside
it. Now when I saw this I ordered them to kindle
a fire with brazen bellows, and I cast heated stones
into its mouth; and when the fire reached the
poison, and sulphur, and pitch which were in its
paunch, it died a terrible death;' and every one
who saw it marvelled. Now this beast had been
a dwelling-place for fiends and devils, and it had
laid waste all the district round about.
Then we departed from that place, and marched Fi"-ther tn-
.. . . ..... bute paid to
on until we arrived at a region in which was a Alexander,
very lofty mountain, and below the mountain was
a mighty river;" and the people of the country
gathered together to me, and they gave me gifts,
and became subject unto me. And they spake
unto me, saying, "O king, draw not nigh unto
"this mountain, neither march thou thereon, because
"there are mighty gods therein." But I went and
drew nigh unto it, and behold the stone thereof
was of crystal,^ and it shone brightly like silver,
' The Syriac has (p. 108), "I ordered a smith's bellows to
"be brought and balls of brass to be heated in the fire and
"to be thrown into the beast's mouth; and when they had
"thrown fire-balls into the mouth, the beast shut its mouth,
"and died."
^ In the Syriac version (p. 193, 1. 13) its name is given
as Barsatis oajJ^t=>
i In the Syriac "sapphire."