Budge_Ethiopic_Alexander

ALEXANDER AND CANDACE. 20I
wood covered with iron, and these were
[fixed] upon wheels made of iron and brass. And
when the queen went forth on a journey she sat
in the house, and elephants drew it along and the candace-s
wheels turned whithersoever she pleased. Now"^^ ^^°'
when I had seen this I marvelled both at her own
splendid form and beauty, and at the magnificent
state in which she lived, for it was truly wonderful,
and I had neither seen nor heard that such existed
among kings. And as for the queen herself there
is no man living who could sing her praises
sufficiently; glory be to God Almighty, the King,
the Maker, the Mighty One, the Great, the Creator
of such a race of women who have brought forth
children to the mighty.
Now as concerning the raiment of Candace it
was made of gold and of precious stones, and the
scent which was about her was of musk, and of
camphire, and of ambergris, and of the wood of
India, and the odour which exhaled everywhere
from round about her was like unto the scent from
a garden of flowers. And when I saw these things Alexander
darkness shrouded my heart, and I became sad
because I had wasted my body in the heat of
the sun, and in the cold of the night, and in the
stress of battle, and I said to myself, "Why did
"I not content myself with that state which was
' In the Greek the house rests upon four large, square
blocks of wood, and it moved upon wheels and was drawn
by twenty elephants.
CO