Budge_Ethiopic_Alexander

A CHRISTIAN ROMANCE. 457
organs, and instruments of music, and every kind
of cunning work. And, moreover, it was plain to
him that inasmuch as he had prayed in pureness
[of heart] power had been given to him by his
prayer.
CHAPTER IV.
Then Alexander rose up straightway and jour-
neyed on towards the coasts of Pakanuse, to the
right of the east and Permelenot, and he arrived
at a certain citadel, the height of which was thirty- The dtadei
seven cubits; now the citadel was built of adamant
stone, and of brass, and of iron, and of lead, and
it had foundations of lead (?), and the people of the
city had made the citadel thereof with every kind
of strone work and contrivance. Now because
of their wickedness, and because of the abundance
of their lascivious dances and fornications, God
Almighty had brought death upon them in one
night; and from the smallest to the greatest they
all died upon their beds, and no man rose up from
his couch who had once gone to sleep on it. For
the people used to close the gates of their city
and to dance to their instruments of music all day
long and all night long, and they never ceased
dancing to the sound of the instruments of music The people
which they had contrived, namely to the organ, Wholly"" "o
and to the pipes and flutes, and to the horn, and ^Jj.^^;'"''
to the drum, and to the sounds of the trumpet
and of divers instruments of m.usic. And so long
as they could see themselves dancing they mukiplied
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