Budge_Ethiopic_Alexander

6 THE HISTORY OF ALEXANDER THE GREAT.
"come these nations, neither will I conquer them with
"warriors' and soldiers, but by the strength [p. 4]
"of will and by keeping silence. I, however, tell
"thee that one lion is able to vanquish a herd of
"deer,^ and that one wolf can put to flight a multitude
"of sheep. Do thou, however, go to thy station
"with thy soldiers, and I will put to rout the nations
"which are [coming] against me—whether they
"come by sea, or whether they come^ by land
"with one single word".
And it came to pass after these things thaf
Nectanebus rose up and went into his palace and
entered into the chamber where he worked magic,
Final appeal having left hls soldiers behind. And it came to
bus 'to^thepass that when he looked on the water which was
^°'^^'
in the brazen basin, after having muttered [over it]
the words with which he was wont to conjure (?),
the gods of Egypt appeared unto him and he asked
them to help him, and he perceived that they were
leading 5 the armies which had come against him,
and that they would not hearken unto him. Now
hitherto it had happened by reason of the great
skill in magic which Nectanebus possessed that he
had been in the habit of holding converse with the
gods whensoever he desired. And it came to
They refuse pass that wheu he perceived that what he had
'done would not help him in any way whatsoever,
' Read ttootl-l-^^fi-i : ^ :>?fi'l' : for f;pA'>
J Read m^lTJ^ : See Miiller, Bk. i, chap. 3.
5 Literally, "they were before them".