Budge_Ethiopic_Alexander

GOG AND MAGOG. XXXIII
the equivalent passage in the Syriac version' states
that he built a "temple to Rhea, whom they call
"Nani." The boats of the bridge which he built
to cross the "crystal" river were made in the shape
of Noah's ark (p. i86), and Alexander is made to
say, "Now I saw the ark of Noah on the island
"where it lay"! Once, however, the Ethiopian
translator condones an irregularity in the life of his
hero, I mean in the matter of the love-passages
between Alexander and Candace (p. 201), and he
is so much carried away by the story of the
beauty of the Ethiopian queen, the praise of whose Alexander
beauty, he says, "no living man could sing suffi-Lce.
"ciently," that he adds, "Glory be to God Almighty,
"the King, the Maker, the Mighty One, the Great,
"the Creator of such a race of women who have
"brought forth children to the mighty." Whatever
else the translator might be, he was certainly a
patriot.
After the episode of the Amazons and the ac-
count of the letter which Aristotle sent to him,
advisine him to return thanks to God for all that
He had done for him, we find inserted in the text
a version of the "Christian Legend"^, which pur-
ports to describe the events which happened in
his seventh year (pp. 216— 242). Herein we have The Legend
a curious account of the origin of the Dead Sea, sea.
which is said to "stink horribly" because of the
' See p. 115.
^ See the Syriac version, p. 144 ff.
^