Budge_Ethiopic_Alexander

"each of them was twelve cubits/ And as con-
"cerning this country I believed that it was on
"the borders of Aleppo, but seeing that it was
"not a suitable one for me [I departed therefrom].
"And I made an offering unto the god Hercules,
"and I saw [in the temple] twenty thousand and five
He sacri- "huudrcd goldcn crowns made of fine gold, and
cutes.°
"""I took them/ Then I came out from [that] place
"and marched through the desert, and I found
"many countries in that desert region, but I know
"not what was therein. And having journeyed
"from that place for a space of five days I arrived
"at a river w-hich is called Barmus, and round
"about it were vast tracts of desert country, and
"Kafiir, that is to say, the kingdom of China (i^)
The Ama- "wherein dwell the Samanidis people. And the
"faces of their women are more beautiful in form
"than those of all other women in the world, and
' In the Syriac Alexander finds two statues^ each of which
is twelve cubits high and twelve cubits wide; compare the
Latin version in Miiller, p. 140.
^ In the Syriac Alexander, not believing the golden statue
to be solid, causes it to be bored with a borer, and the
shavings which fell from it weighed 1300 mithkals of gold.
^ The Greek has iiX6o|uev etri toy KaXou|jevov 0ep|j.6-
bovia TTOTapov, oc, eSepxeiai x^pwv Trebivtiv i