Budge_Ethiopic_Alexander

XXXII INTRODUCTION.
and are boldly identified with the Israelites who
lived in the time of Elijah, and who had not
bowed the knee to Baal; still more remarkable
is it that I Kings xix. lo is quoted (p. 127). In
the letter which the Brahmans write to him they
describe themselves as "the children" ofSeth, the
son of Adam, whom God covered over in the
hidden place of His treasures (the famous "Cave
of Treasures"?) when He sent "the Flood upon
"the earth" (p. 129); a similar view is given in
the "Book of Adam and Eve."' When Alexander
is in India he visits a certain temple, and sees
therein a number of curious and beautiful things,
and among others a figure of a god reclining on
Dionysos a couch in the Greek text i we are told that the
intrEch. God was Dionysos, but in the Ethiopic text he is
said to be Enoch (p. 159). In the account of
Alexander's visit to China disguised as one of his
own generals, we are told that the king of China
gave him "one thousand loads of the finest gold
"and silver, for in this country are situated the
"mountains wherefrom they dig gold" (p. 179).
This statement set the mind of the translator
thinking about Ophir, and he adds, "and from this
"place Solomon the son of David brouo-ht the
"gold wherewith he built the sanctuary, and he
"made the vessels and the shields of the gold of
China iden- "the land of China". In the city of Samarkand
tined with -^
Ophir. (p. 185) Alexander built "a place for prayer," but
' Ed. Malan, p. 118