Budge_Ethiopic_Alexander

BY JOSEPH BEN-GORION. 415
and the cattle, and the horses and the mules, and
all the animals that were in that country, and he
made the people to collect wood, both twigs and
branches of trees, and he bound them upon the
backs of the beasts, and he drove them about
hither and thither, dragging the wood behind them
on the ground. For by the movements of the Alexander's
beasts he wished, craftily, in this wise to throw "'''"'^""'
up a large quantity of dust into the air, so that
when Darius, looking from his fortress, saw the
great cloud of dust darkening the air, he might
imagine that it was caused by [the passage of]
a very great number of horses and soldiers, and
seeing the soldiers might be afraid, and so not
send one of his own men from the fortress.
And' it came to pass that Alexander wished to
send ambassadors to Darius, but as he was afraid Alexander
that he would lead them astray and would keep go'eT'to''the
them by him by means of crafty excuses, having ^^^^
put off the ornaments which were upon his apparel,
he went himself; and he took with him one of his
friends'" upon whom he could rely, and three of
the best horses. And he marched until he arrived
at the great river ^ which was near* unto the city,
and he found it frozen over. And he commanded
him that had come with him to tarry by the river
' See Joseph ben-Gorion, Bk. ii. chap. 15 (p. 118).
' I. e., Eumelus (see Pseudo-Callisthenes, Bk. ii. chap.
14), in Hebrew ll'71»^«1t