Budge_Ethiopic_Alexander

446
THE HISTORY OF ALEXANDER THE GREAT.
and anger, and murmurings, and rebellion, and he
saw that all manner of evils would fall upon him;
and he made another observation and saw that
a child born after this evil hour had passed away
would be a saint and a king. And Philip told his
servants and his handmaidens to inform him of
the time when the pangs of childbirth would lay
hold upon his wife, and when she was about to
A propi- bring forth, and to tarry not, and when the time
arrived for her to bring forth, they told him, and
|.'^"gg„*'°f"J^
Alexander's
birth.
immediately they told him he went to her. And
he brought her to the door and tied her legs up
in a bag, and set his feet upon both her knees,
and he set the astrolabe before him and watched
until the evil hour had passed away; and it came
to pass that when the hour of evil omen had
passed he unfastened her fetters and went outside,
and his wife gave birth to her child straightway.
And his father and mother reared him wisely until
he grew up, and when he had grown up and had
become a young man he knew the law of God
Almighty, [p. 266] And his father died and left
Alexander's him his possesslous, now he was exceedingly rich,
and^we^tKand he had much wealth, but he did not make
Alexander king. And having raised an army
of fighting men [composed of] those who bore
shields, and of those who rode upon mighty horses,
and of those who shot arrows from bows, he grave
to every man what was needful and what he de-
sired; and God prospered them in his hand, for
he trusted in Him, and prayed by day and by