Budge_Ethiopic_Alexander

THE CHRISTIAN ROMANCE. LIII
of this Alexander orders the fisherman to lead him
to the stream where they were caught, and hesummaryof
promises to do so, but disappears during the,ian ro-
night; when found the man curses Alexander and '"^"''''"'
God, and though Alexander cuts his head off and
mutilates him in various ways, the man cannot die
because he has drunk of the water of life. Prayer
of Alexander.
Chapp. xii—xvii. The six doors of the heart
are the senses of hearing, sight, smell, taste and
touch, and the power of movement.
Chapp. xviii, xix. The Spirit holds converse with
Alexander.
Chap. XX. Alexander is grieved about the fate
of his father Philip, who committed suicide by
casting himself into the sea because of an observation
in the astrolabe which shewed him that the Creator
should be crucified, and pierced, and slain, and
should die. The Spirit assures him, however, that he
is reckoned among the martyrs, because he died for
the sake of God; had he seen the Ascension and
Resurrection he would not have thrown himself into
the sea. The Spirit shews Alexander a sign where-
by he may know when the hour of his death cometh.
Chap. xxi. Alexander gives all his possessions
to the poor, and becomes like Samuel, Elijah, and
Elisha, and lives upon green herbs, and fasts, and
prays continually.
Chapp. xxii—xxiv. Alexander's counsels to women,
to virgins, to parents, to wives, to princes and
governors, to kings, and general exhortations.