Budge_Ethiopic_Alexander

converses
with the
Brahmans.
42 2 THE HISTORY OF ALEXANDER THE GRE:AT
"our wisdom, it will be more seemly if thou
"comest to us without soldiers and without weapons
"of war, and in humility."
[The writer of this history] saith:—And Alexander
went to the sages and found that they were naked,
Alexander aud that they had upon them no clothing whatsoever
except that which covered their shame; they had
no abiding places wherein to dwell except booths,
and they had cisterns of water which [p. 249] they
had dug. Now their country was called the "City
"of the Blessed," and the brightness of their minds
and their wisdom were well known.
And Alexander asked' one [of them], saying,
"Which are the more numerous, the living or the
"dead?" And he said, "The dead are the more
"numerous. Among the living the poor exceed
"the rich in number, and poverty is like death,
"and the number [of the poor] is as the
"^
number
"of the dead."
And to another he said, "Who is he that desireth
"and seeketh after the sovereignty which is unjust
"and which consisteth only of the shedding of
"blood, and violence, and oppression? Whosoever
"doeth this hath not in him the fear of God Al-
"mighty; now the fear of God is the beginning
"of wisdom."^ And he said unto him, "Sovereignty
"belongeth unto God Almighty, Who withholdeth
^ The first question and answer, according to the Hebrew,
are omitted; see Joseph ben-Gorion, Bk. ii. chap. 17 (p. 129).
^ Read fl-TA-'fe
•• i Compare Proverbs I. 7.