Budge_Ethiopic_Alexander

to life.
268 THE HISTORY OF ALEXANDER THE GREAT.
And it came to pass that Matun' continued to
journey on for a space of thirty days and thirty
The stone nights, and he found that he had marched a long
lights M4-jjgj^j^^g
^^^ ^^^^ j^g j^^j wandered out of his
un s way, '
path, and he brought forth the stone, and it
lightened his way by its rays even as Alexander
had told him. And as he was journeying on,
behold, he came to the Well of the Water of
Life, and as soon as he saw it he knew that it
was the Well of the Water of Life, and he went
down to it. Now, behold, he was very hungry,
and he had with him a dried fish, and he went
Afishcomesdown with it to the water that he might wash
it therein and might satisfy his hunger; and be-
hold, as soon as the fish entered the water it
swam away.^ And it came to pass that when
Matun, that is to say El-khidr, saw this, he stripped
off his clothes, and he went down into the water
' The identification of Matun with El-khidr simplifies
the narrative.
^ In the Greek Andreas, the cookj goes to prepare the
fish for Alexander who is hungry, but when he had dipped
the fish in the water a few times it came to life, and swam
away (Miiller, p. go, col. 2). It is said that when God sent
Moses to find El-khidr He told him to take with him a fish
in a basket, and that when he missed the fish that place
would be the spot where El-khidr lived. Moses forgot all
about the fish, and Joshua, his servant, omitted to tell him
that the fish had disappeared; it is said that the fish, which
was roasted, leapt out of the basket into the sea while Moses
was asleep, and that as soon as it touched the water it swam
away.